This makes me sad. I knew he wasn't in good health but still. In addition to being a genius, Czukay was such a titanic influence on so many geniuses.
Gonna spin Persian Love for my man this evening.
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 04:30 (six years ago) link
Back in my graduate school years, I was hosting a show on the local college radio station. I never, never got calls from people listening saying anything in regards to what I was playing. One night, I got a call from a listener asking about a song I had played. He was a music teacher he told me that he really liked the bassline of a song he'd heard because he thought it would be a great introductory song to his students learning the bass guitar. I told him it was "She Brings the Rain" by Can and thanked him.
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 05:13 (six years ago) link
From an album Holger & Jaki go full tilt on, something they often did live but less so in the studio...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zKl3S-Ousw
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 08:25 (six years ago) link
the dum-dum, the dsda, the daddy. rip hc
― plp will eat itself (NickB), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 08:54 (six years ago) link
just the absolute greatest spirit behind what he did, so loveable as well as everything else, he had a fkn awesome life
― ogmor, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 09:12 (six years ago) link
Oh man, his wife had died in July. :(
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 09:15 (six years ago) link
RIP
I don't like any of Can dying, because they were gods in my formative years.
― calzino, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 09:18 (six years ago) link
and she was only 55 apparently
― plp will eat itself (NickB), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 09:18 (six years ago) link
Xp obv
That's from the Guardian obit which also mentions that 'Irwin Schmidt and Malcolm Moody' recently played in London, don't know who those guys are though.
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 09:19 (six years ago) link
RIP Holger. I was sad he didn't play at the show the Guardian made a hash of reporting on earlier this year.
― André Ryu (Neil S), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 09:39 (six years ago) link
Strange days as Holger wanders out at the end of "Never Going to Cry Again" to play his trademark elephant-in-distress French horn...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2rRLc1Dmv4
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 09:39 (six years ago) link
This track is from a recording session with Jah Wobble where the only bit he used from the entire session was Wobble tuning up...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cXshWlOkc4
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 09:46 (six years ago) link
oh wow first Walter Becker, now Holger - damn. Really feels like the closing of an era.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 10:20 (six years ago) link
Can was my gateway drug out of a fairly claustrophobic indie rock environment in the early 90s. Holger was the linchpin and I'd expect that my musical tastes would be so much more narrow if it weren't for the massive appeal that his work had (and continues to have) for me. RIP.
― doug watson, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 10:31 (six years ago) link
What's his best solo album?
― JB, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 12:09 (six years ago) link
Movies, I'm guessing.
I've been looking for a copy of "On the way to the peak of normal" off and on the past year. Just bit one and got it off ebay just now.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 12:13 (six years ago) link
i feel sad for irmin :(can't even get his name spelled right in the paper!
Maybe about 12 years ago, Holger Czukay's name was stuck in my head for several days during a period of extreme stress, just cycling through every time i had an idle moment. Over and over and over, Holger Czukay. Persistent like a bassline, RIP
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 12:33 (six years ago) link
― Dominique, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 12:43 (six years ago) link
Movies is his most impressive, seems like a real technical and musical achievement, does that make it his best? I don't know. I like all of his albums, there's only a couple I haven't heard, they're inconsistent but they're always interesting - I don't think he could be boring if he tried.
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 13:25 (six years ago) link
Movies is definitely his Can - iest solo record right? Most of the band is on it anyway ... Was listening to "Persian Love" on repeat this morning, so gorgeous.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 14:14 (six years ago) link
On the Way to the Peak of Normal is the one I come back to the most.
― nerve_pylon, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 14:19 (six years ago) link
just saw this news, this really sucks - rip big man, hope he, jaki and michael are jamming in heaven
― Wesley Shackleton explained "look at that beast." (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 14:32 (six years ago) link
ON the Way To The Peak of Normal is pretty sublime. It got reissued on cd a few years ago so I picked it up cheaply in HMV.Movies seems to have been reissued as Movie with a bonus disc, not sure what.
