Can: Ege Bamyasi

Album: Ege Bamyasi
Artist: Can
Year: 1972

I don't know honestly. Halloween was last night, I saw Eve 6 a day or two ago and that was pretty cool. I was a lumberjack for halloween. Pretty awesome... here's some Can.

1. Pinch

This song has an undeniable groove. The vocals are aloof, sometimes shouted but always mumbled sounds that are impossible to understand. I love the guitar, its understated, the drums have the biggest presence in the song but everything is perfectly balanced for this feeling, this steel-and-bones feeling. Its a pretty long track at nine minutes thirty-one seconds, but that's okay. This is a great opening track, and a good introduction into this band in general.

2. Sing Swan Song

This opens with the sound of water in motion. Don't listen to this if you really have to pee. This song has more of a melody than the first, once the instruments finally arrive. It has some really cool guitar stuff in here... this is definitely a standout track, a must listen. This is my representing track I think.

3. One More Night

This song has a laid back feel even though the drums seem urgent / anxious. Definitely some more neat guitar stuff in this song, some very awesome sounds. That's why I like this band, you're never really sure exactly what you're going to hear, the album is cohesive, but its interesting and engaging.

4. Vitamin C

Love this song's groove, I really like the bassline. The melody is really unusual, I think, it sounds very out-of-place but it is still sounds awesome. There's some good shouting too... "Hey you!" If people played Can at parties (they don't) I would dance myself silly. This is definitely a standout track, listen to this one for sure.

5. Soup

The longest song on the record at ten minutes and thirty-three seconds. I'm expecting it to be a voyage. It has a slow start, but it really picks up around a minute thirty. I cannot describe this music for the life of me, but I am really enjoying it. Its like an ocean of cold colors, chaotic and swirling. The bass swells and guitar breaks over heaving sand. There are possibly aliens surfing here, skeletal and amorphous fish. Electric discharges dot the horizon, trying to break free of this weird miasma. Then at around five minutes forty, something truly terrifying begins happening. All these cold colors are washed in red... like magma consuming everything. If you thought music couldn't frighten you and make you paranoid you thought wrong. I keep thinking that there are ghosts in here. At around eight minutes thirty you will hear a language that was never intended for human ears. I'm not kidding. If i saw this live i think i would shit my pants (in a good way)

6. I'm So Green

This song is a breath of fresh air from the last. Like eating crisp green beans. (maybe i'm just hung up on green beans from the album's cover) Anyway, we're back into the groove of previous songs. I really like the guitar in this song as well... I guess in general on the record. It has a sound that is unusual... this was in the 70's and I still haven't heard a whole lot of stuff that sounds much like this.

7. Spoon

This is a great song, a good closing to a truly amazing album. Some really neat songs in here... I guess this is the song that earned Can the most commercial success because its my understanding that it was the theme in a German TV show called "The Knife." I've never seen that show, but I kind of wish that this song was the theme to "CSI," or, "House."

Closing Remarks:

Can is a German Experimental Rock band. I guess I have a penchant for the experimental. Anyway... I don't think they ever really had very big commercial success, but I think that have a pretty big cult following, kind of like a Pavement or a King Crimson. I think they are the main source of influence for a lot more recent experimental bands.