Pere Ubu: Elitisim for the People 1975-1978

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by inaptitude, Aug 3, 2015.

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  1. inaptitude

    inaptitude Forum Resident Thread Starter

    https://pereubumusic.bandcamp.com/album/elitism-for-the-people-1975-1978

    [​IMG]

    These albums are not the past.

    These albums are the present.

    The box is nice too. More convenient. Tidier.

    Collecting the bracing and brilliant Pere Ubu in their earliest incarnation, with the devastating one-two knockout blow of 1978 studio bookends "The Modern Dance" and "Dub Housing", followed by "The Hearpen Singles (1975-1977)" and a red hot live set "Manhattan", recorded at the legendary Max's Kansas City in 1977; "Elitism For The People 1975-78" serves as a gut punch. As vital as ever, no band before or since has ever sounded like Pere Ubu - period.

    Working from the original 2-track analogue mix tapes, Paul Hamann at Suma transferred to digital at the highest resolution available, at least four times the resolution of CD audio. Then, the tracks were carefully re-mastered by sonic architect Brian Pyle so as to capture the unique qualities within; the resulting listening experience is truly mind-blowing.

    releases 21 August 2015​
     
    klockwerk, Brudy, vonwegen and 9 others like this.
  2. inaptitude

    inaptitude Forum Resident Thread Starter

    So my love of Pere Ubu begins and ends with these albums, but boy what albums they are! This is very tempting as I own neither on vinyl. It's up on all the amazons for about $100 us ($140 CDN). Way too price for what it is, but tempting none the less.

    Also looks like the two albums are being reissued separately. So that's something.
     
  3. Brudy

    Brudy Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland
    It does look a nice set and you don't see Modern Dance and Dub Housing too often in the wild, but $100 is maybe pushing it a bit - $25 a piece it comes out to. I guess that's ok really in current pricing, but feels like a lot. $60-80 would be more stomachable. That said, those first two albums are just soooo good.
     
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  4. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    I was at the show included with this set, it was indeed a scorcher. Maybe the price will be cheaper through the website. Hopefully.
     
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  5. inaptitude

    inaptitude Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Was just comparing prices and amazon.co.uk has the two albums up for pre-order at 11 pounds each, compared to $33 US at .com and and a ridiculous $43 CDN at ca.
     
  6. inaptitude

    inaptitude Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Weird thing is that according to the discogs entry, the concert in the set only includes 6 tracks. Apparently you have to go to hearpen.com to get the rest of it. Here's the link to the concert: http://hearpen.com/hr169.html
     
  7. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    It contains both sets they did that night, but it's still only 13 songs, with each set lasting around 35 minutes. I might have to pop for this just to get it and the singles at the proper speed. It seems that The Terminal Tower set on TwinTone was pressed at a slower speed.
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2015
  8. crozcat

    crozcat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    I love those pre-Modern Dance singles!
     
  9. Holerbot6000

    Holerbot6000 Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Seems like an odd collection for a band that has been collected several times now, but I guess this is the first time on vinyl. Does the 'Hearpen Singles' comp collect everything that was on Terminal Tower? If so, why not just re-release Terminal Tower? Hmm.

    I think I would have gone with the first five studio albums + the bonus material. That makes a more cohesive set and it gives a much clearer picture of how they evolved as a band. To me, Bailing Man is just as essential as Modern Dance.

    I'm a big pink ball at the bottom of the ocean! :goodie:
     
    vince likes this.
  10. crozcat

    crozcat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    Yes, but this was corrected in the great 5 CD-box Datapanik In The Year Zero.
     
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  11. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    That's right. But I never got that as it just had too much that I wasn't interested in. It also seems that they went to a lot of trouble to get these albums sounding just right. Pretty sure this is the import (Fire Records) that came out in Europe last record store day, and the legal restrictions preventing it from a U.S. release are now over.The price is till about twenty bucks too high.
     
  12. Ignatius

    Ignatius Forum Resident

    I wouldn't mind rebuying a few cds to get the rare stuff, all I have to do is talk myself into spending the money and I'm easily persuaded. BTW I thought that Datapanik box had some goodies on it. "Steve Canyon Blues"!
     
    vince likes this.
  13. vince

    vince Stan Ricker's son-in-law

    I bought this box back in the day..... I had only heard "Birdies" off the "URGH!" soundtrack, and my wife thought I was CRAZY for buying 5 CD's worth of music I knew very little about.
    It, along with David's 'solo' box, "Monster" are still in my collection!
     
  14. Mumdad

    Mumdad Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    I have Terminal Tower and live albums rarely get listened to more than once or twice so I guess the individual Dub Housing and Modern Dance are where it's at for me. At £12 a pop from Amazon I'm happy to take the chance on preordering too!
     
  15. neil

    neil Senior Member

    Location:
    Culver City
    You can buy the hi-res files now. They sound amazing. Never heard Final Solution sound so clear.
     
    rtalwani and bleachershane like this.
  16. bRETT

    bRETT Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    I'm a big fan of New Picnic Time personally. Without doubt the most musically challenging of their original lineup, but also the most good-natured...which makes sense in Ubu world.
     
    mr.datsun likes this.
  17. Dennis Metz

    Dennis Metz Born In A Motor City south of Detroit

    Location:
    Fonthill, Ontario
  18. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    I reviewed this in the RSD releases thread. The Modern Dance sounded good, but not much different from my old CD. Dub Housing and the singles sounded sensational (though my copy of Dub Housing had a nasty patch of swishing non-fill at the start of one side). The live disc and the singles disc are thinner vinyl than the albums, but sound just as good.

    The difference between The Hearpen Singles and Terminal Tower is the superior sound quality and the omission of the last four (post-Hearpen) tracks. It does, however, include the single mixes of 'Street Waves' and 'Modern Dance'. I haven't done a direct comparison of the first one (as I thought it had been included on Terminal Tower), but 'Modern Dance' is a noticeably different mix to the album version.
     
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  19. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    Is the live album a double? It should be.
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2015
  20. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    Just a single: six tracks.
     
  21. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    So the only way to get both sets is a download? Considering what they're charging I think they could have gone for a double album. I'll pass.
     
    pobbard likes this.
  22. Anthony Genzale

    Anthony Genzale Forum Resident

    Location:
    Nashville, TN
    Buy them where? I'm not seeing these listed on the usual hi-res sites or at hearpen.com.
     
    bleachershane likes this.
  23. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    I have "good enough for me" LP copies of the first two albums, and the singles on both the UK Datapanik EP (not the boxed CD set) and Terminal Tower which I must say I never heard anything wrong with in my time listening to it. So all that's really left for me here is Manhattan, and I've got no burning desire to spend that much on a download of a cassette tape.
     
  24. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    Same here, and admittedly I've never heard anything wrong with the Terminal Tower lp, just going by what I've read on the Ubu site, and I've never done a comparison with the original singles. My only thing with the Manhattan show is that I was there and can attest to the greatness of those sets. Oh well, not that big of a deal, really. Money saved and all that.
     
  25. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    Well, I'd be more motivated if like you I'd seen the show, but they didn't get up to Boston where I was for another year after that, after the album came out. I treasure my memories of the several late 70s Ubu shows I saw, but practically at this point I'm not going to listen to it more than once. If they'd put it out around the same time they put out "390 Degrees" I would have sucked it up as far as sound quality goes and been all over it like I was with that release, but it's 30 years later and I frankly don't care enough any more. I haven't even heard all of their later records of new material.
     
    ralphb likes this.
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