Post-Babaluma Can Poll

Voted for their self-titled, which sort of sounds (to me) like a Balearic La Dusseldorf.

Tough -- many years back, I sold Landed and Flow Motion back. Big mistake, now that I think about it, but I sort of put Landed near the bottom and actually love some of Flow Motion (particularly how BIG the title track sounds).

Also, "All Gates Open" from the self-titled record may be their best post-Damo track.

I never got around to post-Damo can due to the popular opinion that it all bottomed out after he left. Also due to whatever other essential albums by other essential bands I felt I needed and whatever other fascinations I happen to be funneling my dollars into.

"Ok, I can afford to buy ONE cd, do I get this Can album without Damo Suzuki I know nothing about, or do I get a cd by the former singer of the 13th Floor Elevators who I heard went crazy and started writing R&B songs about vampires...", and of course one option looks more shiny and sparkly than the other.

(Part in quotes=me five years ago before I had the internet, but of course this was probably the right choice for me, anyway.)

Flow Motion is a good record!

"All Gates Open" from the self-titled record may be their best post-Damo track.

It's definitely up there, along with "Chain Reaction," "Quantum Physics," "A Spectacle," and "Sunshine Day And Night."

Side one of "Can" is some of the best stuff they recorded. I've been toying with the idea of having "Safe" kick-off a dub techno mix album I've been meaning to do for ages. Pulsing, grooving tune.

Yeah, very underrated post-Damo. Saw Delight has it' moments too, namely "Don't Say No", which is them flirting with pop in the same way they did with "I Want More".

Anyone who writes off the post Suzuki output is being a bit rash. Although I read somewhere that Can were so ashamed of "Out of Reach" that they never reissued it.

I'm not a fan of Out Of Reach or Saw Delight but Flow Motion and Can both have some good stuff on. Never heard Landed.

i listen to post babaluma can WAY more than pre anymore

flow motion is the best of these i think because of I Want More

I've been toying with the idea of having "Safe" kick-off a dub techno mix album I've been meaning to do for ages. Pulsing, grooving tune.

Great idea. Do it.

I found CD2 of "Anthology" to be quite "ho-hum" until "I want more" kicked in, and it was YEAH!

So, um, that one. FloMo, yeah.

Yeah, very underrated post-Damo. Saw Delight has it' moments too, namely "Don't Say No", which is them flirting with pop in the same way they did with "I Want More".

The problem in here is that 'Don't Say No' was basically the same song as 'Moonshake' in doubled speed.

How exactly does that affect the quality of the song?

(Given latter-day Can's reggae influences, it's actually sort of appropriate that they'd start recycling their old riddims.)

How exactly does that affect the quality of the song?

Moonshake is infinitely better than 'dont say no'. Which one has better quality, the book or the photocopy?

Ok, so if a hip-hop song includes a sample from another, more awesome song, that automatically negates any value it may have on its own? What about cover versions? Are they always pointless if they aren't obviously better than the original?

hip-hop and Can exist in separate musical cultures; should they be held to the same standards?

Yes, you're right. Krautrock and hip-hop are entirely unrelated.

(Seriously though, holding up original compositions as inherently better than reinterpretations of familiar material seems inherently (dare I say it?) ROCKIST to me. Which I suppose isn't an argument against it in and of itself, but it does seem to me like the prejudice against re-cycling old material is a sort of arbitrary and unnecessary one. There are somewhat different things going on in Just Say No and Moonshake; I have no trouble appreciating both songs for what they are.)

one should not conflate "exist in separate musical cultures" with "are entirely unrelated"

also

Side 2

1. Neuschnee 78 ("New Snow 78")
2. Super 16 ("Super 16")
3. Neuschnee ("New Snow")
4. Cassetto ("Cassetto")
5. Super 78 ("Super 78")
6. Hallo Excentrico! ("Hello Excentrico!")
7. Super ("Super")

Er, Don't Say No, rather.

xpost But Neu!2 might be my favorite album of theirs!

Covers & remixes = reinterpretations.
Samples = hommages.
Rip-offs = uncredited and unblatant copy of certain melodies within another song.

In the case of 'don't say no' you can't really call it a rip-off since it's the same band ripping themselves so it's not really uncredited, but yeah, it's pretty much a rip-off.

Neu! 2 is a completely different beast to tame, as I see it, it is one of the first remixes album ever made. So I count it as a reinterpretation, not a copy.

"All Gates Open" from the self-titled record may be their best post-Damo track.

Bizarre.

"Can" is OK. "All Gates Open" is great but, overall, the album's a bit middle aged sounding, esp. for 1978.

"Out of Reach" isn't very good, best things on it are really the two Rosko Gee songs, which have nothing much to do with Can - it's a bit like when the Beach Boys allowed Blondie Chaplin and Rikki Fataar to write and sing some songs... like... very nice... but what does this have to do with the Beach Boys? Holger's absence is painfully obvious on this album.

I love the first side of "Flow Motion", but can't be arsed with the 2nd side, the title track drags on interminably.

I play "Saw Delight" all the time, I love that album, nice variety of music(s).

First side of "Landed" is sheer brilliance from start to finish - great weird pop songs and "Vernal Equinox", which is nuts - 2nd side a bit meh.