Log #68 - Lovely Cardboard Covers (albeit not necessarily legible!)

Good evening pop pickers. What do we have here this week?  Not a large degree of change since last week - but brand new entries from The Goat Roper Rodeo Band and DJ Vadim, and slightly new entries from Genesis and Can with fellow old timers Beck and Neil Young leading the way.

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1. Beck - Colors

2. Neil Young - Hitchhiker

3. The Goat Roper Rodeo Band - Cosmic Country Blue

4. Genesis - Turn it on Again, The Hits

5. Can - Anthology 25 Years CD 1

6. DJ Vadim - The Sound Catcher

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First the slightly new. The Can Anthology is a double CD in chronological (mostly) order. So CD1 contains the earlier tunes taking us from Monster Movie through Tago Mago to Ege Bamyasi. CD2 concentrates on Future Days and later plus some really early tunes from the Monster Movie sessions that surfaced on the Limited/Unlimited compilations. As I think I noted last time CD2 in particular is a useful way to hear a sample of latter day Can without the need to buy all the post Future Days albums which are not as strong as the earlier ones. CD1 therefore by definition has the stronger tracks but is less essential, certainly to any regular Can fan who will have the original albums (which contain the full length recordings of important tracks like Mother Sky and Hallelujah). That's a long winded way of saying I tend to play CD2 of this Anthology the most. Anyway, not a substitute for the original albums but nevertheless 29 tracks of Can which is never bad!

Last week I was playing something called Genesis's Turn It On Again, The Hits as well. But this is a different CD (or 2 CDs actually). It's called the Deluxe Tour Edition. I don't really see the point. It's not even live. It's got a silver cover and the other one was white. This one has white writing on silver which is infuriating as you can't read it (why do bands do this?)(more on Beck later). There is loads of overlap between the two releases - both heavily weighted towards the late period Genesis. Interestingly I put it out on Twitter last week that there wasn't anyone out there who liked both prog Genesis and pop Genesis. Actually there is and I discovered quite a lot of love for the Phil Collins version of the band even from fans who were familiar with their prog era too. I must say I'm growing to like the pop side of the band more too. Some of it is annoying tripe of course, but there are some good tracks too and I was wrong to write off all Genesis post 1976. There's certainly nothing wrong with title track Turn It On Again.

Pop brings me nicely to Beck's Colors. I suggested this was a bit light weight last week but I've grown to like it. It's short and sweet and very catchy. It really reminds me of something other than Beck but I can't put my finger on what at the moment. Plenty of single material including Up All Night which my son tells me is being used on playstation FIFA. The CD comes in a nice cardboard cover - I do like cardboard covers and I'm pleased to see many more manufacturers are producing them now (as an illustration 67% of the albums above are presented thus). They give the product that old LP feel in miniature. They don't make a horrible noise when you drop them like plastic CD covers which always end up chipped and cracked. So nice outer sleeve Beck but... as for the inner booklet - its ridiculous. The bizarre layout of the lyrics, the mismatched colour schemes, and the tiny typeface make it all illegible and thus pointless (why do bands do this? - lyrics can still be printed large enough to be seen on a CD - I used to love reading all the blurb on an album but this is rarely possible with CDs). Am I labouring the point too much? Surely the music is the important thing. Yes, of course, but the tangible feel is all part of the experience - if you aren't convinced have another read of my essay on the subject.

DJ Vadim is a new entry this week but not his first appearance in this blog. Born in Russia and raised in London DJ Vadim's mixes languorous down tempo beats of reggae and hip hop. Another beautifully presented CD in a nicely designed cardboard sleeve which nearly made it as my cover piece this week.

The other new entry belongs to young Welsh hipsters The Great Roper Rodeo Band. I came across these lads by accident at a festival and loved their confident energetic acoustic roots country (cosmic?) blues. In fact they were the highlight of the weekend. I was surprised to hear they came from Wales looking and sounding so authentically "americana" with their cowboy shirts and strong accented vocals (I reckon they'd go down a storm on tour in the US). 

I'm not yet sure this recording fully captures the live experience but nevertheless it does give a flavour of their gigs and setlist including my current favourite the very emotional Don't Believe in You. In the quite crowded bluegrass market this very talented trio standout and should go far. Great (cardboard!) cover too.

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Log #67 - From Prog To Pop

Many bands of course change direction during their careers. Sometimes this is a natural progression or development. Sometimes it's an unavoidable result of changing personnel or a result of burnout leaving bands bereft of new ideas (how many bands shoot their loads completely with a tremendous first album which has in essence been many years in the making, but then understandably fail to follow up with a decent sophomore six months later?).

With the advent of punk and new wave in the mid to late 70s, many existing bands such as prog rock giants Genesis became "dinosaurs" and had to adapt to survive (or did they? Ed.). The Genesis transformation appeared dramatic and sudden with the release of Duke in 1980 but in actual fact had really begun a few years and albums earlier with the departures of key personnel setting in train subtle changes well before that transformative album.

German Krautrock trendsetters Can were already ahead of their time when they launched in the late 60s - their change in the mid-70s was a little more gradual as rather than punk and new wave, which they were already close to in the beginning and arguably influenced, they began to introduce elements of reggae and world music into their sound (being ahead of their time again).

