Saturday Live

Can live on Rockpalast in 1970, the full on krautrock experience, in a tent being recorded by a very staid looking camera crew and production unit. Jaki Liebezeit's rhythms and Holger Czukay's bass provide the foreground/ backdrop for Irwin Schmidt and Michael Karoli's trebly, rattly organ and guitar while Damo Suzuki does his thing. The youthful audience look suitably bemused, shuffling about a bit and nod heads, as can get into Can's unique groove. The four musicians play with a real sense of equality and parity, no one in the lead, all playing with each other and for each other. Over an hour and a half they work their way through Sense All To Mine, Oh Yeah (with Karoli's guitar sounding at least a decade ahead), the thirteen minute freakery of I Feel Alright, Don't Turn The Light On (Leave Me Alone), Mother Sky, Deadlock, a monstrous, majestic version of Paperhouse and Bring Me Coffee Or Tea. 

The context of Can is inextricably part of them- born in the aftermath of World War II, growing up on the frontline of the Cold War and wanting a music and culture that was entirely theirs, not traditionally German, and not Americanised either, against the backdrop of generational tensions in the FRG (general 60s ones about Vietnam, the police, authority and youth but specifically West German ones too with the rising tide of Baader- Meinhof and young West Germans poking at the scab of their parents generation who had adopted a collective amnesia in order to move on from the war and build a new country- 'what did you do in the war?). Holger Czukay (I think) said that in the late 60s their go- to- phrase was 'don't trust anyone over thirty'. Out of all of this comes Can's music. 

Half An Hour Of Can

There's a part of me that feels like whenever I post anything by Can I become the narrator of LCD Soundsystem's Losing My Edge...

'I'm losing my edge/The kids are coming up from behind/ I'm losing my edge to the kids from France and from London/ But I was there.... I was there in 1968/ I was there at the first Can show in Cologne...'

Can's music is so other, so different from so much else. It feels like it could only have been create din West Germnay in the late 60s, a period when the de- Nazification of the immediate post war years was seen as being completed (by the authorities) and the new war, a Cold War, was now a much bigger concern to both sides than what Uncle Dieter did during the war. The kids born in the FRG in the aftermath of World war Two grew up in the politically charged environs of the mid- to- late 60s, student protests across the western world against the war Vietnam and American imperialism, the decades long rising tide of anger in the US about civil rights, the events of Mai '68 in Paris, the spread of hippy ideals and music, long hair and casual attitudes to life, the Soviet invasion of Prague that shattered many European Communists... all this and in West Germany the actual front line of the Cold War and the increasing gnawing sensation that your teachers, university lecturers, neighbours, parents even, had not really told you what they did during the war. Drummer Jaki Liebezeit said by 1968  the prevailing attitude among the youth was 'don't trust anyone over thirty'. The musicians that became Can (and Neu! and Amon Duul and Kraftwerk and Popul Voh and Faust and all the other bands born in the same period but all sounding very distinct from each other eventually) were also concerned with rejecting not just pre- war German culture, the schlager pop and traditional German music tainted with Nazi- ism, but also the music coming from the USA. The new West German music needed to be progressive, modern, confrontational, a rejection of other influences and decidedly European. 

Can's music from their beginnings in 1968 to their ending in 1979 (and subsequent reunions) marries the avant garde with psychedelic rock and thanks largely to Liebezeit with a funk rhythm that is unmatched. The motorik beat, the seemingly endless, metronomic drumming, is Liebezeit's gift. The musicians that became Can with him- Holger Czukay, Irwin Schmidt and Michael Karoli plus the vocalists Micahel Mooney and then Damo Suzuki- seemed to make music without a leader, without a single dominant force, sharing the responsibilities for writing and playing together and they often sound like they're playing in a circle, facing each other, locked into the music. 

Half An Hour Of Can

• ... And More
• Moonshake
• Vitamin C
• Oh Yeah
• Future Days
• Mushroom
• Mother Sky (Pilooski Edit)

...And More is the b-side to their 1976 hit single I Want More, Can finding a sort of krautrock/ disco hybrid. The single was a UK hit, their only one, and led to an appearance on Top Of The Pops.

Moonshake is from 1973's Future Days album, also a single and a short, almost pop structured song on a an album of much lengthier experimental, more ambient tracks. Future Days is the title track from that album. 

Vitamin C is from Ege Bamyesi, released in 1972 and as good a starting point as any- it was mine. 

