Can
CAN: Anthology
Okay, unabashed geek time. I like progressive rock. Not all of it–you will never hear me debating the merits of Ozric Tentacles versus Spock’s Beard versus Dream Theater, for instance–but I will admit a soft spot for stuff from about 1968-78, in all its bombastic glory. Yes? Yes. King Crimson? Of course. Genesis, with or without Peter Gabriel? Natch. And throw in–among others–some Eno, 801, Roxy Music, Seru Giran… well, you get the picture.
But there’s a problem with a lot of Prog: it sounds too much like Whitney Houston.
Huh?
Yes, you read correctly. A lot of progressive leaves me cold for the same reason that Whitney Houston’s music does. The technique may be phenomenal, but there’s not much soul to recommend it. There’s chops galore, but it’s so slick, so controlled, that at some point it loses something vital.
And that’s why I like Can. Compare something like Yes’s “Close to the Edge” with Can’s “Halleluwah”. Where the former is like an ocean liner—huge, majestic, and very tightly constructed—much of Can sounds like a cross between a mud hut and a car accident. With feedback. It all holds together somehow, but half the fun of it is the feeling, and the sound, of something that just barely keeps from flying to pieces. While some of it is undeniably German, with all that implies, a lot more of it is surprisingly loose-limbed, funky, and even funny.
Some of the early Can sounded more than a bit like the Velvet Underground. For example, “Spoon” is a paranoid, claustrophobic slab of noise that’s reminiscent of the noisier parts of “The Velvet Underground and Nico” (that’s the one with the banana), while “Mother Upduff” sounds like it was separated at birth from “The Gift.” Along the way, there’d also be detours into funk, proto-punk, proto-disco, and world-fusion.
Some of this is demanding listening, with some of the tracks at least as unsettling as they can be trance-inducing (”Halleluwah”). There are also moments of true beauty (”Last Night Sleep”) alongside near-pop confections (”I Want More,” “Hoolah Hoolah”). You’ll cringe at some of the tunes on here, as will your cat, your neighbors, and/or your significant other. But there’ll be others—not to mention parts of the same tunes you cringed at—that you won’t be able to get out of your head for days.
Tags: Can, Damo Suzuki, Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit, Malcolm Mooney, Michael Karoli, Music, progressive rock