| A decline from greatness, at least to these ears (review from amazon.com) |
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Can with Malcolm Morley was an interesting experimental prog-rock band. Damo Suzuki took his place, and for whatever reason, Can made three albums that are the absolute peak of a particular school of music. They are Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi, and Future Days. Three stunning albums that combine jam rock, psychedelia, avant-garde composition, and more, to create something without obvious precedent or successors. Just the right moment, I guess.
This album was the first one produced after Damo Suzuki's departure, and it goes in more of a "world music" direction that, even though it must have been more groundbreaking in its day, sounds like musical oatmeal to me. You feel like it's good for your health, and you want to listen to it to keep Mom happy, but it just doesn't have the intense flavors of those Damo Suzuki albums.
I only give it three stars because it's Can. It actually might warrant four stars, but I am measuring it against the high standard Can set for themselves. I can't say anything is wrong with it. It's well-played, varied, interesting music. But get those three Damo Suzuki albums first, if you don't already have them. They are in a different league, and they are the reason people talk about Can today.
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| Can's best? (review from amazon.com) |
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I've listened to a few of Can's major albums, and Soon Over... is for me the most consistently enjoyable listen. Whereas other Can albums are too sprawling/eclectic (Ege Bamyasi), too short (Future Days) or just too plain weird (Tago Mago), Soon Over strikes the right balance between accessibility and experimentation. The fact that Damo Suzuki has left makes little difference- his departure was hardly like Syd Barrett leaving the Floyd, and anyway, Can's music is primarily instumental, so it's easy enough to work around Damo's absence.
The album has a fairly jazzy and ethereal sound compared with the more strident rythms of Ege Bamyasi. It has the mellow feel of Future Days, but with more stylistic variety and musical colour. The opener, Dizzy Dizzy has a lovely stuttery vocal which is mimicked by Leibzeit's rhythm, while it showcases Schmidt's violin playing. Come Sta, La Luna is like a slow tango, with some film samples and some nice guitar playing from Karoli. Splash continues the Latin feel with its percussion, but is offset with a squalling violin, before half-way through, the track mellows out slightly, where some nice 70s synth washes come in accompanied by Karoli's guitar playing, like a jazzier Pink Floyd. Chain Reaction is a very odd, but brilliant, funk/disco marathon. Its disco, but not as we know it, that is, filtered through Can's peculiarly idiosyncratic sensibility. Propelled by an insistent 4/4 rhythm, before slowing down a couple of times to a funky strut, the track closes with some frazzled freak-out guitar and percussion. The closer, Quantum Physics, is an ambient track which rounds things off fairly well.
Overall, I don't feel that Can's albums always quite hit the heights that they ought to (mainly, I think, because they're too short, and leave the listener feeling short-changed). But nonetheless, Soon Over... is the Can album I'd recommend.
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| CAN after Damo (review from amazon.com) |
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"Babaluma" is not a classic, yet it actually follows one--Future Days--and, if that was not enough pressure, their singer Damo Suzuki had left to join Jehova's Witnesses. But then again, CAN created challenges when they did not happen naturally, so this became just another adventure--I believe--for the German quartet.
With vocals assigned now to the four core members of the band--Karoli taking most of the otherwise limited singing parts--CAN forged ahead and still produced a commendable album.
I don't know whether this is directly related Damo's departure or not, but one clear change in the band's sound is a more prominent role for Karoli's guitar--that can be subtle, sincopated or just wail, at all the appropriate times.
The standout tracks, to my taste, are "Dizzy Dizzy" and "Come Sta, La Luna," two songs that begin their path in ways you may seem to recognize, if familiar with Ege Bamyasi or Future Days, and then develop into their own little universes.
The jam quality of "Splash" is also worth much attention, and the last cut "Quantum Physics" might remind you of earlier albums's long-explored mood pieces.
All in all, this is not the glorious material of Tago Mago or the other two beauties already mentioned, yet it is a solid album. You don't need to be a completist to want this title in your collection, although it would not be where I'd start either.
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| Although a good album, change is afoot (review from amazon.com) |
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This 1974 follow-up to the masterpiece Future Days (1973), witnessed a marked change in personnel and a slight change in the overall sound.
After a very subdued performance on Future Days, Japanese vocalist Damo Suzuki left the band leaving members Holger Czukay (bass); Michael Karoli (guitar, vocals on Dizzy Dizzy and Chain Reaction); Jaki Leibezeit (drums); and Irmin Schmidt (piano, synthesizers, and vocals on Come sta, la Luna) to carry on. Although I like Damo's vocal style much better, Michael and Irmin do an OK job with their alternately buried-in-the-mix and electronically altered vocal parts.
The five tracks on the album range in length from 5'44" to 11'12" and most display the typical Can sound, although there is more of an emphasis on bouncy rhythms, and brighter textures on the first three tracks. Specifically, there is a bossa nova in there and come to think of, Splash has almost an east coast (hot) jazz feel to it - only in the loosest sense of the style however. Jaki is an excellent drummer and he does a fantastic job with both styles - in fact his propulsive style really drives this entire album along.
My favorite tracks include the pulsating Chain Reaction (11'12") and the synthesizer heavy and atmospheric Quantum Physics (8'33"). It is worth noting that Chain Reaction and Quantum Physics are seamlessly joined, creating a larger track that approaches 20 minutes in length. My guess is that this was an attempt to recreate the epic nature of the 20 minute piece Bel Air (from the Future Days album). In my opinion it worked very well - it is a favorite after all.
This is a good album that marks a transitional period in the career of Can and is recommended along with Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyasi (1972), and the excellent Future Days (1973).
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| The epitome of examples (review from amazon.com) |
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| The best way to discern the best forms of a musical union of any kind is what to suggest for a new listener. Think about it for a second. Pick any artist and think of the same thing. If you try to explain to someone what's so good about Can and discover that no words can accurately describe it, then you'll have to say, "Okay, this is THE album by Can." In this case, 'Soon Over Babaluma' is it. There is simply no better example of the individuality and musical strength that they possessed. I say it because I've done it many times, even to people who have no idea what Prog Rock really is (German or otherwise), and 'Soon Over Babaluma' has worked every time. There is a power, a 'groove', a mystifying intensity to '...Babaluma' that is impossible to ignore. Put this CD into a player and before you know it your hand is magically reaching for the volume control to turn it up a notch or two. So, for anybody looking over the possibilities of which Can album to try first, 'Soon Over Babaluma' is the one.
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