Can Appreciation Thread

There is a lot in it that is really nice, different, and something that in regards to 2 other threads on this board is not usually acceptable as "progressive" because it does not (necessarily) have a format, even though it comes off as a "song". And many times, it might have something that we can discern as similar, or closer to a symphony design/concept, but done with electric instruments.

 

The hard part for a CAN afficionado, is to make sense of the words that both Holger, Irmin and Jaki use in their interviews. Few people can relate to the "cut and paste" mentality that Holger says was used in "Tago Mago" taken from 20 some housrs of material! "Ege Bamyasi", for me appears to be completely live, albeit in a studio it seems.

 

A lot of the "freeform" in it, is in Damo, doing whatever comes to mind, which I think is more difficult in music, as folks here and in other places, do not believe that musicians have the ability to free form as easily as actors in theater, and "voice workers" can. I disagree with that thought, but by the time you see the definition of "progressive" or "prog" the ability to free form gets taken out completely!  It is not accepted because it is not composed, and only animals don't use "composition" to think/create music.

 

There were many elements that also went along with many other things in theater and film in Europe that are difficult to discuss, specially that both Malcom Mooney and Damo came from theater and acting groups, which should in some ways help define something that can be done in music, that is not often done.

 

That said, the two albums I love the most are "Future Days" and "Soon Over Babbaluma". Between "Bel Air" and then the 2 long cuts that seque together (Chain Reaction and Quantuum Physics) are some of the prettiest things ever done, and to show you what a great rock drummer can do, catch Jaki during the quiet moments ... you don't need to count beats ... you just need to color the music! And this is what the band studied instead of some mechanical form of music, even though it's hard to say that when you thint they are "disco'ing". They aren't.

 

I would like to see, in the future, some remastering/remixing done on these works. But I doubt that Steven Wilson is willing or able to do music that is not as egocentric as his and his band's is. There is too much exploration in all of these 4 folks that is not widely done, or accepted.