Tag: Rock

CAN – Delay 1968 Spoon 012 (1981)

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This is a pretty decent set of rejected recordings, originally created for an aborted album tentatively titled Prepared to Meet Thy PNOOM.  Irmin Schmidt (who previously mostly worked as a conductor/composer/recital pianist) founded CAN after a trip to New York City turned him on to R&B/soul and underground rock.  The influence of that trip is evident on these recordings, many of which carry the torch for what The Velvet Underground was up to when Schmidt was introduced to them, along with influences from the likes of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Sly & The Family Stone and James Brown.  What is immanently clear from these recordings is that this is a group of performers very sensitive to form, even if their performance style is somewhat unpracticed in the rock idiom and favors creating a mood of wild energy over adherence to any specific technique.  But everything about these recordings demonstrates an allegiance to the counterculture of late 1960s urban rock music.  The resultant music is tough, and loosely jammy at times, but also dark and sinister.  It would be wrong to say this is humorless, but it is music that always regards itself as serious and aims for “importance.”

Delay 1968 shows the foundations of what came later for CAN, but it’s also markedly different that what came later.  Drummer Jaki Liebezeit hasn’t yet fully adopted a frenetically mechanical “motorik” style, instead playing in a somewhat more typical rock style, if one still unusually informed by the flexibility and open-ended possibilities of modern jazz.  Guitarist Michael Karoli plays a lot of chugging, modulating riffs and heavy, frequently dissonant chords, with few if any of the long, psychedelic lines that would characterize his playing in the near future.  Irmin Schmidt often approaches his keyboards almost like a player from a warped, blues-based jam band — “Man Named Joe” is sort of halfway between The Velvet Underground and the first Grateful Dead album — without the ominous spaciness that would characterize his playing in the coming years. Though he’s sometimes so far down in the mix that you have to listen hard to pick him out (“Nineteen Century Man”).  And yet bassist Holger Czukay and (especially) vocalist Malcolm Mooney were already performing in much the same way they would in the coming years (though Mooney left the group a year or so later).

“Little Star of Bethlehem” is a narrative rant from Mooney set against a slow groove.  It is much better than, say, “Mary, Mary So Contrary” from the eventual debut album Monster Movie.  The first song, “Butterfly,” has a good beat and crunchy, dissonant melodic and harmonic elements, but it does go on to the point of seeming repetitive without the hypnotic qualities the band achieved on later recordings.  “Thief” was released in an edited form on the compilation album Electric Rock (1971) and is one of the most developed songs in terms of pointing towards what the band would do more of in the future.  “Uphill” is a solid rocker, in roughly the same mold as “Butterfly” but with a quicker tempo and denser guitar strumming.

Delay 1968 is a pretty good album, considering it was originally rejected and sat in the vaults for over a decade before its eventual release.  It is rougher than any of the later studio albums.  And yet, the sense of purpose is undeniable.  Many of the band members were in their 30s when the band was formed, and that is partly what gives this music such a deliberate sound.  These were musicians with ample training and prodigious talents by any conventional measure, and they chose to apply those things towards a rock-centered music that embraced the counterculture.  It is a very punkish approach to music, and that’s precisely why this still sounds as fresh as it does almost a half century later.  If these recordings at times seem somewhat content to merely pay tribute to its influences, the proper debut, Monster Movie, was undoubtedly something new and unprecedented.

CAN – Ege Bamyasi United Artists UAS 29 414 (1972)

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CAN was one of the most important but least recognized bands of the late 20th Century.  Bridging diverse motivations of classical music with rock and roll and more, they were in a large part responsible for what is now called electronic rock.  Their music blended the profound rhythms of James Brown, the abstract composition of Karlheinz Stockhausen (with whom bandmembers Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt studied) and Steve Reich, the bold experimentalism of The Velvet Underground and the production effects of The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus.” The so-called “kraut rock” movement featured a number of highly creative groups but none as innovative and lively as CAN.

Holger Czukay on bass (who also handling engineering) and Jaki Liebezeit on drums formed the core of one of the most acclaimed rhythm sections in rock. “Damo” Suzuki’s vocals were sometimes grave (“Vitamin C”) and sometimes playful (“I’m So Green”), but generally with dadist, anti-artistic sensibilities.  Irmin Schmidt turns in a solid performance, while Michael Karoli’s immediate and evolving guitar work made songs like “One More Night” memorable.  Each band member brought something different to the table, and the group dynamic continuously changed.  Creative interplay inside the group provided the strength to change the world outside it.

The band adds enough comic relief. “Pinch” features a grab bag of whistles and clangs, all used quite humorously within relatively serious settings. Things can get downright goofy, like on “Soup.”  CAN’s destination may often be finely calculated but they meander delightfully along the way.  Even within each song the band makes dramatic shifts from rhythm to melody to noise.

