Customer Reviews

Soon Over Babaluma

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

 

 

Although I've been a big Can fan for 10 years now, and have known all their material backwards and forwards, I never particularly "got" this record. Now, with this reissue and the better mix (the tape hiss is, fantastically, gone), I get it and I love it. A record like this of subtle pleasures is dependent upon a good mix and presentation, which we finally have on CD.

It's dreamy, etherial, idiosynchratic stuff full of the band's characteristics (strong but subtle rhythms, perfect fragmented drum beats, collective rhythmic playing, fragile and beautiful guitar and violin, clever minimal keyboard playing). It's really just beautiful. The more time goes on the more I appreciate the unique and special properties of Can.

'Soon Over Babaluma', Can's majestic 5th album, and the first after the departure of their psychotic lead singer Damo Suzuki, was their last in a near perfect run of albums in the early 70's. Instead of folding under the pressure of losing their frontman, Can persevered (as they did in 1969 when Malcolm Mooney suffered a nervous breakdown) and focused on creating another album. Lead guitarist Michael Karoli took over the vocals and creates a very compeling argument that he was just as important to Can as Suzuki was. His vocals never falter, blending perfecting with the ominous music that came to life on this record.

After the calm and methodical masterpeice 'Future Days', Can got back to the funkier side of their music that was perfected on 'Ege Bamyasi'. 'Soon After Babaluma' begins with the extremely catchy trance-rock of "Dizzy Dizzy", which annouces that Can is just as powerful a unit with Karoli on vocals. Next comes "Come Sta, La Luna", which features call-and-response vocals from Irmin Schmidt and extensive use of the piano. Closing out Side One is the jumbled and jazz-like "Splash", in which many instruments including horns, synths, and piano combine to create an odd and interesting listen.

"Chain Reaction/Quantum Physics" (one song, two tracks), like 'Bel Air' & 'Yoo Doo Right' before it, takes up the entire second side of the album. This is one of the most ominous songs that Can ever recorded and contains many chill inducing moments. The entire album for that matter, has many moments that feel like Can was just then reaching their peak. Although 'Tago Mago', 'Ege Bamyasi', and 'Future Days' are slightly superior to 'Soon After Babaluma', those albums are no more essential than this. 'Soon After Babaluma' marked the final time that Can would collectively work together toward a common goal and create a great record.

This 1974 follow-up to the masterpiece Future Days (1973), witnessed a marked change in personnel and a slight change in the overall sound.

After a very subdued performance on Future Days, Japanese vocalist Damo Suzuki left the band leaving members Holger Czukay (bass); Michael Karoli (guitar, vocals on Dizzy Dizzy and Chain Reaction); Jaki Leibezeit (drums); and Irmin Schmidt (piano, synthesizers, and vocals on Come sta, la Luna) to carry on. Although I like Damo's vocal style much better, Michael and Irmin do an OK job with their alternately buried-in-the-mix and electronically altered vocal parts.

The five tracks on the album range in length from 5'44" to 11'12" and most display the typical Can sound, although there is more of an emphasis on bouncy rhythms, and brighter textures on the first three tracks. Specifically, there is a bossa nova in there and come to think of, Splash has almost an east coast (hot) jazz feel to it - only in the loosest sense of the style however. Jaki is an excellent drummer and he does a fantastic job with both styles - in fact his propulsive style really drives this entire album along.

My favorite tracks include the pulsating Chain Reaction (11'12") and the synthesizer heavy and atmospheric Quantum Physics (8'33"). It is worth noting that Chain Reaction and Quantum Physics are seamlessly joined, creating a larger track that approaches 20 minutes in length. My guess is that this was an attempt to recreate the epic nature of the 20 minute piece Bel Air (from the Future Days album). In my opinion it worked very well - it is a favorite after all.

This is a good album that marks a transitional period in the career of Can and is recommended along with Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyasi (1972), and the excellent Future Days (1973).

