"Caroleen" is a frantic piledriver, akin to "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" and "The Modern Dance," but with a more domestic sort of frustration, carried by Moline's eight-cylinder guitar hook. "Babylonian Warehouses" is perhaps the best example yet of Ubu's new evaporated soul music, its insomniac angst stabilized by Robert Wheeler's whirring antique synth.   Full text...

This may not be party music, but it will raise the adrenaline, if not the testosterone, of those who listen.  Full text...

Jackhammer guitar riffs alternated with queasy atmospheric soundscapes, and Thomas' nasal vocals lend a suitable sense of dread and foreboding to his elliptical and impressionistic lyrics.  Full text...

For the most part, the noir notion affords Ubu the opportunity to return to the vivid musical topography of The Modern Dance and especially Dub Housing, with "Caroleen" careering along obsessively, and tracks such as "Babylonian Warehouses" and "Blue Velvet" offering dark, desolate but intriguing emotional landscapes.  Full text...