Customer Reviews

Anthology: 25 Years

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like the Velvet Underground, Can were well ahead of their time. In some ways the world caught up with Velvet Underground, but it still hasn't caught up with Can. Can's music is still unequalled and unsurpassed - much of what counts today as 'modern' music still sounds outdated next to the work Can did well before the 1990s. The likes of Eno, Sonic Youth, Bruce Gilbert of Wire, UNKLE and the Orb all list Can as a big influence (see Can's Sacrilege CD for mixes by those artists) and that tells you something of what Can sounds like. Some Can members were also classically trained by the composer Stockhaussen. I highly recommend you try Can and this CD is the best place to start for the novice. Listen to this compilation a few times and I am sure you'll be buying the rest of their CDs soon.

Hardcore Can fans tend to cannonize (sic) their catalogue and tend to bash Can compilations as "incomplete" or "choppy". Well, most of Can's outings, to be honest, were a lot choppier and inconsistant than this collection--when listening to the original albums, I'm always hitting the skip button past half the trcks. But this collection focuses on the "good Can" material which is the cold and mechanical kraut-rock which influenced all those alt-rock bands like Sonic Youth as opposed to the "bad Can" material which was wanky psychedelic prog a little too close to Zappa for comfort. This collection really boils their output down to the gold material and is, for the average human, all the Can you'll ever need. (It's basically Cannibalism I and II packaged together).

I picked this up thinking it would be a nice overview of Can's lenghty discography, and it is, but I'm a little disappointed. The first disc, which I believe is the same as Canabalisms 1, is the superior disc. The songs from Tago Mago, Monster Movie and Soundtracks are great stuff, with the fuzz guitar and psychedelic bent. Disc 2 is more spotty. Future Days is certainly a classic, and there are a few decent tunes as well, but the later Can material doesn't do much for me. It's nowhere as dynamic and spacey sounding as their earlier, more vital work. The lack of liner notes or album references is unfortunate as well. What this compilation did for me was make me want to go back and buy Can's first couple of records since I now know how great they are.

There is absolutely no reason to get this collection. Take a band like, say, Culture Club or the Romantics in which only their disposable singles are worth listening to, then you've got a good reason to buy their greatest hits. Can, however, are a seminal, highly creative, essential band in which nearly all their songs are great from any album before 1976 (or at least worth checking out in their entirety). Every Can album has a certain feel, an organic quality in which the songs are best heard in their original context.

I only bought this collection a while back to get an idea of some of their later work, and most of it didn't sound great to me. The selections from 'Rite Time' sound weak. "Animal Waves" does sound sophisticated and intriguing though. Can fans will want FLOWMOTION and SAW DELIGHT. Anything before that is absolutely essential, even the collection UNLIMITED EDITION.

If you just have to get an overview of the band's material before getting an album, I would reluctantly recommend this, but you're much better off getting blown away by their sonic masterpiece TAGO MAGO or sliding into ambient heaven with FUTURE DAYS.

For those of you who may still not know,Can was a German progressive five-piece formed in 1968.The former members are still quite active in the music business to this day.Bassist Holger Czukay is probably the best known.As for disc one,I really enjoyed "Mother Sky",the rather laid back "She Brings The Rain",the unreal "Mushroom","Outside My Door","Aumgn" and the twenty-minute epic "Yoo Doo Right".On disc two,I was most impressed with "Uphill",their signature tune "Future Days"(see my review of this disc),the rhythmatic "TV Spot",the spaced out "Animal Waves" and "Aspectacle".Can's music is reportedly SO progressive that no two of their songs are alike.A feat very few bands are able to pull off.A should-have.

Increadibly influencial european band operating in a bubble with what appears to be an unlimited budget. Experimental, electronic, acoustic and more. Listen before you buy if you can. There is some Can for everyone, but not all can is for everyone.

if you have a curious interest in this very curious german band, then this anthology is a pretty good place to start. but i recommend TAGO MAGO and EGE BAMYASI in their complete full album editions to really dig into this band. of course, this anthology compilation serves the purpose of a peek into the band's long (and sometimes frustrating) musical output. some landmark CAN songs are presented here: Mother Sky, I Want More, Yoo Doo Right... you know if you need this or not.

Unless you bought the vinyl when it was released, getting your hands on the best of CAN is hard. These guys were prolific and for 'experimental' output, they cranked out some great music.

This compilation is a great way to introduce CAN to a new audience, but you do need to hear much of this in the context of the albums. So if it catches your ears, start collecting!

The only downside it that it does not include my personal favourite; Laugh 'til You Cry.

Can were certainly ahead of their time, which is not necessarily a good thing. While their music is brimming with sonic invention and experimentation, the result is not always a rewarding or even an engaging musical experience. If your appreciation of music is intellectual, where the ideas are more important than the form, then Can may be just the ticket. If, however, your needs are more immediate, then Can, like Stockhausen, is best experienced as a distant echo in the work of other musicians.

Question: Would you buy an anthology of literature if all you could read was the first few chapters, or even some of the middle chapters of the books? No. That would be absurd. Would you read only a couple lines of a poem? Look at only a corner of a painting? No, so why in the world would you want to listen to this "anthology"? The term "anthology" I always took to mean a record and compilation of an artist's work, something that strives to preserve the mood evident in the original art. This is certainly a compilation, but I don't think that it is hitting the mark that the original albums were going for. The mixing on this CD set is so choppy and inorganic that I wonder if the memebers of Can even know that this CD was made. Most of the tracks are cut off before they are ever completed, leaving the listener disoriented and annoyed. When I listen to these CDs I almost forget how bad it is once I get into the individual tracks: the fact that they were composed by Can is this compilations one saving grace... But the tracks begin and end at seemingly random points, and so the organic feeling and improvisation that are prevalent on the albums are all but lost on many of the tracks here. Also, the way that they skip from album to album is annoying. Can composed their albums with very specific sounds reigning throughout each, but each album sounded different from the one before it. Here you get all the range of styles and sounds, but it only adds to the inorganic feeling.

On the other hand, this might make a nice sampler, like one of those trays filled with shots of delicious beers. It's a good way to decide which ones you like and which ones you don't. However, if you want a full pint you should go with one of the albums: Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi and Future Days are the three that I own and I give them all a solid five stars. Even Sacrilege (the electronic/jungle remixes, which I also own) is far better than this schlock.

Also on my list of complaints is the lack of liner notes. Okay, so most of the Can albums don't have anything in the way of notes (just pictures of the band members doing things), but half the reason that I buy compilations is so that I can read interesting stuff about the artists. Not so here. All that you get with this set is pictures of their album covers. Boring! I don't have any other Can compilations other than Sacrilege, but at least that one has interesting liner notes and interviews with both the original artists and the bands doing the remixes.

~MBE!