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The Yellow Princess
Re-mastered from the original analogue master tapes, pressed on 180 gram . Remastered edition, ultralimited and, unfortunately, pricey/ originally released in either 1968 or 1969 depending on your sources, The Yellow Princess saw a post-philosophy degree, subculture-aware John Fahey branching out from his earlier, more traditional work. He earned his name back in 1959 at the age of 20, with his Blind Joe Death debut album. Following that album Fahey engaged in a wide stylistic range, from Appala…
Z=7L
Zao was founded at the beginning of the seventies by Yochk'o "Jeff" Seffer (saxophone, clarinet) and François "Faton" Cahen (pianos), both ex-members of Magma's first era, which includes the albums "Kobaïa" (1970), "1001 ° centigrades" (1971) and "Uniweria Zekt-the Unnamables" (1972). In this first album from Zao, "Z = 7L" (1973), the very complex melodic instrumental layers are enriched with the wonderful voice of Mauricia Platon (with its kobaïan accents). Zao’s progressive/zeuhl sound has lon…
En Public Aux Etats-Unis D'Amerique
Etron Fou Leloublan were a French avant-rock band founded in 1973 by actor and saxophonist Chris Chanet. They were one of only four bands invited by Henry Cow to perform at 1978’s Rock In Opposition festival. This, their third album, was recorded live while on tour in the United States. Recorded in public at the Squat Club, New York City, Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. in November 1979, “En public aux états-unis d'amérique” is the perfect introduction to the group’s avant-rock mayhem. Reissued…
Out Of Reach
All but unknown to most but the most hardcore Can fanatics, 1978's Out of Reach is one of the group's rarest albums. This is due in large part to the fact that bassist Holger Czukay left the band before the recording sessions, and drummer Jaki Liebezeit has a greatly reduced role, leaving most of the rhythm duties to percussionist-come-lately Reebop Kwaku Baah. As on the group's proper swan song, 1977's Saw Delight, new bassist Rosko Gee largely leads the group, and his jazz-inflected playing is…
Saw Delight
1977's Saw Delight is the German progressive group's farewell. Percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah and bassist Rosko Gee from a late-era lineup of Traffic to add a sort of Afro-Cuban jazz feel to their sound. Similarly, Rosko Gee's handling of the bass duties (which he performs superbly throughout, adding an almost Mingus-like rhythmic intensity to even the loosest songs) frees Holger Czukay to add electronics and sound effects to the proceedings. The opening "Don't Say No" recalls the controlled fu…
Flow Motion
The second of Can's three Virgin albums, 1976's Flow Motion, is a divisive record in the group's canon. It was their most commercially successful album (the opening track, "I Want More," was released as a single in the U.K. and actually charted, thanks to its smoothly percolating near-disco groove, which makes it resemble a late-period Roxy Music hit), but many fans dismiss it as the group's feint toward commercial success. That fluke hit aside, the charge doesn't really hold water. There's a ne…
Planes
Wah Wah Records proudly presents a luxury vinyl reissue of this rare 1974 private pressing. Cool long electronic experiments splitted in two tracks, one on each side. Recorded in one take and offering an astounding combination of synth drones, wordless vocals, ambiental electric organ and ethereal guitar arpeggios.An outstanding work that moves away of the more classical kraut cosmische sounds to walk darker paths, yet retaining some early Kluster reminiscences.The Wah Wah reissue comes to life …
Landed
If you got a quid for each time Can were referenced as influencing a given band or artist, we'd have taken the Bank Of England down years ago. Remastered to a clarity that will come as a shock to those who've been suffering the original cd releases, 1975's 'Landed' is notable for marking the return to Can's debut line-up (barring Malcolm Mooney of course), following the love-sick Damo Suzuki's departure. Their 7th full-length release, 'Landed' also saw the band getting their mitts on a 16 track …
Soon over Babaluma
With Suzuki departed, vocal responsibilities were now split between Michael Karoli and Irmin Schmidt. Wisely, neither try to clone Mooney or Suzuki, instead aiming for their own low-key way around things. The guitarist half speaks/half whispers his lines on the opening groover, "Dizzy Dizzy," while on "Come Sta, La Luna" Schmidt uses a higher pitch that is mostly buried in the background. Holger Czukay sounds like he's throwing in some odd movie samples on that particular track, though perhaps i…
Delay 1968
Although recorded in the late '60s, the material included on Can's Delay...1968 did not appear commercially until 1981. A collection of cuts featuring early vocalist Malcolm Mooney, these seven songs are among the very first Can tunes ever recorded; while nowhere near as intricate or assured as the group's later work, the visceral energy of tracks like the deranged "Uphill" and "Butterfly" is undeniable."Along with a handful of tracks featured on Unlimited Edition, Delay represents some of Can’…
Unlimited Edition
Most bands stick out a 'unreleased and bonus bollocks' album when they're bereft of new ideas and need some filthy lucre to keep the country estate fully stocked with coy carp. You get the feeling this was the last thing on Can's mind. Having amassed a serious quantity of recordings between 1969 and '74, 'Unlimited Edition' (now giving a thorough spring-clean for this remastered release) was put out on a 15,000 only run to proceed 'Soon Over Babaluma', portraying a much rougher Can that tended n…
Dedicato A ...
