can reissues

[kek-w]

As for Henry Cow, my personal favourite is the 'Concerts' CD,

Yeah, I'm with Jim on that one. Cutler is one heckuva an underrated drummer/percussionist.

Jaki's the king, though, but the drummer from Circle is no slouch either...very post-Jaki rhythmic-pulse style. And Dinger, of course: Avant-Glam. And Klaus Schultz in Ash Ra Tempel...not incredibly technically gifted, but he's exactly where the music needs him to be, and that's what counts.

I've also got a huge soft spot for Chester Thompson - Zappa & The Mother's drummer circa '73-'75 (also in (gak!) Post-Gabriel Genesis but let's not go there...)...like Cutler, theoretically Prog, but Anti-Prog by virtue of context.

And Miles got through some phonomenal drummers in his early '70's electric period.

 

[reposed]

ive a memory of scouring nyc for neu! in 1991, ...

heh.. for me, the reason why this stuff is so pivotal is not so much for the music (though of course it blew my head in time), it's more for the process of discovery. searching it out happened to be my first faltering steps at collecting. these early embarassing moments were in records records in dunedin, new zealand, circa 1993, asking for neu, can and (just a sec, i'll get my bit of paper) oh yeh, fowst. the following year, can also provided my first experience into the familiar cycle of adrenaline thrills after paying silly money for plastic, followed by the downer of regret when your drink kitty is suffering, followed by the thrill of the package arriving. i guess i'm grateful to them for that.

i hear what you're saying about the LPs being marred by spun-out songs that hinder the flow. it's why ege bamyasi is the album i play least, and future days single-tracked side 2 (perhaps) the most, even though it's not my favourite song. i have a solution for smoothing the edges on paperhouse in tago mago - damo's complete intimacy performing it on the can box vhs with his mesmising expressions filling the screen will rearrange the 'baaccck of yr myyynd.. '

 

[carlos]

last couple of days i've been re-listening to my mid90s restless/mute cd reissues of "tago mago", "monster movie" and "ege bamyasi"- what a fine band. and these reissues sound great to me. i always assumed the hiss and grime was part of their sound- i can't imagine hearing them cleaned up. i remember when i first heard those crackling hissy basic channel records- i always thought they were paying hommage to "tago mago" (among other things)- probably wrong assumption on my part, but i would like to keep thinking that.

 

[soundslike1981]

The new batch. . .

Anyone got any of the new batch yet? I ordered them all yesterday. 'Future Days' was the one I was most looking forward to---seemed to have the most small detail that could be well-served by a quality remaster.


The first I heard was 'Tago Mago,' which was probably just about perfect. I was 16, and really needed it. I couldn't believe the rhythms, and it might've been the launch of my shift from liking music from an "emotional" basis (the Joni Mitchell/my mother singing songs for me at night on her guitar influence) to listening with my body/head much moreso. Jaki's rhythms still sound like they come from some perfect future, which I can't ever quite figure out as really they're so simple. . . maybe it's the way that he sounds like a perfect human/machine hybrid. And they were just so understated and huge at the same time--never sounding hippie-ish. The only basis for comparison I really had was some Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix (esp. live stuff) and the Meters, all of whom I still tie in together (logically or not).


As for ranking faves (to go back in time a year for you lot)--never done it before, but:


01 Ege Bamyasi / Future Days
02 Tago Mago
03 Monster Movies / Delay 1968
04 Can (if you lop off the last three tracks)
05 Soundtracks
06 Soon Over Babulama
07 Unlimited Edition
08 Landed


Haven't heard 'Flow Motion' or 'Saw Delight,' though I'll pick them up in the reissue series.

I think 'Can' is really underrated--drop the pointless last three tracks (what a downer way to end, on such cheesiness) and you've got a great poppy semi-dancey record with a few nice touches of spookiness. Plus, some of the best non Mooney/Suzuki vocals. Not sure why it's so harshly criticised.


As for solo, Czukay definitely wins hands down. I'd put everything he did on his own, and his collabs with Phew, Wobble, even Eurythmics, over any other solo stuff I've heard.

 

[francesco]

I will immediately pick up "future days" and "soon over babaluma", both of wich I adore immensely, next time i have time to go shopping. I'll not so keen on Landed, i have a vynil at stored parent's house and I remember i didn't kile it too much, but it was ten years ago last time i have listened to it...
... I', very curious of "unlimited edition": it's any good? Is one of the few Can album I don't know anything about it? recommended or not? very good or "so so"?
thanks

 

[Benny Bunter]

RIP Jaki

 

[bruno]

he absolutely kills it on the 1981 phew album with holger and conny, arguably the best can outing. it still sounds like something from the future.

 

[bruno]

i miss polystyle.

 

[version]

Damo died yesterday.