As deadpan existential clowns in American post-punk go, Pere Ubu’s David Thomas was always more difficult, more abstract, but in many ways more rewarding than his skinnier counterpart David Byrne.
His ’80s albums, recorded with Richard Thompson and former members of Henry Cow as well as analogue synth genius Allen Ravenstine, skirt the edges of rock and performance art, a disorienting mosaic of old rhymes, shanties, traditional forms and avant garde which excite a nameless, quivering sense of fascination and dread.
His recent work with Two Pale Boys, included here, is among his very best.
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