At 05:43 PM 6/26/2003 -0500, Durben, Steven wrote:
>Jeff said.
>np: Can - Future Days
>
>Confession: I only know of them per the Doleful Lion's "the sound of
>cologne" which pays homage Can. As you probably know, it's such a great song
>about his love of this band, this album and their sound. It has still left
>me curious about them but I've yet to take the plunge. 
> Any thoughts? Sounds like..?

Can is, I think, the pinnacle of the entire krautrock genre: slowly
developing, flowing, polyrhythmic songs (Jaki Liebezeit is one of the most
phenomenal drummers in rock history) that sometimes take well over ten
minutes to unfold. Some of their music most definitely rocks -- the
mindblowing "Mother Sky" (from SOUNDTRACKS) comes immediately to mind --
but it doesn't have anything like "hooks" in the traditional Audities sense
of the word.  Rarely do their songs even adhere to your basic
verse-chorus-verse structure, so they're definitely a "recalibrate your
expectations" sort of band.

FUTURE DAYS is probably the prettiest Can record, but I don't think it's
their best starting point, because it just doesn't sound much like their
other albums.  TAGO MAGO is widely considered the classic, but I tend to
perfer the more focused EGE BAMYASI as an exemplar of their more frenzied,
occasionally abrasive early sound.  Later Can records (everything after
FUTURE DAYS) are more mellow, and their last few records (with a trumpeter
and percussionist in the group) are verging on jazz fusion.  SOON OVER
BABALUMA is my favorite of the later records.

S