Oh Yeah and Mushroom are from 1971's Tago Mago, their second album and often held up as their masterpeice. It was they recorded in a castle near Cologne after Mooney left the group and they discovered Damo Suzuki busking. 

Mother Sky in its original form is fourteen minutes long and appeared on their 1970 album Soundtracks, after being recorded for a film called Deep End starring Jane Asher. Pilooski's edit is from 2007.

Damo Suzuki continues to tour, turning up in towns across the world and recruiting local musicians to back him on stage as his Sound Carriers. Every night a different line up, every gig different. Back in the late 00s I was out in Manchester for a few drinks with friends and we walked past Night And Day. As we passed the venue the door swung open and I looked in and could see Damo Suzuki on stage at the far end of the bar. 'Fucking hell', I said, 'That's Damo Suzuki'. At that moment three men came through the door, the one at the front saying, 'I wouldn't bother lads, it's shit'. 

On the other hand, my friend and brother- in- law Harvey played with Suzuki as a Sound Carrier in Leicester one night several years ago and still I think sees it as one of those incomparable nights.

Bank Holiday Monday's Long Song

In 1971 Can recorded Tago Mago, an album made up almost entirely of long songs- only Mushroom is concise coming in at just over four minutes. The rest of the album ranges from the just under seven minutes of Bring Me Coffee Or Tea to the eighteen minutes of Halleluhwah with a total of over seventeen minutes for Aumgn and Paperhouse and Oh Yeah both going over the seven minute mark. The album is built around the drumming of Jaki Liebezeit, whose unique and brilliant style both come from and rejected jazz and rock. The first disc (on vinyl) has three songs- Paperhouse, Mushroom and Oh Yeah- 

On Halleluhwah he sets up a perfect rhythm, clattering and precise, loose and funky, which he maintains with only minor detours and variations for the entire eighteen and a half minutes. The rest of the musicians- Micahael Karoli, Irwin Schmidt and Holger Czukay- circle around him, the guitar, keys/ violin and bass finding their own space in relation to the drums. Damo Suzuki then finds his own space for his vocals somewhere in on top/ underneath/ beside. The song was improvised and played as a group, and like the rest of the album recorded onto two two track tape recorders, with Czukay editing afterwards. Liebezeit's drumming is at the centre of Halleluhwah- a minimal, hypnotic, mesmeric groove. It- the drumming, the song and the album- sound like nothing else that was happening in 1971, in West Germany or anywhere else, one of those moments where a group make something new that is completely theirs. 

Halleluhwah

Monday's Long Song

Our friend in Portugal, George, emailed me last week with the suggestion that this song would make a very candidate for the Monday long song slot. He's absolutely right. 

Mother Sky

Recorded in 1970 for the soundtrack of a British- West German film Deep End and released on their own Soundtracks album, also in 1970, Can's Mother Sky is fourteen and a half minutes long and starts with a jolt, seemingly mid- jam, Michael Karoli's guitar solo already underway. After a few minutes of this, with Damo Suzuki musing on vocals about mother sky, madness and purity, Can get down to the kind of groove that gives them their reputation- a stunning, mutant funked up rock groove, Jaki Liebezeit's drumming somewhere between jazz and rock without really sounding like either.

In 2008 French DJ Pilooski put out his own edit of Mother Sky, half the length of the original but centred entirely around the monstrous groove. 

Mother Sky (Pilooski Edit)

More More

Some more more today, following Pink Floyd's More yesterday. First dose of more is from Iggy Pop, and his song I Need More from his album Soldier.

I Need More

Released in 1980 Soldier was Iggy's fourth solo album, an album that doesn't have a great reputation but this song is a highlight. A clipped guitar riff, driving drums, somewhat murky sound and Iggy riding on top in good voice. Ex- Stooge James Williamson was supposed to be on board for producing but walked out after disagreeing with Bowie (who was hanging around, helping Iggy out). Glen Matlock, at a loose end himself after the Pistols broke up and flitting between various bands and projects that didn't come to much, came in to co- write and play. He suggested that the final mix had a lot of the lead guitar removed by Bowie (following an argument between guitarist Steve New and the Thin White Duke over girlfriend Patti Palladin, that ended in New punching Bowie). The lack of squealing lead guitar doesn't do this song any harm in fact, keeps it grungy. Simple Minds turn up on Soldier as well, providing backing vocals on Play It Safe. They were recording at Rockfield at the same time. Iggy's 80s albums are patchy in quality but I Need More is good stuff. I Need More was also the title of Iggy's 1982 autobiography, out of print and currently very expensive second hand. 

