The interpretation of "Surf's Up" by the Beach Boys on David Thomas
second last album alone was worth the money. The music actually was
relatively accessible on that album. Rather slow, occasionally
repetitive, ambientish and including quite some electronic
sounds.
Not sure if St.Arkansas has already been released in the US. It has
been published at Glitterhouse in Germany at least.
― alex in mainhattan, Thursday, 9 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
Found this at the small but interesting ezine http://www.freq.org.uk
============================================================
Pere Ubu - St Arkansas
Label: Glitterhouse Format: CD
Ever since David Thomas took over production duties on 1994's
excellent Raygun Suitcase, subsequent Pere Ubu albums have undergone
a remarkable renaissance of ideas and realisation. Like its
predecessor, 1998's Pennsylvania, St Arkansas is classic Ubu that
easily stands against the best of their earlier output whilst
retaining a character uniquely all its own.
St Arkansas is the twelfth studio release from the band in their 27-
year history. Original members David Thomas and guitarist Tom Herman
are joined by Robert Wheeler on EML synth, theremin and piano,
Michele Temple on bass and Steve Mehlman on drums. Late eighties era
Ubu guitarist Jim Jones also makes a guest appearance.
Thomas' notion that art exists both to encrypt and/or encode an
agenda, is perfectly illustrated by this album's distinctive sound.
Since to expose the secret is to render the agenda impotent, St
Arkansas succeeds by being instantly accessible whilst simultaneously
maintaining its sense of surprise and mystery. Unexpected generic
shifts occur from track to track and also within the space of a
single song, lending the album a compelling strangeness that fades
little with repeated play.
The driving bass and kettle-whistle theremin of "The Fevered Dream of
Hernando Desoto" gives way to the loping, abstract Funk of "Slow
Walking Daddy". Michele erupts into a primal, industrial clatter of
drums and squalling guitar that disappears into a cloud of ambient
bubbles. "Hell" transforms Thomas into a Jazz singer relaying his
metaphysical torment through the smoky veil of a seedy twilight
nightclub. The doomy, synth-laden "Lisbon" sounds like the retro-
futuristic end-of-the-world., whilst "Phone Home Jonah" is an obvious
highlight - classic Garage-Rock with a touch of surf-inspired bass
and a gloriously catchy chorus. Closing track "Dark" unfolds over
nine minutes, a relentless journey into pitch-black night that
manages to salvage a vague yet palpable feeling of hope as it builds
to a crescendo.
Throughout the album, Robert Wheeler's painterly brushstrokes of EML
synthesizer and theremin sounds add an extra dimension to the songs.
The perceptible hum and groan of vast machinery operating in the near
distance, like the industrial ambience that accompanies David Lynch's
Eraserhead, illustrates "Dark" perfectly. Elsewhere he conjures up
Hawkwind-like whooshes of white-noise, the ghostly echoes of pinball
machines and the zooming sound of engine and wheels eating up the
distance on the highway.
David Thomas' voice remains perhaps the most distinctive and unusual
in avant-Rock, with only the likes of Robert Wyatt, Tom Waits or
Captain Beefheart offering worthy points of comparison. His lyrics
here offer a range of images, from offhand descriptions of signs
glimpsed from the highway to perfect snapshots of places in time,
beautifully and simply rendered in words that roll off the tongue.
The point during "Slow Walking Daddy" where Thomas drops his voice
from falsetto to a low whisper is particularly magical:
"And I saw stars
in strange constellations
trapped inside the blackness of neverending night
seen thru the pearly luminescence of shatterproof glass
framed by the wrong side of green valour
and maybe it felt like home...
maybe for a little while"
St Arkansas is a triumph from start to finish. My only reservation is
that at 42 minutes it just doesn't seem long enough, following on
from the epic 70 minutes of its two predecessors. Still, with David
Thomas' extensive touring with Two Pale Boys and The Pale Orchestra,
as well as a string of outstanding non-Ubu releases and his current
11-week stint in junk-Opera Shockheaded Peter, it would be churlish
indeed to complain.
-Sean Kitching-
============================================================
― philT, Sunday, 12 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)