Date: Mon, 16 Jan 1995 09:52:45 +0000 From: "A.J. Norman" (nja@LEICESTER.AC.UK) Subject: Re: CAN info request 95 01:53:00 pm Steven Titus wrote: > > First of all, I'd like to apopogize for the very "nonthislistyness" of > this post, but I'll try to qualify it later. Anyway,I've just recently > been introduced to the group CAN. It seems that they have been going > strong for over 20 years. Can anyone explain what they've done in these > 20 years, how they've evolved, what albums to get , etc. I have "Soon > over Bambalama" and "Soundtracks", both of which are still digesting. This one has just been done on the droneon list as well - seems like every couple of months someone is asking for information about Can. Here's what I have: Monster Movie, Delay - recorded in 68/69, Delay wasn't released until the early eighties. Malcolm Mooney on vocals, there is a strong Velvet Underground influence in the music (the repetitive riffing style of "European Son" or "Foggy Notion"). Lyrics are absolute piffle, but that doesn't matter. Soundtracks - A mixture of Mooney and Damo Suzuki, and very mixed quality. "She Brings the Rain" and "Mother Sky" are brilliant, the rest of the album is rather poor. Tago Mago - Double album, probably the most experimental and difficult Can album, also one of their best. Ege Bam Yasi - Why is the sound of a Japanese man singing "Carry a spoon in the afternoon" so touching? As usual, the lyrics are hippy tosh, but the music and singing are superb. Best album for people to start with. Future Days - Damo's swansong, a very laid-back album. "Bel Air" is the blueprint for most of the Orb's career, 20 minutes of almost invisible music with odd sound effects thrown in. Soon Over Babaluma - Start of the decline. Holger, Irmin, Jaki and Michael try to sing themselves, with mixed results. "Come Sta, La Luna" is fine, though. Landed - Like SOB, it has its moments, but not enough to make it worthwhile unless you are a real fan. The albums above were released one every year, so "Landed" came out in 1975. Soon after, Holger Czukay gave up playing the bass to concentrate on production/editing (most Can tracks were the result of improvised jamming, the resulting tapes being collaged into the final product). A couple of new members were brought in, and Can turned into a mildly interesting jazz/funk group, who finally fizzled out in the early eighties. BUT - in about 1989, the original five members (Czukay, Schmidt, Karoli, Liebezeit and Mooney) reformed, to release an album called "Rite Time", which got pretty good reviews (I haven't actually heard it yet, though). The various members of the group have released solo albums, somethimes in collaboration with each other (Czukay and Liebezeit have done quite a few things together). There are a few compilations: Unlimited Edition - an album of outtakes from 1968 to 1975, medium quality (better than "Landed", but not classic Can). Cannibalism - supposed to be three volumes, the first deals with the period up to "Soon Over Babaluma" (though not "Delay" or "Unlimited Edition", and the only song from "Future Days" was dropped when it was transferred to CD). Most of "Monster Movie" is on this album, and it's a good introduction (though fans will soon find themselves owning all the material on it on other albums). "Cannibalism 2" covers the rest of their career (except for "Rite Time"), and includes three otherwise unavailable tracks (none worth killing for, though). The third "Cannibalism" is supposed to contain stuff from the band's solo albums, but I have never seen it. Anthology - two-CD set, the first CD is "Cannibalism", the second is a slightly more balanced view of the second half of their career than "Cannibalism 2". Includes songs from "Future Days" and "Rite Time", plus one they did for a Wim Wenders soundtrack (to my knowledge their only production after "Rite Time"). -- Andrew Norman, Leicester, England // nja@le.ac.uk // 16/01/95 On my walkman this morning : Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep; Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 08:00:41 EDT From: Dez (100702.123@COMPUSERVE.COM) Subject: Re: Can >beyond which Can albums aren't interesting? Is earlier Can is better >than later Can? -- >(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.) > larsi@ifi.uio.no * Lars Ingebrigtsen The generally accepted view is that they started to go downhill when they signed to Virgin in '75, although that's not to say that some of the Virgin material isn't good. Generally, the earlier the better, although 'Monster Movie', their first (proper) album is more of a free-form rock monster than the more groove-oriented material of their later stuff. Everything is available, remastered, on a series of CDs on their own Spoon label (through Mute) so getting hold of albums should prove no difficulty. Can Discography: Delay 68 (1968) (originally a limited edtion of 500 pressed) Monster Movie (1969) Soundtracks (1970) Tago Mago (1971) Ege Bamyasi (1972) Future Days (1973) Limited Edition (1974) Soon Over Babaluma (1974) Landed (1975) (first virgin release) Flow Motion (1976) Saw Delight (1977) Out Of Reach (1978) Can (1979) Rite Time (1989) There are also various compilations, and related releases by Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit and Michael Karoli. - Dez Date: Tue, 6 Aug 1996 10:47:37 +0100 From: Andrew Norman (nja@LEICESTER.AC.UK) Subject: Re: Can "Limited Edition" later reissued as "Unlimited Edition", with extra tracks. That album excepted, all those above are absolutely first rate and essential. "Unlimited Edition" is good, but with a lot of filler. > Soon Over Babaluma (1974) Landed (1975) (first virgin release) "Landed" is the last really good Can album to my mind, though it is a little more conventional than those preceding it ("Vernal