CAN

On the face of it, this is not an obvious choice for a Can compilation. In their heyday they were famous for thirty minutes plus freakouts on stage and wildly experimental studio albums, neither of which are obvious contenders for chart toppers. They did, however, release a steady stream of singles throughout their career and even enjoyed some success; Spoon was a sizeable hit in Germany, and I Want More got into the UK top 30 and earned them a Top of the Pops appearance.

This collection covers all their studio albums from Soundtracks to Rite Time, with the exception of Out of Reach, and there are several non album tracks and a similar number of edited down versions of their more extended pieces. The editing was mainly done by Holger Czukay, who generally managed to distill the essence of a longer track onto one side of a 7" single. The collection kicks off with Malcolm Mooney's two lead vocals on Soundtracks and then heads into the Damo Suzuki era. There are two non album tracks here, Turtles Have Short Legs and Shikako Maru Ten, both enjoyable slices of eccentricity that would have slotted nicely into Unlimited Edition. Two Tago Mago tracks were used as b sides, including a drastically edited Halleluwah, and Future Days is similarly slimmed down. Then we're into the quartet era, with edited highlights from Soon Over Babaluma, Landed and Flow Motion; the pairing of I Want More / ...and More may not be to everybody's taste, but it works surprisingly well. Silent Night is the first bump in the road - Can's version of the classic German Christmas carol has not aged well, and it is followed by the full version of Cascade Waltz. We then briefly dip into the Rosco and Rebop line up with an edited version of Don't Say No and the non album b side Return, which is like a slightly funkier reboot of I Want More / ...and More. Can Can, the famous Offenbach tune, was performed by the three remaining founders Karoli, Schmidt and Liebezeit, and while it might have seemed like a good idea at the time it is the one total dud in this collection. In the 1980s Malcolm Mooney joined the core quartet for a one off reunion album, Rite Time, and Hoolah Hoolah was picked as the single. Both the single and the album were better than expected, even if they're not exactly vintage quality.

Four stars for this collection. It's the only single disc collection that covers every Can line up, and which traces their development almost from the beginning. It's also the only place to get all the non album tracks in one compilation; none can be considered essential, but aside from Silent Night they are all worth having for completists. The edited versions of longer tracks are sufficiently different from the originals to be of interest, although some are more successful than others. The sleeve notes warn that not all the original tapes were available. so the sound quality is a little inconsistent, but I didn't notice anything particularly jarring. If you're a Can newbie this is a good place to start; if you're an established fan it's pretty good to listen to while driving or exercising.

As usual the individual tracks are numbered, and all four last between six and a half and eight and a half minutes. Eins seems to start in mid flow - presumably the bootlegger forgot to press 'record' until the band had been playing for a couple of minutes - and the sound and feel very much point the way forward to Flow Motion. Zwei is a little more spacy and a little less funky, while Drei offers a somewhat deconstructed version of Dizzy Dizzy. Vier is the closest we get to the unfettered monster jams heard on previous concert recordings, with Karoli in particular cutting loose with some blistering axe work. There is then a brief announcement that the band will take a break. If there were any 20 minutes plus spontaneous compositions in the second set, either they weren't recorded or, for whatever reason, Irmin Schmidt and Mute have decided not to share them with us.

What we get on this album is a tighter, more focused iteration of Can; the interplay is dazzling, but in general the music feels more polished and less manic. The sound quality is excellent throughout, and it feels more like a budget official live album than a cleaned up bootleg; clearly, the recording technology available to bootleggers had improved in the mid to late 1970s. Vinyl aficionados will be pleased that it's an affordable single album pressed in blue; if you haven't got a turntable it's available as a reasonably priced download. It's a worthy addition to the ongoing series of live albums, and demonstrates that Can on stage still had the fire that was sometimes missing from their later releases, but it's distinctly non-essential.

Disc one kicks off with Eins, a 36 minute spontaneous composition in which Can conjure up a vinyl album's worth of music apparently out of thin air. At times familiar themes briefly emerge, but the piece builds up and maintains its own fevered momentum; Czukay and Liebezeit lay down an ever evolving, waxing and waning groove, Karoli's blues raga guitar floats serenely overhead, Schmidt adds washes of keyboard colour and Suzuki declaims in the language of the stone age. The behemoth finally comes to a halt after 36 minutes and then we get Zwei, which turns out to be a remarkably straight reading of One More Night. Can always included familiar pieces in between their lengthy improvisations (Spoon would usually surface at some point in the Suzuki era, and Dizzy Dizzy was regularly included post 1974), but they rarely stayed as close to the recorded version as this.

