Datapanik in the Year Zero

Datapanik in the Year Zero
Box set by
Pere Ubu
Released1996
Recorded1975–1982
GenrePost-punk, experimental rock, avant-garde music
LabelDGC (original release)
Cooking Vinyl (reissue)
Pere Ubu chronology
Ray Gun Suitcase
(1995) 		Datapanik in the Year Zero
(1996) 		Pennsylvania
(1998)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
Rolling Stone[2]

Datapanik in the Year Zero is a 1996 box set by Pere Ubu, which catalogues their initial phase of existence up to their 1982 break-up (which later turned out to be merely a hiatus). The title was first used by the band for a 1978 EP which compiled their first singles; the name was "recycled" for this release. The name references the Cold War film Panic in Year Zero! (1962).[3]

This box set compiles the original EP of the same name, their first five albums (which were out of print at the time this set was released), along with a disc of live material, and another of related rarities. It omits "Use of a Dog" from Song of the Bailing Man, "Humor Me", "Not Happy" and "Lonesome Cowboy Dave" from Terminal Tower and the vocal version of "Arabia" from The Art of Walking. Since, according to David Thomas, Pere Ubu do not produce outtakes or alternate versions (aside from a few anomalies related to an early version of The Art of Walking[4]), the rarities disc is unique in that it features groups that were sometimes only tangentially related to Ubu, in an effort to present an overview of the mercurial Cleveland scene out of which they grew.

In 2009, Cooking Vinyl released a remastered version of the box set. It restores "Use of a Dog" but omits the fourth disc of live recordings.[5]

  1. ^ Allmusic review
  2. ^ Rolling Stone review
  3. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions concerning: Reissues". ubuprojex.com. February 27, 2017. The inspiration for the title was a movie, a sci-fi vision of a dysfunctional future called Panic In The Year Zero. In 1978 Johnny & I were intrigued by the notion of Too Much Information. We felt that information had become a sedative, an info-sedative. That deprived of their info-sedative people become restless and unhappy. Info-sedative is painless and requires nothing of the user. Strangely prophetic in light of the internet today.
  4. ^ "Ubu Projex Bug Report". ubuprojex.com. February 27, 2017.
  5. ^ "Datapanik In The Year Zero". ubuprojex.com.