Equinox" has a superb guitar solo, but Can were supposed to be about group cooperation rather than solos). > Flow Motion (1976) Saw Delight (1977) Both very dodgy, though with some good moments - just came back from a music-free week in a holiday camp in North Yorkshire, and one of the first things I listened to was "Animal Waves" from "Saw Delight", which is the best example of Holger's obsession with using short-wave radio "found sound" to construct music. Large parts of both albums are only interesting if you like the idea of a bunch of Germans playing funky disco reggae, though. > Out Of Reach (1978) Can (1979) Holger Czukay wasn't even in the band for the first of these, and it's the only album the band haven't reissued - they don't consider it to be a proper Can album. He was back for "Can", but just for editing. > Rite Time (1989) The exception to the "Earlier is better" rule - this reunion album is not up to the standard of their early seventies albums, but it's far better than any of the post-"Landed" albums (features original vocalist Malcolm Mooney). > There are also various compilations, and related releases by Holger > Czukay, Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit and Michael Karoli. "Cannibalism III" is a good compilation. I'm not too impressed by any of the solo work, Irmin's 3-CD compilation of film music is boring for the most part, Holger's (pre-Can) "Canaxis" is a sort of proto-world-music-ambient thing (from 1968!), I'm not over-fond of the stuff by Michael Karoli that I have heard. Jaki Liebezeit has drummed on virtually all the post-Can releases of the band members (and plays flute on the Czukay/Sylvian "Flux and Mutability", which is excellent). -- Andrew Norman, Leicester, England 06/08/96 nja@le.ac.uk, http://www.engg.le.ac.uk/staff/Andrew.Norman/ Teenage Fanclub - Grand Prix Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 21:28:18 +0100 From: Andrew Norman Subject: Re: some questions (some trivial) Andrew Granger: > On Mon, 22 Jun 1998, Gordon McEwen wrote: > > ...and with all the references to the likes of Can and Neu! - can > > anyone tell me if it's worth digging back into this stuff. If so, > > where are the best places to start? > > It's definitely worth digging back into this stuff. Can have a 2CD > anthology set, which is quite a good place to start, but it's far from > being an ideal selection - there's too much of the weaker later material, > and many of their best tracks have been edited down to fit on the CD, > losing a lot of their appeal. This is the one where the first CD is "Cannibalism" (early stuff, with a couple of major edits as Andrew describes) and the second one's a selection of the other releases. There are three "Cannibalism" albums, the second one isn't the same as the first CD of "Anthology" but covers much the same material (with a couple of exclusive tracks for completists) and the third one is compiled from (mostly) post-Can solo albums. "Cannibalism" is a good place to start but there's nothing from "Future Days" on the CD version and I'd recommend "Ege Bamyasi" as an introduction as it mixes experimental and accessible material. > So, failing that, any one of "Tago Mago", "Ege Bamyasi" or "Future Days" > would make a good introduction. Tago Mago is more to the experimental > side, wih lots of long, strange psychedelic stuff on it, whereas Ege > Bamyasi (my personal favourite), is funkier and more melodic, although it > still contains plenty of strangeness. Finally, Future Days has a lush, > semi-ambient sound to it, and is well worth checking out. After this > album, the band went steadily downhill into world-muzak territory, > although "Soon over Babaluma" is much underrated, and some of the later > records threw up some good tracks. Can't argue with any of that, though "Landed" is my personal cut-off point. "Monster Movie", the first album, is also worth a mention - it was recorded with Malcolm Mooney, a black American whose speciality was repetition repetition repetition rather than Damo Suzuki's strange Japanese yowling, and "Delay 1968" is a selection of out-takes from the same time, ragged but there's some great stuff on it. Two very different vocalists, and I think it's not a coincidence that they went downhill when Damo left. "Rite Time" was a reunion album recorded with Malcolm in the early eighties and is also worth getting hold of, and there's a budget hour-long album of BBC sessions which includes one track with Damo and others from the period just after he left and before they started thinking that German reggae was a fantastic idea. When I moved into my current house "Future Days" was the first album I played, it has a really strange, relaxed, fluid feeling like drifting downstream on a summer day. > If you're interested in Neu, all three of their proper albums (Neu, Neu 2 > and Neu 75) are great, but the best of these is definitely Neu 2, > (although I think the CD version doing the rounds in the shops here is > some sort of semi-bootleg). They all are - Dinger and Rother can't agree on royalties and I can't remember the exact details but there's a suspicion that one of them is involved in the bootlegs, and one of them keeps releasing all sorts of stuff from reunion sessions and live shows in Japan. > Much has been made recently of the similarity > between Neu and some of the earlier Stereolab material, but there is much > more to Neu than just the motorik rhythms and one chord drones they have > become known for. Particularly on Neu 2, much is made of the studio > technology, and the second half of the album deconstructs rock music in a > similar manner to the way in which King Tubby and others were dubbing out > reggae at the same time. I.e. they ran out of money and had to cobble together half an album by playing a single at various speeds.