Disc two starts with Drei, which uses Spoon (a minor hit single in Germany and probably their best known song at the time) as the basis for a 16 minute extended jam, while Vier is another spontaneous composition, this time clocking in at a comparatively brief 15 minutes. Finally, Funf starts out as Vitamin C before morphing into a dazzling free form freak out that ends rather abruptly after slightly less than 14 minutes. According to the sleeve notes this is "...due to no adequate sound sources existing of the final notes of this show", although those 'final notes' may have gone on for another 10 or 15 minutes.

For your money you get an hour and a half's worth of Suzuki era Can at the top of their game. The sound quality is remarkable for a 1973 bootleg recording, most likely primarily from a C90 recording by the same bootlegger responsible for the Brighton and Stuttgart sets, and Renee Tinner has worked minor miracles in cleaning it up for release. Knock off half a star if you are after pristine sound quality (thankfully there is no audience noise during the songs) and round it up to five stars if you have been dreaming of a fill Suzuki era concert.

4. Bel air has this plus, there is some finally... of offering a 20-minute side to start; quite disconcerting because very quickly the improvisation sensation emerges like in a concert where no one wants to stop; sounds placed next to each other, a guitar in the distance letting the drums discuss, a slow derivation that will run aground on this country break with noises of bumblebees, animal cries. As much as they stood out from the TANGERINE DREAM that I like to mention, they were getting closer to the work of PINK FLOYD, who were going to stand out from it, its unique krautrock; during this time the break was transformed into a compulsive litany with the fusion of Jaki's metronomic drums and Michael's intoxicating guitar for a captivating adrenolytic rise; its precursor of space rock in which ORESUND SPACE COLLECTIVE would later plunge for example, continuing to jam in front of the sidereal eternity. The drums rumble like a feverish Nick MASON, the final dull, melted, latent, contemplative, seeming to want to be reborn. A very special trip from the time when musical progression was not scary.

Pleasantly surprised, much better than expected!! To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect from a late 80's Can album, but I can say for sure the artwork doesn't give the slightest hint to how much fun this album is, it's one you can feel they were surly having a good time laying down! There's no late 80's junk on here, this is a well constructed and played album.

The recording quality is good, clean with lots of space between the instruments, open and balanced, Holger Czukay's bass tone is lovely, Jaki Liebezeit's playing is fairly sparse and only occasionally are some sprinkles of prime Can rhythms drifting through, though he's an excellent player he plays these basic grooves with great feel! I'm a big fan of restrained guitar and there's loads of nice funk twinkled parts on here.

There's an immense control and discipline in the playing on the whole, minimalistic with everything in the mix sounding deliberate in it's usage, the players parts compliment each other greatly and no one steps on the others toes.

Definitely not an album to dismiss without giving a fair chance first!

This show was recorded live Halloween night in 1975. And like the "Brighton" release that follows we get two discs worth a total of 90 minutes. Here though we have 70 minutes on disc one and 20 minutes on that second disc. The third in the series called "Cuxhaven" is under 30 minutes and has drawn a lot of complaints for being so short.

The third and final track on disc one is 36 minutes long and the highlight for me. The way they get experimental, the way the tempo speeds up for a while is fun. It turns spacey late followed by a driving rhythm. So good! The second track on disc one at 14 minutes is also a favourite, sort of trippy and light early but ending in an intense fashion with some killer drum work. There's two tracks on disc two and the opener is the one I like of them. There's an uplifting vibe here for some reason as the guitar grinds away over top. It does seem like a jumbled mess to end it with the muddy sound not helping.

Maybe I'm being too hard on this for the sound quality and the fact these are improvs. I'm just not that big on improvs let alone 90 minutes worth, but if this sounded like the live albums of today I think I'm going 4 stars. When it comes to Krautrock CAN, AMON DUUL II and AGITATION FREE contributed most to my best of Krautrock list. This is the one I'd check out first if your interested in this live series.

In the liner notes Irmin Schmidt relates how Jimi Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" performance at Woodstock changed his attitude to making music. "It was like an orchestral painting, only solo on one guitar, that really stirred me at the time and had a big influence. It's action painting. It's very expressive, emotional and full of a certain kind of expression. That's what I was after, and what fascinated me in Jimi Hendrix, because what he does there, in one fell stroke, is create a new instrument. That's what you as a composer try to aspire to." And speaking of the liner notes one of my favourite things about this release are the black and white pictures of the band members, just so well done.

I had a hard time with the first disc as we get four tracks over 47 plus minutes. There's quite a bit of sparse music on this disc where it's quiet and usually that's at the beginning of the improv. Guitar, organ and drums are mostly standing out once they get going. I do like how experimental the final track is on disc one. Disc two is three tracks over 43 plus minutes and in my opinion a more enjoyable listen as we get some fire here and there. They continue to start slow with sparse sounds but yes this is where we get some passion. This just isn't a 4 star recording for me. "The Lost Tapes" blows this out of the water on a number of levels but I know the fanboys will be eating this one up.

