Search - Can :: Can Box Music: Live 1971-1977

Savage!

theslime | DUBLIN | 05/13/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was my first Can album, which i bought in 2001.And i was not really that impressed on the first few listenings. I liked the guitar solos and the rhythms were good but i felt it lacked something. This was just my preconceptions about music getting in the way of enjoyment. I wanted more solos, more compositional structure. More convention! But i learned eventually to appreciate it on its own terms. It's really a great album, with some monster tracks. I found that i appreciated it more once i had heard other albums and bought into the whole Can ethos. They are primarily a rhythm band, with no 'leader' as such. Jaki's drumming is really groovy throughout. Karoli plays some blinding guitar stuff. Dizzy Dizzy and Vernal Equinox are awesome in this regard. Holger is a no nonsense bass player who adds to the relentlessness of the music. Irmin produces some otherworldly sounds from his instrument. Damo adds to it all with his manic vocals. My favourite parts are the bits from 1975, jynx,dizzy dizzy,vernal equinoxe,yo doo right. The 1972 tunes are awesome too but less hifi. The Colchester finale is a monstrous, 37 minute beast of a song. It is a spontaneous piece which also contains the song hallejuah from the Tago Mago album. I wish more bands were like this!This is one of the best Can albums. Tago Mago is earthshattering and i would recommend to buy that too. auf wiedesen"

Boy, was I getting in deep...

M. Aranda | planet earth, dimension 4 | 03/04/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This disc was among the first three of theirs that I heard (none being among their definitive albums). At that time, I certainly wasn't ready for this, and I still don't play this 2-disc set very often. Certainly not from start to finish!After a time (in my case, about 6 months of occasional listening,) this album began to grow on me. I noticed the subtle nuaces of each composition. Once I got beyond the iffy sound quality, I realized how funky this band could be; about 10 minutes into track one, "Jynx", the music becomes almost disco with it's wakka-wakka guitar (or synth??) before morphing again into a crazy synthesiser meltdown.I read among these reviews some discerning comments on Suzuki's vocals. Suzuki only appears on two tracks, "Colchester Finale" and "Spoon". "Colchester" meanders and may be too mind-numbingly long for it's own funky goodness, but in-my-humble-opinion "Spoon" may be the highlight of this release. It's easily among the most accessible tracks with it's propulsive, aggressive beat and "Sister Ray"-type guitar. Such dissonance is (almost) poppy today in certain circles. And, may I add, Suzuki's vocals are amazing and completely appropriate for the song. It sounds like some mental patient's nightmare!Don't buy this as an introduction to the band; on first listen it approaches "Metal Machine Music" difficulty. However, if you've just worked your way through "Tago Mago" go ahead and jump in. Just make sure you're not getting in too deep for your own good."

Can concerts beckon

Joren A. Lindholm | Washington DC | 11/19/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Get this CD. It has so much that was never captured on their records in quite the same way. For those who can get into this over repeated listenings, you will undoubted witness the legendary status of Can, naked.



Some might expect the 3-5 minute sheerness of a Can album track. There is none of that here. The album is more welcome to those who dig the longer tracks of the albums, like the 10 minute "Flow Motion". And, surprise, the longer tracks here were edited! Yes, they were even longer before, when the band handpicked and trimmed a large portion of this odd yet solid bunch of tracks.



I agree with most of the reviewers' compliments on this CD. Thus, I urge you bear through the listens you give this. It can easily be experienced like a hammer on the brain. Yet at some point the musical shifts are thrown into higher relief than the droning, and everything begins to stick. For example, I didn't like the very last track on the album for probably the first 9 times I heard all 13 minutes of it. Then one day I noticed the last 3 minutes break into an infectous tribal rhythm romp, and have loved it since."