The sound emerges from a thick, muddy sludge of hiss and indecipherable voices. At first, it's impossible to distinguish the music from the background noise. Eventually, a rhythmic synth drone mixes with random guitar pluckings. Voices interject at odd moments. Even when the band crashes in with two huge chords and Scott Krauss' inimitable backbeat picks up, the music somehow sounds more distant than it should. Live from the Flats, it's Pere Ubu!

Anyone that's read anything about the history of Pere Ubu has heard a lot about what it was like to live, work, and play in the rotted-out husk of the pre-urban renewal/post-industrial Cleveland of the mid '70s. And while their early albums certainly serve as an aural interpretation of that environment, this is an actual document of that place, that time, and the people who populated it.

The Shape of Things features two sets recorded on April 7th, 1976, just before the group released their second single. (The band even reactivated their original label to release it through their website.) There's no question that this record is an invaluable document of the band at their peak. It adds over an hour to the scant legacy of guitarist Peter Laughner, a legendary figure of Cleveland pre-punk, a member of Rocket from the Tombs, and early member of Ubu. He would depart from the group shortly after this show. His wiry, Neil Young and Tom Verlaine-inspired leads are all over the album. But even as a huge fan of the band, I find this record more interesting than listenable. Because the performance was captured live to cassette recorder, the sound is just too inescapably muddy, making it hard to recommend to anyone that doesn't already own the rest of the band's catalog.

Pere Ubu were one of the few bands to pick up the mantle of the Velvet Underground early on, fearlessly fusing noise and pop, playing them as one and the same. Musically, The Shape of Things is just one more reminder that Pere Ubu were always way ahead of the game. The no-wave breakdown in "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" sounds exactly like what Sonic Youth would be doing in five years' time. Several songs from later albums appear in early versions: the eerie, deconstructed tape cut-up of "Sentimental Journey" that would appear on their first LP is given a straight rock rendering here as "Doris Day Sings Sentimental Journey." And the young group fills out their set with garage-rock classics like "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and the Seeds' "Pushin' Too Hard," replete with a harmonica solo by David Thomas.

The first half of this album was recorded by future Ubu-guitarist Jim Jones, whose voice can occasionally be heard making in-jokes you won't laugh at. "The band seems to be lacking a bit of energy this evening," he comments at the break between sets. Here, David Thomas has none of the command of his audience and group that he would develop in subsequent years, and his voice is nearly inaudible. And even though The Shape of Things finds the band's vision emerging almost fully formed, they had much better work ahead of them.

Last year's Apocalypse Now offers a much better glimpse of why Ubu gigs are such hallowed experiences, even today. I obtained this record at such a gig-- an evening full of jaw-dropping moments. I felt at the time like I hadn't missed anything in 25 years, and listening to this record afterwards confirmed those feelings. Yes, The Shape of Things is of limited interest. Still, I know there are people out there who need this record, and they know who they are.

-D. Erik Kempke