A few years earlier, 1976, Can released a single called I Want More, a song that gave them a hit and took them to Top Of The Pops. The B-side was an extension of the A- side, Jaki Liebezeit at the krautrock disco, the bass and sparse guitar licks dancing around the rhythm, the whole group breathily chanting the title. Superbly funky stuff. 

... And More

Songs For Mothers

Today is Mother's Day. Mothering Sunday, to give it its full Anglophone title, is traditionally observe don the fourth Sunday in Lent, three weeks before Easter Day. Originally on this day people would visit their 'mother' church but it has become an occasion for honouring and celebrating the roles of mothers- and celebrating Mums is something that I think we can all agree on. I'd like to think that next Sunday, in Julian Cope's world or Samuel L. Jackson's, is Motherfucker Sunday but I can't find any evidence for that as yet.

Two songs with mother in the title by way of celebration. First up Pop Will Eat Itself and a 1992 song that opens with some acid house bleeps, then a furious barrage of guitars and the line ''I gave you grief, you gave me milk'. Clint goes on to apologise to his Mum by saying 'I never planned to disappoint you or annoy you to desert you or destroy you'. A familiar tale.

Mother

Can released Mothersky in 1970, a song on their Soundtracks album, with a full cream groove from Liebezeit and Czukay. This re-edit by Pilooski tweaks it for the modern age. Damo Suzuki sings of mothers and madness.

Mothersky (Pilooski Re-edit)

More

Also from 1976, like yesterday's Lee Perry song, and recently rocking the floor at Weatherall and Johnston's A Love From Outer Space night (not that I attended, I'm picking this up from social media) is Can's ...And More. The West German group get down to the disco and pick up some steam, Jaki Leibezeit's irresistible stomp extending their hit single I Want More (this was the B-side and on the album Flow Motion).

...And More

I Want More

I recently acquired a copy of a 1993 12" single by Ege Bam Yasi- thanks Ctel by the way- and have been coming back to it fairly frequently. Ege Bam Yasi was from Inverness, born James MacDonald, an early adopter of acid house and has been making records since 1986. He took his stage name from the famous Can album and in 1993 put out a cover of Can's only hit single I Want More, recorded with Edinburgh's Finiflex. There are 3 mixes on the 12", each one based to a greater or lesser extent around the Michael Karoli guitar riff, and clearly intended as much for the floor as for home listening. This one has a vocal sample, the instruction 'everybody listen', that choppy riff, some flute and a crunchy Finitribe/Finiflex rhythm. After one minute thirty-ish it becomes increasingly acid house.

I Want More (Malcolm Eggs Mixegg)

Holger Czukay

Holger Czukay, bassist in Can and artist in his own right, has died at the age of 79. Holger joined Can in 1968 and was a key player, not just on the bass, but in engineering and producing their records and encouraging and exploring the experimental electronics they moved into. His basslines were recognisable and innovative. Can have become one of the names to drop, one of the 'seminal' influences, but they were also genuinely groundbreaking and have layers and layers of sound to soak up. The rhythm section was often right at the forefront and by placing bass and drums at the heart of Can's sound, minimal and repetitive beats, they made krautrock something you could dance to. White, German men making dance music. Drummer Jaki Leibezeit died earlier this year too. Yesterday's Spacemen 3 song was over ten minutes long. This is double that. Plus, you can spot Bobby Gillespie's lyrical steal.

Yoo Doo Right

And just to demonstrate one outpost the Can influence spread to here's a dreamy Carl Craig remix from 1997, Future Days (Bladerunner Mix).

Jaki

Jaki Liebezeit has died aged 78. There aren't too many drummers- forgive me drummers if I'm showing my ignorance here- who you can say are unique and recognisable. His playing, his rhythms, on Can's records are otherworldly, like nothing else. As well as Can he played with Jah Wobble, Michael Rother and Brian Eno. Again, there aren't many drummers whose name alone makes me want to check out something they played on. Jazz trained, reluctantly pushed into rock 'n' roll in West German beat groups in the 1960s he (and the rest of Can) came up with something entirely new that was also culturally significant. Can were determined to reject all that their fathers had stood for, perhaps more significant in Germany in the 60s than other many countries, and avoid the influence of the USA too. They wanted to make a music which was new and European with the rhythms well to the fore. His Can companion Holger Czukay was asked by a journalist if Jaki was like a drum machine. 'More accurate' he replied.

