Pere Ubu: St Arkansas

Stuart David's Looper began as an excuse for the Belle And Sebastian sideman to indulge his experimental side, to stir a little electronica in with his wispy guitar-pop and surreal spoken-word dream narratives. Having left B&S for good, though, David apparently approached Looper's third album, The Snare, without the same attitude toward rule-bending play. The disc comes with a convoluted backstory about the band being forced to work with some thuggish lad named "Peacock Johnson," which is meant to explain the project's noir tone. David sings breathily, as the mix of horns, guitars, and synthesized chimes attempts to reproduce the atmosphere of a European criminal character study. Gone are Looper's usual wild swings into dubs and samples, which are replaced by a minimalist electro-beat that backs every track (aside from the spirited album closer, "Fucking Around"). With the murmured, strictly cadenced vocals, The Snare resembles an especially wan, uninspired rap record. Can David be out of ideas already If so, he should look to Pere Ubu, which has been carrying the banner of experimental rock since the mid-'70s, and has yet to let that flag drop. Sometimes poppy, sometimes abrasive, sometimes funny, and sometimes bitter, David Thomas and his rotating crew of noisemakers filled the gaps separating Captain Beefheart, New York Dolls, Talking Heads, Sonic Youth, and Guided By Voices. On Pere Ubu's latest album, St Arkansas, the band deploys its corrosive clank in service of an album designed to be listened to on long drives. The record is actually about traveling cross-country, and Thomas' puckish humor as he takes on the persona of a businessman on the road provides a respite from the propulsive, hypnotic drone. Periodically, the band shifts from the inexorable slow, rhythmic roll and rips into a rocker, as on the fevered "Phone Home Jonah," but the heart of the album beats in its closing song, the nearly 10-minute "Dark," which has Thomas muttering, "And the radio / AM radio / Oh, the radio will set you free" like a creepy mantra. St Arkansas is one of Pere Ubu's best works, displaying the kind of intelligence and imagination that gives the avant-garde a good name.