Pere Ubu: New Picnic Time (Chrysalis)

PERE UBU is the type of band that enjoys banging its head against a concrete art-form – it makes an interesting sound and a crazy image. Pere Ubu is no longer a tentative operation after three albums and an extended player, and it's part of the irony – and the fun – that such a bunch of potential no-hopers should live to tell their tale at all. Ubu's record sales seem to indicate the law of diminishing returns. At 10,000 units a time an accountant somewhere is rubbing his head and wondering; he's confused, and so am I.