| Collection Eclectic Plugged-in (review from amazon.com) |
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I sing an album eclectic, even for Can, comprised of 19 tracks recorded 1968 - 75. These tracks encompass a huge variety of styles, and showcase the range of musical experimentation that made the group such trailblazing innovators. Unlimited isn't one of the greatest Can albums, but still gets five stars for its breadth and depth.
Five of the songs are part of their brilliant Ethnological Forgery Series (numbers 7, 8, 10, 27 and 36). The EFS provide some interesting insights into the methods and madness of the group; by studying the ethnic musical styles of many cultures and mastering their performance, Can broadened their musical base to global proportions many years before World Beat became part of the Western musical repertoire. I'm not sure exactly which styles are being forged sometimes, but here is what they sound like to me:
EFS No. 7: An Afro-asiatic rhythm such as might be heard on the shores of the Red Sea, in the seaports of Yemen or Eritrea.
EFS No. 8: A peaceful xylophone ala Tatras.
EFS No. 10: Could be a whirling dervish dance from Turkey or Egypt.
EFS No. 27: Reminiscent of Japanese shakuhachi music, with a psychedelic chaser.
EFS No. 36: Sweet Dixieland jazz, with a funky cornet ala 20's New Orleans. This music would fit right in a Bourbon St. bordello, and Louis Armstrong himself would want some this jam.
The EFS tunes on this album are all too brief, two minutes or less in length, but provide a delightful glimpse of how Karoli and Liebezeit mined the resources of traditional ethnic music to enrich the sounds of Can.
Other notable tunes include the hilarious "Mother Upduff", which tells the story of a German family that travels to Italy on vacation, where Grandma Upduff suffers an unfortunate accident. She meets her demise in the tentacular clutches of a gigantic octopus in a Roman fish market; having no money at all, they decide to wrap her up in their tent and drive her back to Dusseldorf. Stopping for a cup of coffee just before crossing the border, they emerge to find their car has been stolen along with all their luggage - an epic theme still heard as urban legend today, where even now dead American grandmothers are stolen in Mexico.
One track ("Cutaway", March 69) is 18:49 of avante gard excess, showing another source of the unique Can sound: the atonal experiments that succeeded European classical music in the early 20th century.
"Ibis" (Sept. 74) is 9:14 of beautifully symphonic tripfunk, "I'm Too Leise" (March 72) 5:10 of enigmatic ethereality. Gorgeous both of them.
None of the songs on this album achieve the heights of genius reached by Can's greatest nonhits, but together they create a delightful mosaic and an invaluable window into the creative matrix of Can's genius - five stars for variety, range, and daring creativity.
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