The best way to discern the best forms of a musical union of any kind is what to suggest for a new listener. Think about it for a second. Pick any artist and think of the same thing. If you try to explain to someone what's so good about Can and discover that no words can accurately describe it, then you'll have to say, "Okay, this is THE album by Can." In this case, 'Soon Over Babaluma' is it. There is simply no better example of the individuality and musical strength that they possessed. I say it because I've done it many times, even to people who have no idea what Prog Rock really is (German or otherwise), and 'Soon Over Babaluma' has worked every time. There is a power, a 'groove', a mystifying intensity to '...Babaluma' that is impossible to ignore. Put this CD into a player and before you know it your hand is magically reaching for the volume control to turn it up a notch or two. So, for anybody looking over the possibilities of which Can album to try first, 'Soon Over Babaluma' is the one.

I've listened to a few of Can's major albums, and Soon Over... is for me the most consistently enjoyable listen. Whereas other Can albums are too sprawling/eclectic (Ege Bamyasi), too short (Future Days) or just too plain weird (Tago Mago), Soon Over strikes the right balance between accessibility and experimentation. The fact that Damo Suzuki has left makes little difference- his departure was hardly like Syd Barrett leaving the Floyd, and anyway, Can's music is primarily instumental, so it's easy enough to work around Damo's absence.

The album has a fairly jazzy and ethereal sound compared with the more strident rythms of Ege Bamyasi. It has the mellow feel of Future Days, but with more stylistic variety and musical colour. The opener, Dizzy Dizzy has a lovely stuttery vocal which is mimicked by Leibzeit's rhythm, while it showcases Schmidt's violin playing. Come Sta, La Luna is like a slow tango, with some film samples and some nice guitar playing from Karoli. Splash continues the Latin feel with its percussion, but is offset with a squalling violin, before half-way through, the track mellows out slightly, where some nice 70s synth washes come in accompanied by Karoli's guitar playing, like a jazzier Pink Floyd. Chain Reaction is a very odd, but brilliant, funk/disco marathon. Its disco, but not as we know it, that is, filtered through Can's peculiarly idiosyncratic sensibility. Propelled by an insistent 4/4 rhythm, before slowing down a couple of times to a funky strut, the track closes with some frazzled freak-out guitar and percussion. The closer, Quantum Physics, is an ambient track which rounds things off fairly well.

Overall, I don't feel that Can's albums always quite hit the heights that they ought to (mainly, I think, because they're too short, and leave the listener feeling short-changed). But nonetheless, Soon Over... is the Can album I'd recommend.

There's no denying that the presence of Damo Suzuki propelled Can into an orbit all their own. The heights they scaled with the three Damo classics were so heady that, by all rights, they should have been planning a careful descent after Damo's departure. What do they do? They regroup as a four-piece and bring us SOON OVER BABALUMA. The album has a whimsy and playfulness that could have gone so wrong. Don't underestimate this sucker. By the time you get to Quantum Physics you may find yourself in a place that seemed impossible to reach from the album's starting point. This thing just goes deeper and deeper and where it winds up is absolutely sublime. Yes, it's the dying of the light perhaps, but simultaneously the birth of AMBIENT. An essential piece of the CAN canon.

"Babaluma" is not a classic, yet it actually follows one--Future Days--and, if that was not enough pressure, their singer Damo Suzuki had left to join Jehova's Witnesses. But then again, CAN created challenges when they did not happen naturally, so this became just another adventure--I believe--for the German quartet.

With vocals assigned now to the four core members of the band--Karoli taking most of the otherwise limited singing parts--CAN forged ahead and still produced a commendable album.

I don't know whether this is directly related Damo's departure or not, but one clear change in the band's sound is a more prominent role for Karoli's guitar--that can be subtle, sincopated or just wail, at all the appropriate times.

The standout tracks, to my taste, are "Dizzy Dizzy" and "Come Sta, La Luna," two songs that begin their path in ways you may seem to recognize, if familiar with Ege Bamyasi or Future Days, and then develop into their own little universes.

