Post-Babaluma Can Poll

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.