Movies

Holger Czukay, Holger Czukay | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 19, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mute U.S.
• ASIN: B0000067XH
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #113,464 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Cool in the Pool

2. Oh Lord, Give Us More Money

3. Persian Love

4. Hollywood Symphony

5. Cool in the Pool [*][Instrumental]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Please Sir, If You Would Have the Goodness...", July 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Movies (Audio CD)

Holger Czukay's debut solo album is such an astonishing technical achievement that it deserves 5 stars just for the incredible care and precision that must have been required to painstakingly piece it together.

Pre-samplers, a track like "Cool In The Pool" is a remarkable patchwork of hundreds of tape edits (sit down one day and try and count them - and work put where they came from!). While "Persian Love" is a virtouso piece of editing and exqusite into the bargain.

These two tracks are virtually worth 5 stars on their own. "Cool In The Pool" is a bouncy, funky pop song which will probably be a hit in 10 years time when everyone catches up with Holger!

"Persian Love" is simply one of the most beautiful pieces of music you are ever likely to hear. The idea of sampling a singer from another culture is commonplace nowadays - now a repetitive dance beat would simply be slapped on. Instead Holger weaves a complex and sinuous chord structure around the voice (which is pitch-changed to be either male or female) which is Bach by way of Lee Perry. Over this he overlays exquisite varispeeded guitar in his signature style - like a cross between African high life and Austrian zither, a nice encapsulation of his influences perhaps? As I say, this is sheer brilliance, the only time anything like this had ever been attempted before was in the realms of the classical avant garde (as a former pupil of Stockhausen, Czukay would certainly have been aware of "Gesang der Junglinge", "Telemusik" and "Hymnen") but you can dance to this!

As noted elsewhere, the two long tracks are less convincing. However, as Holger had just been booted out from Can for (in his words) not being a good enough bass player then maybe the flashy musicianship on these tracks represent a bit thumb-nosing at his former colleagues. Both tracks contain passages that are much closer to prog-rock and jazz-fusion than anything Can ever attempted, as if to say "you think I can't play - well listen to this! However Holger's humour and musicianship shine through and both tracks contain a lot of very interesting and amusing "samples" (not samples of course but scissors and paste tape edits).

As far as I'm concerned this easily the most consistent CD of Czukay's solo career - later albums suffer from a Can-like self-indulgence at times. What I'm really trying to say is - BUY THIS CD!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars SAMPLING PIONEER, October 19, 2003

By 

Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Movies (Audio CD)

Cool In The Pool is a busy mix of funky beats, pop lyrics and samples, including an operatic voice, whilst Oh Lord Give Us More Money is a long exploratory piece in the progressive rock tradition, with jazzy sections, interesting edits of voices that flow in and out of the mix and strange sound effects.

The other long track, Hollywood Symphony, provides more of the same spoken vocals, voice samples and what sounds like a symphony orchestra on acid. One can see whence bands like Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV got some of their inspiration!

What makes Movies really worthwhile however, is the exquisite Persian Love, an Iranian love song taped from short-wave radio and embellished with just the right elements to turn it into an atmospheric jewel of a track. The longing in the voices is carried on a lilting beat and exquisitely edited to form a perfect whole.

Brian Eno and David Byrne did the same on tracks like The Carrier and A Secret Life on their classic collaboration. So if you love My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, you'll be enthralled by Persian Love.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My life will now be complete..., May 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Movies (Audio CD)

Long before I ever heard the band Can, I heard this album and LOVED it. It WILL change your life. Holger is a madman, hearing music in everything---he incorporates noises from a variety of sources. The guitar and keyboard work are very pleasing...it's all beautiful. I used to sneak cuts from this album onto an FM jazz show I used to do...Some people freaked right out, some people worshipped me for playing it, but I always got phone calls. Buy this release. It's Hula music for ice cream lovers. It's summer and swimming, it's the rings of a tree.