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 14:44 (six years ago) link
from the obituary thread:
Jesus, losing the CAN rhythm section is like one of the laws of physics being rescinded.
― new noise, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 14:56 (six years ago) link
Movies is definitely his Can - iest solo record right? Most of the band is on it anyway ... Was listening to "Persian Love" on repeat this morning, so gorgeous
"Oh Lord, Give Us More Money" uses Can backing tracks - sounds like the base material for "Hunters and Collectors" - but apart from Jaki, he plays everything else, which is pretty mindblowing."Radio Wave Surfer", an album I admittedly haven't heard in years, always seemed pretty Can-like: live(ish), improvised. Everyone is on it but Irmin, Sheldon Ancel is doing his sub-Mooney thing and Holger is back to playing old style Can bass, like he hadn't done since "Future Days" or thereabouts.
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 15:05 (six years ago) link
... plays everything else on "Movies" that is. Reebop is on "Cool in the Pool" playing organ!
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 15:08 (six years ago) link
Geeta's memorial piece is up.
http://www.vulture.com/2017/09/remembering-cans-holger-czukay.html
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 16:01 (six years ago) link
that's great. anyone know when Rob Young's Can bio is scheduled to come out? Looking forward to it.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 16:08 (six years ago) link
curses -- not out til next summer: https://www.amazon.com/Untitled-Can-Biography-Irmin-Schmidt/dp/0571311490
― tylerw, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 16:43 (six years ago) link
Also a good piece from Sid Smith: http://teamrock.com/feature/2017-09-06/remebering-holger-czukay
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 17:31 (six years ago) link
there isn't a SINGLE Steely Can mashup on Youtube. surprising.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 17:54 (six years ago) link
there is some mercy in the universe
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 18:02 (six years ago) link
RIP.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 18:39 (six years ago) link
:( When I saw the thread had been bumped earlier, I immediately thought 'Oh shit, please say this isn't an RIP revive'.RIP for real.
― Bobbins The Mule (Mr Andy M), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 19:41 (six years ago) link
aw, RIP
― a passing spacecadet, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 19:49 (six years ago) link
Great interview with Paul Murphy from Bison who worked with him and recorded at Inner Space, some fab photos of his studio. http://testpressing.org/feature/paul-murphy-bison-at-innerspace/
― Dan Worsley, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 19:59 (six years ago) link
oh, nice photos!
― plp will eat itself (NickB), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 20:07 (six years ago) link
Excellent.
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 20:30 (six years ago) link
I've listened to Movies, Peak Of Normal, Der Osten Ist Rot, Rome Remains Rome more than any Can
pretty much all of the side-projects during this time are also great, Full Circle, Vampyrettes, Phew, Plight and Premonition. Snake Charmer is just ok.
not to be redundant with all my fanboy posts upthread but you do have to be careful to hunt down original editions, his recent 'reissues' of the solo albums on Groenland are profoundly remixed and on all counts less adventurous than the originals
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 20:59 (six years ago) link
& this post definitely overlaps with upthread obsessing but this guy was Holger... wouldn't recommend starting with any of the later ones, but being a completist goes like this:
Radio Wave Surfer has moments, the old gang minus Irmin shows up to record. the results stay more jams than songs, not bad if not classic
Moving Pictures is lovely downtempo, the songs on side one in particular are polished & tranquil. side two 'rhythms of a secret life' is an epic in the mold of 'ode to perfume' but the main guitar line is slightly more diffuse and Sheldon Ancel is singing dramatic lyrics about cyberspace circa 1993
Crash - 2 CD live album with Dr Walker. some fellow Czukay fans find Dr Walker's beats too generic but if you've ever liked any Cologne/Berlin 90's techno, then there is that fine line between 'generic' and 'life-giving water'. some techno fans also might resist Czukay anarchically covering everything with loose shortwave sampling & dictophone noise bursts throughout -- you can't dance to this, but the subset of fans of techno and noise are much greater in 2017 than they were in 1997, so I keep thinking this one's a sleeper (though it's definitely a document of a wild improv more than a polished studio thing like 'movies'. I saw the concert in SF and it was live without a net
