Photogrammes ('89) was probably the last thing that had any redeeming value for me. Once DF started upgrading their gear my interest started going downhill. The newer material - or reworked material, eg 3-disc Revue Et Corrige edition of Archives & Documents - this is all more polished, deft, and flows much more naturally, seemlessly. But it lacks the sense of striving (beyond one's means?) that makes the clumsier, clunkier, stuff so charming, and so much more eminantly listenable (including the often mentioneD Tiechens collab). One also hears DF groping around for ideas, trying out wacked out arrangements - "I Have Lost Your Eyes" - that consistently fail to materialize in later work.
I hear the same clumsy charm in 80's alternative on a whole, standouts of which include the Cthulu catalog, early CMI, and Edward Ka-spel - though in the latter case Ka-spel seems to have taken the idea further and made it a critical part of his "sound", one that persists, almost to a shtick, even today. That sort of shtick is itself at least as worthy of ridicule as DF's yawn-inducing, studio-heavy, efforts, but when done well Clumsy Shtick can prove quite refreshing.
All that said, although (or rather, because) I've no idea what it sounds like, I wouldn't hesitate to snap up a chanced-upon copy of the Aube collab...
