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.