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Album Review
by SashaS
1-8-2005
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| Can: second quartet of re-mastered CDs |
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Can: 'Future Days + Landed + Soon Over Babaluma + Unlimited Edition'
(Grey Area/Spoon)
Can: 2nd phase of re-masters for avanti-souls
Can [re]release re-mastered versions of their classic albums, ‘Future Days’, ‘Landed’, ‘Soon Over Babaluma’ and ‘Unlimited Edition’ as the second phase of recovering the original master tapes and restoring the sound to how it originally was on the vinyl releases and how they were always intended to sound.
These issues all feature new sleeve notes and rarely seen photography from the personal Can archive, as well as original artwork from long deleted editions. The re-mastering from the original master tapes were again overseen and attended by Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt and Jono Podmore.
'Future Days' [1973]: a ‘schizophrenic album’ inasmuch that half - the title track could well be the most wistful, epic and beautiful song ever canned by the band, closely followed by ‘Moonshake’ - but ‘Bel Air’ occupying Seite Zwei is shambles. 7/10
'Soon Over Babaluma' (1974): a more percussive album by the trimmed quintet [Damo Suzuki had returned to Japan to become a Jehovah’s witness after the previous album] and vocals were shared by [the late] Michael Karoli and Irmin Schmidt. ‘Chain Reaction’ has seen me fly to the Moon many a time! 9/10
'Landed' (1975): by this album the band had singed to Richard Branson’s [then] forward tuned label Virgin and its six tracks are probably the most Brit influenced avant-garde rock the Krautrockers ever made. [Strangely enough, a year later, July 1976, the band scored their only veritable hit in the UK - ‘I Want More’ with a little help from Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour.] 8/10
'Unlimited Edition' (1976): a response to the ‘Limited Edition’ [15,000 copies only preceded ‘Babaluma’ by several months], it offers a collection of tracks that may be more informative than the ‘official’ albums. More diverse, out-there, eclectic, offering alternative glimpses of Malcolm Mooney and Damo Suzuki periods of the band. The probable highlight here is ‘Cutaway’, the whole 17-plus minutes of it! 8/10
Can music is so copious that could be explained until you run out of the pages of Encyclopaedia Britannica or - just tune in and listen. We suggest you do the latter because these four albums are uniquely Can and could never be anybody else. And, still sounding more contemporary than the bloody No.1, whatever crap that may be at the moment!
Overall, these discs are full of f**king priceless and timeless gems!
~
[These releases follow the recent success of the first four re-mastered editions of ‘Tago Mago’, ‘Monster Movie’, ‘Ege Bamyasi’ and ‘Soundtracks’. All these CDs also play on SACD players and SACD compatible DVD players.]
For more info Link to previous Reviews/Interviews.
SashaS
20-7-2005
Can albums ‘Future Days’, ‘Landed’, ’Soon Over Babaluma’ and ’Unlimited Edition’ are re-released on 01 August 2005 by Grey Area of Mute/Spoon
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