Ege Bamyasi is a focused album that makes a good introduction to CAN’s music.  It actually made the charts in CAN’s native Germany; largely due to use of “Spoon” as the theme to a German gangster T.V. show called Das Messer.  “Vitamin C” also became a theme song for Samuel Fuller’s made-for-TV film Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street.  Ege Bamyasi doesn’t quite match the albums that came immediately before and after it (from their great “Damo Suzuki trilogy”), but it distills the essence of the band’s peak years.  The beats are funky and atmospheric effects swirl magnificently about to hypnotic effect.  The results are neither as psychedelic as some earlier work nor as ambient or club-pop oriented as later work.  This album is just one step in an extended dance.  The balance is perfect. CAN grasp what seems intangible and hold it to the light.

The superb musicianship and subtle textures of Ege Bamyasi hold limitless possibilities. It highlights CAN’s continued growth.  As intriguing as it is, with an open mind Ege Bamyasi can be rather fun as well.

can – Rite Time Mercury 838 883-1 (1989)

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CAN’s reunion album Rite Time — their final studio album — is often derided by fans.  That is somewhat unfair, as this album is decent, even if it isn’t as nearly as good as their very best.  It is actually best compared to their mid-70s output where more conventional commercial rock crept into the music alongside ambient soundscapes.  Original vocalist Malcolm Mooney initiated the reunion and (re)assumes vocal duties.  “On the Beautiful Side of a Romance” opens the album, and it establishes the unmistakable 1980s production values: compressed drums, a synthetic, trebley feel.  There are a couple of jokey novelty songs up next, which incorporate some sound collage elements.  “Like a New Child” is more ambient, but then “Hoolah Hoolah” goes back to novelty music.  “In the Distance Lies the Future” is the album’s highlight, though it was omitted from the original LP (appearing only on the CD version), a song that bassist Holger Czukay said “became one of my favourite CAN pieces of all time.”  I happen to like this album more than most fans, perhaps because the goofy songs don’t put me off and the 80s production values don’t phase me either.

The CAN – Monster Movie Music Factory SRS 001 (1969)

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Nobody in rock in the late 1960s really approached recording like The CAN (Jaki Liebezeit said the name’s best meaning was as a backronym for Communism Anarchy Nihilism).  No two CAN albums sound alike. On Monster Movie, it is a kind of garage rock drive and primal rhythm that ties much of the album together.  This album sounds like CAN recorded it in a modified garage — though the original album jacket noted that it was actually recorded in a castle. It has that rawness you can’t fabricate if you try. There is a little more substance to CAN’s next few albums, maybe, but Monster Movie is on roughly the same level as their next few albums with vocalist Kenji “Damo” Suzuki.  This is an important facet of CAN’s sound. They could rock out with somewhat straightforward sounds without sounding straightforward at all.  They key was the unabashed interest in rock music as something the equal of modern classical music, which was the background numerous band members came from.

“Father Cannot Yell” ignites the album from the start. It was the first track the group recorded for Monster Movie.  Malcolm “Desse” Mooney laces his incredibly musical fuming into the mix — his overdubbed vocals were basically his audition for the band.  Mooney — a visual artist really — had an innate talent for shouting/chanting lines with cryptic, ominous, and, yes, obnoxious implications.  In live performances he would sometimes pick out an audience member and make him or her uncomfortable by making up lyrics that impugned the character of that person (see “Your Friendly Neighbourhood Whore (1969)” from The Lost Tapes).  On “Father Cannot Yell,” there is kind of a proto-feminist undercurrent, with Mooney seeming to take the side of a young woman against a domineering father.  This is kind of the template for a lot of Mooney’s singing.  He goes into sort of an attack mode, seeking to win listeners over to his position in the process.  Call it a kind of “performance art” or, perhaps, purposeful and noble bullying.  Mooney just had a great vocal intonation for this sort of music: coarse, deep but still a bit nasal.

“Yoo Doo Right” is an “instant composition” (the group didn’t call it improvisation because what they improvised was form). It’s an unusually long (20 minutes) song for 1960s rock. The group had only minimal equipment. They played and when one of the pre-amps started smoking Holger Czukay decided the song was over.  It is the last song on the album, taking up the entire second side of the original LP.  But it is also the clear highlight.  Mooney is less aggressive than on some other songs, and more pensive, but he still is a catalyst for others to launch into furious solos and interludes.

“Mary, Mary So Contrary” is easily the weakest offering.  Mooney chants something from a nursery rhyme, but it lacks the confrontational heroism that is present in most of his best performances.  In hindsight, replacing it with something from the vault-clearing collections Unlimited Edition (“The Empress and the Ukraine King”) or The Lost Tapes (“Millionenspiel (1969),” “Your Friendly Neighbourhood Whore (1969)” or “Midnight Sky” (1968)”) would have improved the album considerably.

“Outside My Door” is the most conventional rock song here.  At least, it isn’t too far from underground rock coming from New York City and maybe San Francisco around this time.  There is a harmonica that weaves a kind of familiar, bluesy melodic thread through the song.  It may not match “Yoo Doo Right” or “Father Cannot Yell,” but neither is it a liability to the album.

Monster Movie was the first album the group released.  Though they did previously record another, tentatively titled Prepared to Meet Thy PNOOM.  The shelved recordings were later released as Delay 1968.  It was difficult to find anyone who would release The CAN’s albums. They resorted to releasing Monster Movie in a limited fashion (it was later re-released internationally on United Artists).  But the rest, as they say, is history.