diff --git a/gstlal-ugly/configure.ac b/gstlal-ugly/configure.ac
index 61034e0fe40ffd2feb41ffb5cf7b262cb076cc1a..a67f8a67285a314f89daf511b1c9fcefbde3bdca 100644
--- a/gstlal-ugly/configure.ac
+++ b/gstlal-ugly/configure.ac
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 #
 
 
-AC_INIT([gstlal-ugly],[1.5.5],[gstlal-discuss@ligo.org],[gstlal-ugly])
+AC_INIT([gstlal-ugly],[1.5.6],[gstlal-discuss@ligo.org],[gstlal-ugly])
 AC_COPYRIGHT([Copyright (C) The authors (see source code for details)])
 # a file whose existance can be used to use to check that we are in the
 # top-level directory of the source tree
diff --git a/gstlal-ugly/debian/changelog b/gstlal-ugly/debian/changelog
index 8d69c5905b87cb6ac8efb43cdc67d8a19b984029..734879e8387ae0492c4ff6a5760a3bb107371b1b 100644
--- a/gstlal-ugly/debian/changelog
+++ b/gstlal-ugly/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,15 @@
+gstlal-ugly (1.5.6-1) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * more porting to ligo.segments
+  * remove references to libgsl0 from Debian packaging
+  * lvshmsrc update for gds api changes
+  * lal_tdwhiten:  temporary hack to synchronize filter updates with time stamps (do not rely on this, use the GstController feature).
+  * misc adjustments to inspiral debug tools
+  * add h5py as a dependency (not really needed, gstlal-inpsiral needs it,
+    but there's experimental code here, so added it just in case)
+
+ -- Kipp Cannon <kipp.cannon@ligo.org>  Wed, 30 Jan 2019 15:00:34 +0900
+
 gstlal-ugly (1.5.5-1) unstable; urgency=low
 
   * remove files accidentally included in 1.5.4
diff --git a/gstlal-ugly/debian/control.in b/gstlal-ugly/debian/control.in
index fe1ffe457bbb5e93aa2e40731e1b3737487c4ab0..5de4ec0d3787cfb44546c79d1a3e41b2db3cf078 100644
--- a/gstlal-ugly/debian/control.in
+++ b/gstlal-ugly/debian/control.in
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}, ${python:Depends},
  python-gi,
  python-glue (>= @MIN_GLUE_VERSION@),
  python-gst-1.0,
+ python-h5py,
  python-ligo-lw (>= @MIN_LIGO_LW_VERSION@),
  python-ligo-segments (>= @MIN_LIGO_SEGMENTS_VERSION@),
  python-numpy,
diff --git a/gstlal-ugly/gstlal-ugly.spec.in b/gstlal-ugly/gstlal-ugly.spec.in
index 0f50d23412476c08d8ed6cc66f0b4e9c70ec0dfc..2d84a561f4cbadb8ba8192047eb7713accd68318 100644
--- a/gstlal-ugly/gstlal-ugly.spec.in
+++ b/gstlal-ugly/gstlal-ugly.spec.in
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ Requires: %{gstreamername} >= @MIN_GSTREAMER_VERSION@
 Requires: %{gstreamername}-plugins-base >= @MIN_GSTREAMER_VERSION@
 Requires: %{gstreamername}-plugins-good >= @MIN_GSTREAMER_VERSION@
 Requires: %{gstreamername}-plugins-bad-free
+Requires: h5py
 Requires: numpy
 Requires: scipy
 Requires: lal >= @MIN_LAL_VERSION@