Linear City - a record that grew out of file submissions & internet collaborations, cut together by Czukay, has moments
Good Morning Story - he starts sampling old Can records on this one, and using drum machines & synths to produce the new songs -- his bizarre sense of rhythm, off-beat timing & reconstruction is in ways even more in evidence when he is using the ultra-familiar Can sources. side two one long piece, layered shortwave, canaxis-esque but also audibly the first time he used a keyboard with a sampler
La Luna - single track late night jam, drum machine metronomic pulse with lots of shortwave, forgot that I never actually bought this one
New Millenium, Time and Tide, 21st Century - the three records with U-She. the emphasis here is largely on her songwriting, and the studio production is on modern equipment. New Millenium has a few tracks with his trademark disruptive editing, Time and Tide has one particularly crazy love duet that makes me smile
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 21:51 (six years ago) link
Been listening to "Moving Pictures" today, great album. Sheldon Ancel is something of an acquired taste, which many don't feel like acquiring, but he's so eerie and effective on "Rhythms of a Secret Life".
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 22:05 (six years ago) link
alas, another of the great ones i never got to see/hear in person.
― bodacious ignoramus, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 22:11 (six years ago) link
Listened to "Cutaway" this am ... what a great, completely incongruous track. The bits with Holger talking thru the ring modulator are LOL funny. "I must TOOO-OOON!"
Per Milton's post, Full Circle was one of my very big faves for a long time. The How Much Are They EP is unfuckwithable -- and the two radio sessions are really good as well (if a slight bit less essential). This is probably Wobble's best non-PIL recording, FWIW.
I have less patience for Sheldon Ancel but I still wish I hadn't sold Radio Wave Surfer. Dumb dumb dumb.
Also: while I enjoy their two ambient collaborations, don't sleep on Holger's contributions to David Sylvian's solo debut Brilliant Trees. Holger's shortwave (and vocals!) add an air of mystery to an already excellent, and smoothly eclectic, record.
― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 7 September 2017 14:35 (six years ago) link
Must..Put..This.Here..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo54P5Z6vhg
susan.
― Mark G, Thursday, 7 September 2017 15:24 (six years ago) link
Just saw this in Biba Kopf's (really great) 1984 interview with Holger that's free on RBP right now:
The ancient bathchair that is a prop in 'The Photo Song' takes up a comer of Czukay's kitchen."I have just turned 46," volunteers Holger, while making tea. "Still too young to marry! Ha ha. When I'm 80 I will get married and this bathchair will be the present to my wife!"
"I have just turned 46," volunteers Holger, while making tea. "Still too young to marry! Ha ha. When I'm 80 I will get married and this bathchair will be the present to my wife!"
https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/holger-czukay-the-lunatic-has-taken-over-the-asylum
Alas, neither he nor his wife made it to his 80th birthday. 😢
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 10 September 2017 04:20 (six years ago) link
holger box due in march:
https://pitchfork.com/news/holger-czukay-retrospective-box-set-announced/
― faust apes (NickB), Thursday, 11 January 2018 17:48 (six years ago) link
It additionally includes a “vinyl video,” which is made from a system that makes it possible to store video footage on vinyl.
ha, so the shitty videodisc technology from the 80s makes a triumphant return. Why not go all in on Zoetrope footage of "Cool In The Pool"?
― doug watson, Thursday, 11 January 2018 18:00 (six years ago) link
There are further details and a track listing here - just two unreleased tracks by the look of it, though one of which is a collab w/ Stockhausen:
https://thevinylfactory.com/news/can-co-founder-holger-czukay-box-set/
― faust apes (NickB), Thursday, 11 January 2018 22:17 (six years ago) link
Considering that collab is from 2008 and Stockhausen died in 2007, the result should be interesting.
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 12 January 2018 04:42 (six years ago) link