Future Days

This footage shows B-Boys poppin' to Can's Vitamin C back in the day.



That is the real deal I believe.

RIP Jaki.

Hey You, You're Losing Your Vitamin C

I've enjoyed watching The Get Down, Netflix's series based around the birth of hip hop in The Bronx in 1977. Whenever one of the characters (Dizzee) appeared so did this song, with those crazy Jaki Leibezeit rhythms and Damo Suzuki's vocal refrain. It's off Ege Bamyasi, released in 1972, the album that enabled them to move into a bigger and better studio. At only three minutes thirty three seconds long it doesn't outstay its welcome and leaves me wanting more.

Vitamin C

Guten Tag

I unfolded myself off the bus, after thirty six hours from Krakow to north west England yesterday. Sleeping sitting up is a skill I've not quite got the hang of and my back has suffered. But our school trip to Krakow and Berlin was fantastic, all the moreso because we were in Berlin last Sunday night when Germany won the world cup. The streets of Berlin were flooded with thousands of Germans, most draped in the colours. We'd passed the Brandenberg Gate early on Saturday and had a look at the fan park but decided that keeping sixty-four teenagers safe while watching the final might be tricky. Eventually we all watched it on a big screen in the square outside our hotel and Hauptbahnhof, the main railway station. This ensured a constant flow of fans before and after the match. It was crackers and probably a once in a lifetime experience- watching a country win the world cup in that country's capital city. It certainly won't happen as a England fan.

Berlin is an amazing city, one which I want to return to. There's so much to see and do- in two days we squeezed in sections of wall, Checkpoint Charlie, a trip up the TV tower, Alexanderplatz with its 60s concrete architecture, Sachsenhausen and the Olympic Stadium. Seeing some of the wall was a highlight for me- something that was such a key part of world history and from my lifetime. After Berlin we went to Krakow, which has a beautiful square and buildings, and drank tea (black tea with cold milk, the English way) in Noworolski Cafe, frequented by Lenin in the mid 1910s. And had a couple of Polish beers.

I've downloaded a few of the pics off my phone here...

Holger Czukay of Can, was born in Gdansk, Poland and raised in Germany. He has recently remixed some solo tracks from his 1977 album Der Osten Is Rot and issued them on 10" vinyl through a Berlin based record label, Gronland Records. Click on the link for loads of grooviness. The remixed Sudetenland, with Jah Wobble, Jaki Leibezeit and Conny Plank, is out right now and you can listen to it here.

Future Days

Woohoo- the downloads are back. And to celebrate, a bit of krautrock to kick the week off- Can and a just under ten minutes piece of mad-eyed brilliance. West Germany was clearly the place to be. This was a 2005 re-master so has probably been superseded by a more recent job.

Future Days

Sky Edit

Following the somewhat kosmische theme we've had here recently I heard Can's Mothersky the other day (on BBC 6 I reckon, I can't think of another radio station I'd either listen to or would play it). A few years back French re-edit chap Pilooski re-worked it. Pilooski is a dab hand at the old re-editing game and this is a game effort. Whether Mothersky really needed re-editing is open to question.

Mothersky (Pilooski Re-edit)

Can Do

Sometimes I can listen to Can and think 'yep, they are massively influential and I can tell why; this is utterly brilliant, mutant, avant garde, funky, groundbreaking, krautrocking genius'. Sometimes I wish they'd written some tunes to go with all of that. But I'd rather live with them than without them. This one is off Tago Mago.

''Oh Yeah''

Can 'I Want More'

Can made many wonderful records in the 1970s, but none of them other than this one got them on Top Of The Pops, in 1976, when it reached number 26. Strange days. The guitar riff is also one of the inspirations for The Smiths How Soon Is Now, as Johnny Marr revealed on a documentary last year, which I guess shows how wide his tastes were, not neccessarily obvious at the time. There was an excellent krautrock documentary on BBC4 last year as well, where the West German music scene came across as the most fertile and exciting place to be . It had the two blokes out of Faust taping themselves playing bits of metal with wide eyed joy, surely the most bohemian pair still living out their 60s/70s idealism.

In a World Cup related link, one of the best (unintentional?) bits of commentary on a football match occured at a tournament in the 90s/early 2000s, I forget which, featuring the German midfielder Stefan Kuntz. The Germans pick the ball up and come out of defence- 'Here come the Germans...Kuntz'. Not an opinion I share, but very funny nonetheless.

03 I Want More.wma