About

Influential German group Can brought an improvisatory approach to rock music, prioritizing textural experimentation and rhythmic interplay over pop hooks. Though its members came from avant-garde classical and jazz backgrounds, they embraced the energy and hypnotic rhythms of funk and psychedelic rock, producing a spontaneous yet highly disciplined form of groove-heavy experimental music. Can's albums were typically boiled down from lengthy, intense studio improvisation sessions, similar to Teo Macero's editing techniques on Miles Davis' late-'60s work, and the results ranged from sprawling sidelong epics to songs potent enough to be released as 45s, even making the pop charts on two occasions. Initially fronted by American artist Malcolm Mooney on 1969 debut Monster Movie, Japanese vocalist Damo Suzuki joined Can for several of their most iconic albums, including Tago Mago (1971) and Ege Bamyasi (1972). The band flirted with disco rhythms on 1976's Flow Motion, and later albums with former Traffic members Rosko Gee and Rebop Kwaku Baah explored Latin rock and fusion elements.

Can formally disbanded in 1979, and all of its members concentrated on solo projects and other works, but they periodically re-formed for recording sessions and performances over the following two decades, and a reunion album with Mooney, Rite Time, was released in 1989. The band has remained a formative influence on countless alternative and experimental musicians; groups such as Radiohead, the Fall, Public Image Ltd., and the Jesus and Mary Chain have covered, name-checked, or written songs in tribute to Can, while the 1997 remix collection Sacrilege demonstrated the group's impact on ambient and electronic music. In addition to numerous reissues and anthologies, several collections of previously unreleased Can material have appeared, including the 2012 box set The Lost Tapes.

Tago Mago, the first album with Damo Suzuki on vocals, features the Can line up of Holger Czukay on bass, Michael Karoli on guitars, Jaki Liebezeit on drums and Irmin Schmidt on keyboards, and was recorded at Schloss Nörvenich in 1971, released later that year on United Artists. Can’s influence is well known and far-reaching and the impact they made on music is felt today as keenly as ever has been. They themselves have always been impossible to classify and reflecting this, the scope of artists who in recent years have cited Can as a major influence is varied. Of all the band’s oeuvre, Tago Mago has been most often cited as an influence for a host of artists including John Lydon, Radiohead, The Fall, Ariel Pink, Fuck Buttons, Sonic Youth, Factory Floor and Queens Of The Stone Age. — via Label

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Label: Spoon Records
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Gatefold, 180gr
Reissued: 2019 / Original Release: 1971
Genre: Rock
Style: Krautrock, Experimental

File under: School of Rock
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