How To Buy...Can

12:41 PM GMT 26/11/2007

One of the all-time superpowers of music, Can made music that just keeps on giving. Formed in Cologne in 1968 against a backdrop of psychedelia and social unrest, and comprised of experienced jazz, rock and classical musicians who were telepathically joined by constant playing, over their 11-year existence they moved between thunderously mantric on-the-one primitivism, symphonic dance tunes and out-and-out weirdness that defies description.

Over the years they’ve numbered Mark E Smith, Joy Division, The Coral, Radiohead and LCD Soundsystem as admirers - but which LPs do you need (and you do need them)? Is it Monster Movie and Tago Mago, or all the first five and then stop? What about Landed and Saw Delight? Is Rite Time worth a carrot? Has anyone heard Out Of Reach?

Send us your comments and recommendations and the best ones will appear in the magazine. Danke!

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 12:41 PM GMT 26/11/2007

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first 5, especially Egi Bamiyasi.

Posted by at 10:53 AM GMT 29/11/2007 Report Abuse

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#1 has to be 'Tago Mago'. A huge lumbering behemoth of a record. Like someone took a 40min album and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d it out to double that legth: the hard stuff hits harder and the freak-outs are freakier. If it weren't for Amon Dull II's 'Yeti', this would be the greatest Krautrock album ever.

Posted by Conor at 12:48 AM GMT 01/12/2007 Report Abuse

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Tago Mago is the one. Is there anything better than the solid 18 minutes of pure trance-inducing grooving of Halleluhwah?

Posted by Heavenlymusiccorp at 4:27 AM GMT 01/12/2007 Report Abuse

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RE: Heavenlymusiccorp

Yes

Posted by at 4:41 PM GMT 01/12/2007 Report Abuse

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I love Tago Mago, but let's please not ignore Ege Bamyasi--brilliant in its own right. I think the first 4-5 is the way to go with Can, but I'm not too familiar with the later stuff.

BTW, Halleluwah is the example I would provide for a virgin Can listener.

Posted by vitaminj11 at 7:49 PM GMT 05/12/2007 Report Abuse

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Soundtracks is extraordinary: it has the coo-ing Damo Suzuki and the more abstract Malcolm Mooney vocals, plus the colossal, hyper-psychedelia of Mother Sky, their most transcendent moment.

Delay 1968 - talent is when a band can leave an album like this unreleased for 14 years and it still sounds fiery, intense and unique.

Soon Over Babaluma - their last indisputable classic, loaded with cosmic space-funk.

Posted by Grant McDougall at 8:53 PM GMT 09/12/2007 Report Abuse

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Top 5 are:

1) Ege Bamyasi - Can's most consistent LP, includes some of their tightest rhythms and biggest hits - 'Spoon' went Top 20 in Germany, rightly so. It's Thurston Moore's favourite LP of all time, while even Kanye West (?!) samples it on his new cd.

2) Tago Mago - the drums on 'Halleluhwah' are HUGE and the basis of the Happy Monday's entire career, while 'Mushroom' and 'Oh Yeah' aren't far behind in the groovier-than-thou stakes. Am I the only one who finds the willful freakery of 'Aumgn' a bit tedious though?

3) Future Days - the first ambient album I owned that I actually wanted to play more than once or twice. The gentle pacing of 'Bel Air' and the title track make ideal in-car entertainment. It's also vocalist Damo Suzuki's swan song with the group (or should that be 'Sing Swan Song'?!)

4) Delay 68 - the best of the band's early days with Malcolm Mooney on vocals is a powerful listen, with 'Uphill' and 'Thief' two of the standouts. Fair enough, it doesn't have 'Yoo Doo Right' but otherwise i'll take this over Monster Music any day.

5) Soundtracks - for 'Tangowhiskyman' and the irrepressible 'Mother Sky', featuring Michael Karoli's most incandescent guitar work.

Yes the early stuff is more consistent but let's not discount later tracks like 'I Want More' and the wonderful 'Flow Motion'.

Posted by Ghost of Harry Smith at 7:50 AM GMT 11/12/2007 Report Abuse

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For me it has to be Ege Bamyasi and Soon Over Babaluma. I can foirst remember hearing Ege Bamyasi when I was 14 and compared to the T.Rex and Bowie I was listening to this was a revelation. The rhythms throughout this album are almost hypnotic and after hearing this album I had to hear more from this strange German band.

Soon Over Babaluma was another teenage favourite for me with the long track Chain Reaction being a particularly recommend worthy track. All in all a quite wonderful band who should have been far bigger than they actually were

Posted by Jon Kirkman at 9:07 PM GMT 11/12/2007 Report Abuse

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Oft missed and the first LP they recorded without Damo Suzuki, "Soon Over Babaluma" is a hidden gem - containing such luxuries as "Dizzy Dizzy" and the thundering "Chain Reaction". It would be diminishing returns afterwards, and this is the band still riding that golden wave that started with "Tago Mago".

Of the 3 classics, "Future Days" is the one for me - arguably the first Balearic LP in style in production - shimmering melodies and reflective of the pastoral style of sound that would inflect German music from 1973 to 1976.

Posted by at 1:53 PM GMT 12/12/2007 Report Abuse

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'Tago Mago', still for me. Especially in the original UK vinyl 'emvelope' sleeve.

Add the unreleased 'Tago Throwaway' (the side-long first part of 'Peking O' and make it a triple vinyl album!

Or add the full (unreleased) album length version of 'Doko E' and make it a quadruple!

'Soundtracks' has always merited a proper vinyl re-release, by the way.

One thing that is often forgotten about Can (and I saw them a couple of times first time round) is that, live, they loved to make a hell of a NOISE!

Posted by Johnny Le Chaton at 3:04 PM GMT 12/12/2007 Report Abuse

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RE: Johnny Le Chaton

...stretching the envelope (sic) as well.

Interesting to see AD2's 'Yeti' namechecked as well; a lesser album than any of the early Can albums, I think, but still up there as one of the seminal two Krautrock albums, as far as UK releases were concerned.

Posted by Encore Le Chaton at 3:09 PM GMT 12/12/2007 Report Abuse

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'Future Days' made the Mojo 100 Greatest back in the day, and joining it should be the following...

- Soundtracks
- Delay:1968
- Tago Mago
- Monster Movie
- Ege Bamyasi
- Can DVD

Posted by Jonny at 8:40 PM GMT 12/12/2007 Report Abuse

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With Tago Mago Can created a hypnotic (double lp)document displaying a level of intense telepathy rarely present in so-called "rock" music. It has to be one of the best psychedelic albums ever.

Posted by JD at 11:07 PM GMT 13/12/2007 Report Abuse

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