Can - where do i start?

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I guess the obvious answer is Tago Mago.

SO start with Tago Mago.

Woo! Best post ever! Thanks!

― Øystein Holm-Olsen (Øystein H-O), Monday, 12 May 2003 03:47 (twenty years ago) link

I think Ege Bamyasi is a better starting point, actually.

― hstencil, Monday, 12 May 2003 04:03 (twenty years ago) link

nah. Tago Mago, and possibly Future Days befoer Ege. But to be fair, this is a popular and common sort of disagreement among Can fans, and all three albums rule

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 12 May 2003 04:06 (twenty years ago) link

you could just buy the two-disc can anthology and go from there.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Monday, 12 May 2003 04:11 (twenty years ago) link

_Soundtracks_ -- completely serious about that. Very manageable Can-chunks, unlike a lot of parts of their work that's considered more classic. This collection features both Mooney and Suzuki, so you can get an idea of whose voice and feel you like better, plus it's got "Mother Sky" which will make you an instant convert.

― Clarke B., Monday, 12 May 2003 04:16 (twenty years ago) link

Soundtracks was the first one I bought, actually.

― hstencil, Monday, 12 May 2003 04:25 (twenty years ago) link

Don't start with Tago Mago, that's ridiculous. Why recommend their most sprawling album to someone who wants to dip their toe into the water? Where is the logic in that?

Anyway, I second hstencil's Ege Bamyasi. It was also my first experience with the group, and it nicely and densely encapsulates everything that made them great. You start with the Milesian space-funk of "Pinch", you get some of their best pop-moves in "Vitamin C" and "I'm So Green", and you get their zonked side in "Soup", clocking in at a palatable 10 minutes (and easier for the neophyte to digest than TM's "Augmn"). I've always thought "Spoon" could have fit right in on In Through the Out Door; something about those Arabic keyboard lines...

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Monday, 12 May 2003 04:33 (twenty years ago) link

Don't start with Tago Mago, that's ridiculous. Why recommend their most sprawling album to someone who wants to dip their toe into the water? Where is the logic in that?

Well, for me it's an obvious one since that's where I started, and it certainly hooked me.

Anyways, I think the dipping toe in the water way isn't always the best approach, often I find that it might be better to introduce someone to something by throwing them headfirst into the "hardcore" stuff, and if that doesn't stick, THEN try the more cautious things.

― Øystein Holm-Olsen (Øystein H-O), Monday, 12 May 2003 04:40 (twenty years ago) link

Start with Future Days. That's where I started. Ease yourself in.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 12 May 2003 04:43 (twenty years ago) link

I second Kenan's choice, Future Days is where i started out, the first Can track i'v heard was the self titled from the album and i was hooked. Ege Bamyasi is also a good starting choice. Tago Mago is Fantastic but i don't think it works as a great starting point as the two later albums.

― rexJr., Monday, 12 May 2003 06:22 (twenty years ago) link

kinda depends what your fave genre is. even though dance isn't mine, i liked future days the best. easier to take in. tago mago has way too long songs (hence why i didn't start with that one).

― nathalie (nathalie), Monday, 12 May 2003 06:36 (twenty years ago) link

I went; Ege Bamyasi, Tago Mago, Monster Movie, Soundtracks, Future Days. My favourites are Ege Bamyasi and Future Days, and about half of Tago Mago. Plus the Mary Mary So Contrary one and Yoo Doo Right off MM (which I guess is more than half the album!).

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 12 May 2003 08:07 (twenty years ago) link

Or you could just start with a compilation like Canthology and make your own mind up about which ear to persue... which is what I did.

― kate, Monday, 12 May 2003 08:16 (twenty years ago) link

beware with the cannibalism comp, which has vicious edits of the above mentioned tracks. for some reason it never clicked with me that aumgn and soup and halleluwah were longer than three minutes, so i went for years without hearing tago mago and ege bamyasi.

