Can "Tago Mago" 1971*****

Tago Mago is a standard addition to best-albums-ever lists. Understandable, since it's the quintessential Can/Kraut Rock album. American singer Malcolm Mooney had just returned to his homeland and his replacement was another foreigner, Japanese Damo Suzuki, whom the band found playing music on the streets of Munich. His style suited Can's experimentalism. He was more of a whisperer and screamer rather than a conventional singer and his interplay with the other musicians is phenomenal, everyone seemingly in his own little universe yet the band playing as if they share a collective mind. "Paperhouse" starts the album off and for a few seconds it sounds like West Coast psychedelia before any notion of a song is dissolved in chaos. Great improvisational jazzy guitar and drumming, with Suzuki mumbling in the background, shouting and then hiding again. "Mushroom" is a chilly song about Hiroshima that draws a nakedly emotional performance from Suzuki, while the band plays with controlled menace. It sounds like nothing ever heard up to that point, paving the way for future bands from Radiohead to The Fall. "Oh Yeah" is an atmospheric song with a steady motorik rhythm. Once more the guitar work is excellent and Suzuki sings partly in Japanese. I'm willing to bet it's just stream-of-consciousness nonsense but it sounds nevertheless great. "Halleluwah"is an 18,5 minute monster of a track. It starts off with a bluesy intro and soon enters into a funky groove - I'd say about as funky as genetically possible for a bunch of  German guys. There's a long drumming section, various effects and vocals alternating between lazy and loud. All in all, a mindblowing achievement. Following track "Aumgn" is almost its equal in duration but an exercise in tunelessness full of effects, shrieks and barks. Some interesting drumming appears halfway into the song, but otherwise just a curiosity. "Peking O" is another experimental song with frantic and unintelligible vocals. It reminds me of Captain Beefhart in Trout Mask Replica. Like that album, depending on where you stand, it can be considered either genius or nonsense. I'm more of the second opinion, myself.  Finally "Bring Me Coffee or Tea" closes the album with some cool atmospheric pre-chillout pre-new wave music. Overall it's an amazing record. Though by no means an easily accessible one, it's full of original ideas and proved an influential landmark, a mysterious monolith of an album that appeared out of nowhere,  dispensing inspiration and creating evolution without giving any clues to its true nature (cool 2001:Space Odyssey reference, ja?). Some of its dark magic may be explained by the supposed links to occultist and high priest of Satanism Aleister Crowley who is somehow connected to the enigmatically named Isla de Tagomago (just off Ibiza) whence this album's title stems.

***** for Mushroom, Halleluhwah 

**** for Paperhouse, Oh Yeah

*** for Bring Me Coffee or Tea

** for Aumgn, Peking O.

Can "Future Days" 1973*****

Future Days is the last Can album to feature Damo Suzuki, who evidently left the group to join Jehovah's Witnesses (Wow, I didn't know that Jehovah's Witnesses were so anti-rock. Next time they knock on my door, I'm not sending them away politely). Of course an album like "Future Days"  can be labeled rock only in the widest sense i.e. musicians using electric instruments. The album has 4 songs and lasts more than 40 minutes - which is not that rare for 1973, but without solos? Instead of one solo after another, the songs evolve slowly. 1st track "Future Days" starts off with 2 minutes of ambient noise from radio static to sea waves and birds. Slowly a beat establishes itself and keeps driving the song until the end (Some time after the 3rd minute a song does emerge and it is a killer tune). Vocals and guitar are subdued but handled well. There are no concurrent reference points for this kind of music, but think of the tropicalia-styled songs of Beck and Devendra Barnhart, give them a prog twist and you'll have an idea of the pop song hiding inside "Future Days". "Spray" continues on the same ambient motif but this time without the melody. Suzuki's vocals are buried deep in the mix, almost inaudible. "Moonshake" on the other hand is a bona fide pop single, to my ears the equal of their big hit "Vitamin C". Latin percussion, great keyboard work, discrete sax and flawless vocal delivery, all condensed in 3 minutes. Brevity is the one thing missing from "Bel Air". It seems to be an expansive suite edited from a number of improvisational sessions and it is the proggiest piece of the record. Experimental though it is, a couple of songs threaten to emerge (between 0:00'-2:43' and 4:30'-7:14') before the song descends into space-rock chaos. This album is considered required listening and features on a lot of "all-time-greatest-albums" lists. It's easy to see why: rarely have I heard an album pointing to the future so much. Although it also draws from rock's experimental past (Pink Floyd circa Ummagumma), it has created a completely new path for adventurous bands (e.g. Radiohead circa "Kid A") to explore. Very aptly named, then.

***** for Moonshake

**** for Future Days

*** for Spray, Bel Air