Psychedelia, avant-garde, improvisation, underground. 'Dedicato A...' (Dedicated to) is without a single doubt a unique record, and it's really surprising to know that its authors were Italian, from Rome, and that it was released in 1967, the same year of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Sgt. Pepper's! Mario Schifano was not a musician but a visionary exponent of Pop Art, a sort of Italian Andy Warhol, who wanted to integrate his work with a group, providing the psychedelics visuals in support…
Planet of Man
Brothers Manfred and Wolfgang Schunke were pioneers of the Kunstkopf Stereophonie (artificial head, dummy head) binaural recording system. This recording technique was created in the Technical University of Berlin in 1974 with the aim to reproduce real stereo sound as the human ears perceive it. Human ears listen to the sounds in a concrete way that is affected not only by the sound frequencies themselves but also by the position of the listener in respect to the different sound sources. The Sch…
Ege Bamyasi
**Green Vinyl** The group's fourth album, from 1972, originally issued by United Artists. "The follow-up to Tago Mago is only lesser in terms of being shorter; otherwise the Can collective delivers its expected musical recombination act with the usual power and ability. Liebezeit, at once minimalist and utterly funky, provides another base of key beat action for everyone to go off on -- from the buried, lengthy solos by Karoli on 'Pinch' to the rhythm box/keyboard action on 'Spoon'. Liebezeit an…
Monster Movie
Are we there yet? After 25 years of critical reappraisal and at least 15 years of indie and post-rock bands flaunting their influence, has Can finally gotten their just desserts? I don't think so. Not just yet. Can still seem just a little bit ahead of the curve. They really were "post-rock," as opposed to just futuristic. Can's music anticipated both the musical trend toward decontextualization via electronics, post-production, and editing, and the cultural trend toward collective experience an…
Tago Mago
Black vinyl edition You couldn't do much better than beginning with 1971's Tago Mago, freshly reissued in vinyl format. It's a colossus of an album, the product of a band that was thinking huge, pushing itself to its limits, and devoted to breaking open its own understanding of what rock music could be. The core of Can was four German musicians from wildly different backgrounds-- when they initially came together in 1968, two of them had studied with composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, one had play…
Arachnoid
This 1979 record is the unique album from the french band Arachnoid, architects of a dark progressive and psychedelic masterpiece, with a King Crimson and Heldon distictive flavor. "Arachnoid" is not only one of the best classic symphonic rock albums of the second half of the 70's, but also the most complicated and intriguing. This one-off is an impressive effort that rides the line between Magma’s brutalist zeuhl-ishness and the more conventional (if you can call it that!) dramatic prog of band…
Les trois Fou's perdegagnent
Second album by Etron Fou Leloublan, the mythic avant-rock / rock-in-opposition incredible trio, that happily destroys all rock structures and performs a delirious music, full of humour and rhythm. Etron Fou Leloublan had definitely moved up a notch with this release and things would actually get even better with the next release! Still, this album, originally published in 1979 is quite a juicy steak that will take quite some time to devour with the end results exceeding beyong the initial anti…
Batelages
Ferdinand Richard, strings, vocals. Chris Chanet (alias Eulalie Ruynat), horns, vocals. Guigou 'Samba Scout' Chenevier, percussions, choir. A French avant-rock band founded in 1973 by actor and saxophonist Chris Chanet. They were best known as one of the original Rock in Opposition (RIO) bands. Etron Fou Leloublan's music has been described as a blend of punk rock, jazz, French music hall, comedy satire and 'avant-garde mayhem'. Batelages was recorded in November 1976, and its centered around Gu…
Love Is Here to Stay
CD version, housed in a digipack sleeve including a booklet with in-depth, informative liner-notes and pictures. Subtitled 'The Early Works by Bo Anders Persson 1965-1967"' these works by Bo Anders Persson presented on this record were written between 1965 and 1967, before he started the experimental rock band Pärson Sound. All but one track is previously-unreleased. What is the origin of this strange, un-place-able music? What is its place in history, in the unfolding of important conceptual id…