Dub Housing, the second album by Pere Ubu, has the effect of an extremely stimulating dream: images and emotions emerge from cacophonous songs only to disappear just as quickly, never to be found again in subsequent listenings. This five-man Cleveland band is willfully, even aggressively eccentric, but their expansive spirit is quick to charm. In any given Pere Ubu composition, cracked and mostly incoherent phrases are wailed in a high monotone by lead singer David Thomas, while a wooden riff is systematically splintered by the guitars and keyboards.

Instead of sounding like a mess, however, Dub Housing coheres as a lyrical work devoid of the sentimentalism that so many lyrical works drown in. Then, too, the music is anchored by rock-steady drumming, which allows even the most reactionary ears to follow the general direction that all the fractured urgencies are taking. But what's most reassuring is Pere Ubu's pervasive sense of humor about their radical repertoire. When David Thomas yelps out the series of mordant non sequiturs that comprise the title tune, the other four Ubus are careful to undercut his histrionics by groaning, "We know, we know," over and over behind him. In fact, the phrase finally serves as the song's catchy hook.

Self-parodic, intense, austere and ribald, Pere Ubu presents itself as the cutting edge of nothing at all, making rock & roll out of art for art's sake. One second, these guys will give themselves the task of inventing the theme song for a Martian B movie ("Thriller!"), and then unwind by writing a harsh-tempoed ditty called "(Pa) Ubu Dance Party." Happily, Pere Ubu is an island of irrelevant density in a sea of purposeful serenity. (RS 293)

KEN TUCKER