Okay, so I got The Modern Dance and I love it.
Where to next?
AllMusic says: Dub Housing and then New Picnic Time.
But, what do you think, Obner?

i absorbed the Datapanik in the Year Zero box set and it was pretty cool, but i've never gone album by album

good band though

Just don't expect The Modern Dance Pt. II. Not the kind of band to look backwards (at least until the Rocket From The Tombs reunion).

I used to really like Dub Housing, although it has only a tenuous relationship to rock music. After that one they lost me - then almost got me back when they reunited and returned to at least a semblance of traditional song structure on Cloudland.

I have 3 albums... The Art of Walking, Story of My Life, and Why I Hate Women. Of the three I find myself listening to Story of My Life most frequently. How they compare to the ones listed above, I do not know.

I think the closest you can get to The Modern Dance is the Terminal Tower comp which features a lot of stuff they did just prior to that album. All of that is on the Datapanik box that Toots mentioned, I think, but the TT comp is a single disc and makes for a very solid, coherent listen.

I might be in the minority, but I love their pop albums as much as their experimental recordings. I recommend Cloudland and Worlds in Collision if you are more into the pop end.

Tenement Year fits into that group as well. I like that and Cloudland, too.