The jam quality of "Splash" is also worth much attention, and the last cut "Quantum Physics" might remind you of earlier albums's long-explored mood pieces.

All in all, this is not the glorious material of Tago Mago or the other two beauties already mentioned, yet it is a solid album. You don't need to be a completist to want this title in your collection, although it would not be where I'd start either.

I am literally *crying* right now. Seriously. Crying with more excitement than I can possibly describe. Why? Because I had NO IDEA Can was capable of blasting me with a scorching, blazing, dazzling display of burning hot instrumental chops such as on "Splash".

This is seriously a top contender for greatest instrumental jam ever, right next to Gong's "Boring" and about 20 Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return to Forever songs. I LOVE the Mahavishnu Orchestra, so I strongly recommend fans of that band hear the 8-minute "Splash" which is an unbelievable display of instrumental satisfaction.

The violins seriously sound like they're on fire during some kind of ritual. The electric guitar feels like it's trapped somewhere cold and burning through the north pole as the only possible way to escape. I love this song *so darn much*.

Sorry for sounding like a sick fanboy, but man, I can't help it when a song like THIS comes on. We're talkin' some of my absolute favorite music ever created right here folks.

And it's not surprising either- Can is one of the weirdest bands ever. Sometimes I love these guys in a challenging kind of way (such as this album). Other times they write immediately accessible songs that not only sound completely original, but are actually YEARS ahead of their time. Unfortunately, other times I can't get what they're trying to do no matter HOW many times I listen to them (Soundtracks comes to mind, but we'll just ignore that).

But with a song like "Splash"... good golly molly, haha.

I'm also a big fan of "Dizzy Dizzy". I can't even begin to describe this. I've never heard anything like it. I used to go to the library with my mom all the time when I was a child, and being someone who got constant urges to learn as much as possible about the solar system, I'd always run to the back section where those particular books were located.

One picture in those books has stuck with me all these years- a picture showing what the sun looks like if you were to stand somewhere on Pluto. Just an impressive looking white glowing star far off in the distance. It was just a very distinct picture that never left my mind. The way the violins march along to the rhythm in "Dizzy Dizzy" immediately reminds me of that picture. A song that sounds totally different compared to ANYTHING else from the 70's.

"Come sta, La Luna" would seriously fit in perfectly on an old Castlevania video game called Symphony of the Night, and specifically a level where you see water dripping from a fountain and slowly turning to blood. The piano and atmosphere combine together to capture a very Castlevania-like experience.

"Chain Reaction" starts off with a mind-boggling incredible introduction- a 3-minute build-up of heavy guitar playing that just sounds absolutely *insane*. It sounds like boulders crashing down the side of a cliff, or an avalanche of destruction. When the vocals eventually come in, you can tell the band is from Germany since that's the only time on the entire album that something German-sounding makes an appearance.

"Quantum Physics" is pure atmosphere. Eight peaceful minutes of weirdness that probably influenced bands such as Radiohead and in particular their Kid A album. I still don't know what to think about it. I assume one day it will become more interesting when I begin to remember it.

Overall, YES, pick up Soon Over Babaluma.

Can with Malcolm Morley was an interesting experimental prog-rock band. Damo Suzuki took his place, and for whatever reason, Can made three albums that are the absolute peak of a particular school of music. They are Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi, and Future Days. Three stunning albums that combine jam rock, psychedelia, avant-garde composition, and more, to create something without obvious precedent or successors. Just the right moment, I guess.

This album was the first one produced after Damo Suzuki's departure, and it goes in more of a "world music" direction that, even though it must have been more groundbreaking in its day, sounds like musical oatmeal to me. You feel like it's good for your health, and you want to listen to it to keep Mom happy, but it just doesn't have the intense flavors of those Damo Suzuki albums.

I only give it three stars because it's Can. It actually might warrant four stars, but I am measuring it against the high standard Can set for themselves. I can't say anything is wrong with it. It's well-played, varied, interesting music. But get those three Damo Suzuki albums first, if you don't already have them. They are in a different league, and they are the reason people talk about Can today.