Crazy, wacky, intense, yet chill, delicious, nutritious, malicious reggae rock. But it is Can, so it is brought to the threshold and pushed past it. When you think a ten minute guitar solo (the title track) is at its peak, it goes further, up and beyond. This album is magical. Not in the crazy, dissonant, nasty, disturbing way that Can usually is, but in a chill, lax, and easy way that is not executed the same in any other album in Can's discography. 'I Want More' is the most commercial Can ever got (and still surprisingly good!), Cascade Waltz is just some trippy, psychedelic five-minute reggae groove, "Laugh 'Till You Cry" is a Can-ified cruise-ship ditty, '...And More' is a bass- heavy reprise of the first track, 'Babylonian Pearl is a funky and relaxed jam with nothing special with it apart from the fact that it is Can who made it, 'Smoke' is a heavy new installment to the EFS franchise, and the title track is just a pure Can masterpiece. It holds up to some of the best later Can songs, like 'Vernal Equinox', 'Theif', and 'Unfinished'. Overall, a great Can album which doesn't fall nearly as short as it gets shamed for. Solid, yet fluid and chewable at the same time. Prog on.

Can's compilation 'Opener' holds some of their most popular songs from right around the Suzuki era. This is an amazing collection of tracks, and I love that Can did not shorten one of them. The album starts off with 'Dizzy Dizzy', originally on 'Soon Over Babaluma'. This is my favorite song on that album. Then is 'Moonshake', the Krautpop classic also found on their unanimous master album, 'Future Days'. This song is so freaking amazing I can barely hold it in. The random sound effect interlude, the chorus, those classic groovy Can drums, everything. The third track is 'Sing Swan Song', from 'Ege Bamyasi', undoubtedly their most commercial album from the Suzuki period. This is my second favorite song on 'Ege Bamyasi', only behind 'Pinch'. Acting as the closing track for side one is 'Come Sta, La Luna', which was the first SOB track I heard. The title caught my eye immediately. It translates to 'Eat the Moon' in Spanish. This is one of my favorite non-Suzuki Can songs. On the second side is 'Spoon', another Krautpop classic from Can. Great keyboard solo and more classic Can drumming. 'I'm So Green' is a fun little groovy track off of 'Ege Bamyasi'. Then there is 'Vitamin C', which has a special place in my heart because once I deeply disturbed a friend by playing it for them. This track is amazing and is one of my favorite Can songs of all time. Closing this compilation album is the whole holy approximate nine minutes of 'Future Days', from the album of the same name. This is actually my least favorite song on 'Future Days', but only because all three tracks are even better somehow. This is a truly great track to end one of my favorite compilations of all time. I deeply respect the unaltered song lengths, the tracks chosen to enter this album (although I would've liked something from 'Tago Mago' to be on here), and the overall fun mood of this album apart from the closer of both sides. If I were to go back to 1974, I would definitely have picked this album up at a record store and jam to it for some good fun. Can, you will always have a special place in my heart, you beautiful, beautiful, hella weird beast.

As I warn anyone willing to listen to this album: be warned: it's a hard listen. 'Tago Mago' starts with 'Paperhouse', a song with great lyrics and a guitar solo so freaking great it makes me want to cry, then moves into 'Mushroom', a somewhat groovy song that just happens to be the only song under six minutes on this album. Also has some great lyrics. 'Oh Yeah' is a largely instrumental track with some of the weirdest lyrics known to man. 'Halleluwah' occupies an entire side, and is my personal favorite Can song. I couldn't help but point out that this sounds like Cage the Elephant's 'Ain't No Rest for The Wicked' (I hope I was the first on Prog Archives to say that, I didn't care to look for it in different reviews). But then - be prepared, you must be prepared - is 'Aumgn'. I am trying my best not to spoil everything, but I won't. You have to listen to it on your own. 'Peking O' is a Kraftwerk-esque eleven-minute track featuring extended futuristic keyboard interludes and crazy jabbering, which still makes me worry about the mental health of vocalist Damo Suzuki. This song, while barely comprehensible, is what I think best embodies Can. Their fearless attitude toward innovation. This track is nonsense, and it isn't even really music, but I listen to it regularly on streaming services whenever I feel like being drifted away into another world. This carries you away to the ending song: 'Bring Me Coffee or Tea', the second shortest song on 'Tago Mago', clocking in at just under seven minutes. Very groovy and odd; a perfect end-track to such a weird album.