Around the turn of the century, I found myself pleasantly sinking into a mild Krautrock phase, delving fairly deeply into the discography of Can and Neu!, and touching on that of Faust and Kraftwerk. With the listening project that has since become this website, I’ve delved deeper into the discography of Kraftwerk and checked out plenty of terrific rock music from Amon Düül II and more, plus some early electronic music from folks like Cluster and Harmonium. But through it all, Can has remained perhaps my favorite of the Krautrock bands.
Can was founded in Cologne, Germany by Irwin Schmidt (keyboards) and Holger Czukay (bass, tape effects, electronic manipulations)—both of whom had studied under influential avant-garde classical composer Karlheinz Stockhausen—along with guitarist Michael Karoli and free-jazz drummer Jaki Liebezeit. They went through several vocalists, including the American Malcolm Mooney and—best of all—the Japanese singer Damo Suzuki.
I’ve got three playlists of Can for you, and although each is roughly chronological, the three represent three different sides of Can (sort of).
Playlist 1: The Best of the Damo Suzuki Years
Playlist one provides a summary of what I’d consider their peak, the period in which Damo Suzuki was their lead singer, most notably for the albums Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi, and Future Days. The band cranked out great agit-funk jams here, which could extend trancelike into a sort of aggressive ambience. Suzuki’s half-deranged mutterings and rantings completed the effect beautifully.
Playlist 2: Malcolm Mooney and More…
Playlist two covers the pre-Suzuki years, when the band was fronted by Malcolm Mooney, and the post-Suzuki years, when the other band-members traded off the occasional vocal duties. I also squeeze in a few songs from the Suzuki years that were leftover from the previous playlist. The later work—especially that on Soon Over Babaluma—is more noticeably ambient and synthesizer-based in nature.
Playlist 3: Essential Oddities, plus Holger Czukay’s Solo Work
Playlist three features a few of their more experimental pieces, and finishes with some of bassist Holger Czukay’s fascinating solo material, pioneer work in the history of electronic music.
Cover Art:
- Tago Mago (German and UK covers): Source, Discogs.com, Fair Use. (The UK cover is the live photo at the top of this page.)
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