― vahid (vahid), Monday, 12 May 2003 09:06 (twenty years ago) link

Well, my dad had all of them in the house anyway when I was a lad (that's all the Can albums, you understand, not the actual members of Can themselves ahem), so I've kind of known the records for as long as they've been around. Certainly everything from Delay '68/Monster Movie to Babaluma is indispensable IMO; then be very selective about the Virgin stuff. Solo-wise I have a soft spot for Irwin Schmidt's "Toy Planet" and Holger Czukay's "Movies." The latter is just crying out to be rediscovered - predates "Bush Of Ghosts" with the samples, etc.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 12 May 2003 09:12 (twenty years ago) link

I think Delay, Monster Movie and Soundtracks are aesthetically the best starting points to get familiar with their sound and structures; i guess it's more enjoyable to begin with the more or less traditional rock of these three LPs than to immerse yourself in the "spaced-out" tracks of Tago Mago or Future Days.

― Etienne Menu (Etienne), Monday, 12 May 2003 09:33 (twenty years ago) link

I love Can but there's only one Can album which is good all the way through, "Monster Movie", the rest usually have a dud track or two. I would recommend "Ege Bamyasi" or "Soundtracks" for a beginner but all of their albums are worthwhile apart from "Out of Reach".

20 (or 21) Can tracks you need in your life:
Father Cannot Yell
Yoo Doo Right
Mother Upduff
Thief
Butterfly
She Brings the Rain
Mother Sky
Turtles Have Short Legs
Mushroom
Oh Yeah
Sing Swan Song
One More Night
Future Days
Moonshake
Dizzy Dizzy
Chain Reaction/Quantum Physics
Half Past One
Hunters and Collectors
I Want More
Silent Night

The following you can do without:
Man Named Joe
Deadlock
Aumgn
Peking O
Soup
Spray
Bel Air
Splash
Cutaway
LH 702 (Nairobi-Munchen)
Smoke
Flow Motion
EFS Series (most of it)
Out of Reach (all of it)

― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 12 May 2003 10:45 (twenty years ago) link

I say Cannibalism I--but then I like the edits on it, too.

― Douglas (Douglas), Monday, 12 May 2003 12:43 (twenty years ago) link

"Cannibalism I" is quite a good compilation and starting point. I don't think they did much wrong up until "Soon Over Babaluma", after that it gets sketchy.

I probably like "Ege Bamyasi" best of all, but it was the first one I heard.

― earlnash, Monday, 12 May 2003 12:55 (twenty years ago) link

Soon Over Babaluma never gets any love. I still say that "Chain Reaction/Quantum Physics" is the apex of Can. Tago Mago through that record are all classic.

― dleone (dleone), Monday, 12 May 2003 13:00 (twenty years ago) link

ege bamyasi would be a better starting point, but tago mago is longer and you'll get more for your money.
future days is a record of many subtleties, and i wouldn't necessarily recommend that as a place to start.

― j fail (cenotaph), Monday, 12 May 2003 14:44 (twenty years ago) link

j fail - I'm gonna nick "ege bamyasi would be a better starting point, but tago mago is longer and you'll get more for your money" and start a thread with it.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 12 May 2003 14:47 (twenty years ago) link

I think the first half of Tago Mago would be an accessible starting point. You don't have to listen to the second half until you feel ready.

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 12 May 2003 15:06 (twenty years ago) link

Monster Movie = overrated. Yoo Doo Right is lame

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 12 May 2003 15:15 (twenty years ago) link

cough...choke...do WITHOUT Bel Air!?!??!

oh can i mention 'connection' & 'fall of another year'
from un/limited edition? i can? ta.

― joni, Monday, 12 May 2003 19:28 (twenty years ago) link

Unlimited Edition belongs with their classics, I think. That album is the great underrated Can release.

― dleone (dleone), Monday, 12 May 2003 19:36 (twenty years ago) link

ta for the help i think i'm going to go with ege bamyasi AND tago mago. yeah. i think compilations are evil. evil i tellsya.

― gallantseagull, Monday, 12 May 2003 21:44 (twenty years ago) link

or you can just skip can and get czukay's 'movies' and 'on the way to the peak of normal'. those are the two records that have held up the most for me.

― jleideck, Monday, 12 May 2003 22:33 (twenty years ago) link

I third or eighth or whatever Ege Bamyasi because most of my favorite prime-era Can songs are on it. "I'm So Green" is fucking dope. But (and this is me being me now) you gotta get their '79 self-titled album at the same time, both as a contrast and as a way to get your mind completely blown by the post-punkish Liquid Liquid-trumping "Aspectacle".

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Monday, 12 May 2003 22:58 (twenty years ago) link

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