The results were less than impressive though and like Genesis their core fans deserted. Genesis carried on obtaining unbridled commercial success with a new set of fans who had never heard Supper's Ready and didn't care. Meanwhile Can disbanded in 1979 leaving their original legacy largely intact notwithstanding a disappointing and short lived reunion album at the end of the 80s.

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1. Beck - Colors

2. Neil Young - Hitchhiker

3. Bruck - Violin Concerto No. 1

4. Genesis - Turn it on Again, The Hits

5. Can - Anthology 25 Years CD 2

6. Handsome Family - Honey Moon

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I have two greatest hits/compilations/anthology CDs in the player this week from these two important bands.  As regular readers know this is not normally something I advocate. But sometimes these catch all releases serve a purpose - for example you may not like the band enough to buy all the albums so just want a sample, or you just want to sample as a beginner before venturing deeper. 

In the case of Can, I do love the band (I was even named after them!), but this Anthology seemed a good choice in order to cover a lot of ground economically (having bought many of the albums before on vinyl which I no longer hold, I don't always replace all like for like with the CD formats). In particular this anthology has a good selection of their latter day material (post 1975) that doesn't really warrant purchase in its entirety (the key music from Can can be found on their first half a dozen albums or so starting with Monster Movie and ending with Landed in 1975) (but do check out their solo albums too Ed.).  Subsequent albums had their moments as the band dabbled with world, disco and reggae music, but the core Can sound which had made them so exciting and influential had gone.

Where a band is famous for extended improvisations a compilation album will also run the risk of inappropriate edits. How exactly can Hallelujah or Mother Sky for example be cut down to 5 minute samples? Having said that this compilation does it pretty well and the shortened tracks are not too grating - of course you've got to make sure you do hear the full versions of Hallelujah and Mother Sky on their original albums (Tago Mago and Soundtracks respectively), but note this CD does at least have the bonus of the unedited 20 minute You Doo Right from Can's debut album.

Similarly, yet more marked and (un)celebrated, was the change in Genesis around the same time. There can't be many bands who became so different as music fashions (and personnel) changed. This hits compilation is very heavily weighted to the latter day Genesis beginning particularly with the 1980 Duke album (although the change set in with the departure of Peter Gabriel and then Steve Hackett in quick succession following their Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974), and Wind and Wuthering (1976) albums respectively) - there are only two Gabriel era tracks on this 18 track album!

Unlikely Rock Trivia: Genesis were discovered by now disgraced record producer and radio presenter Jonathan King.

In fact being far from a fan of Phil Collins I have never had any desire to hear any post Gabriel Genesis. However this CD was a gift. Also my interest was piqued somewhat by an excellent ranking rundown I read here > http://www.prog-sphere.com/specials/genesis-albums-ranked/ which encouraged me to reassess (notice how the album covers deteriorated with the music too!).

What do I think now? Well, much the same really although I would say the chasm between the two incarnations is possibly slightly narrower than I had realised. They are still completely different bands and Collins is no Gabriel (keener prog era Genesis fans will also not underplay the influence of Hackett too). The prog era band produced some amazing original music with a charismatic front man. The pop music version went soft and became a vehicle for Phil Collins' constipated singing, thumping snare and syrupy love songs, covered in Tony Banks' synthesized cheese.

Are there any fans out there who like both the prog-Genesis and pop-Genesis?

From this to this - two very different beasts

And from this to this... nuff said

However it's not so bad and without the comparison of the original band Genesis Mark II may have been a perfectly reasonable pop band. Duke which was an affront to the existing fans was not such a bad album in itself (similarly time has been kind to King Crimson's 1980 comeback album Discipline for example which was a shocking release for their prog fans at the time but now seems quite revolutionary). To be fair, and in hindsight, Genesis Mark I.V did enjoy a prog swansong of sorts with three good post Gabriel albums that have each aged well - A Trick of the Tail, Wind and Wuthering (both 1976) and And Then There Were Three (1978), while downsizing from a five piece to an eventual trio (remarkably neither Gabriel or Hackett being replaced).

A few other new entries this week which may warrant more words at a later date. We have Beck's latest Colors which is very poppy and dare I say quite shallow compared to his usual work. I do love Stay Up All Night though.  Neil Young's Hitchhiker is a solo acoustic album from the mid-70s featuring slightly altered versions of songs from Rust Never Sleeps and various other previously unreleased tracks.  The title track is excellent and I love the version of Powderfinger which gives the song a completely different atmosphere. Best of all is Campaigner though with its famous refrain - "even Richard Nixon's got soul".

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Log #18 - Dylan and German

Desire is my favourite Dylan album. The experience of listening attentively to the nine songs on this album is like reading nine short stories, actually not even short stories, there is such depth and character in these atmospheric songs it feels more like reading nine novels.

One of Dylan's most celebrated songs on Desire, or from his whole canon actually, is Hurricane which tells the story of Ruben "Hurricane" Carter, the heavyweight boxer who was framed for a murder "he never done... the one time he could have been the champion of the world."

It is argued that some liberties have been taken with the historical accuracy of some of Dylan's accounts particularly on Hurricane and the 11 minute epic Joey chronicling the life story of gangster Joe Gallo. Some of his subjects were no doubt romanticised in song but it remains a fact that Carter wrongfully served 19 years in jail from 1966 until his pardon in 1985.

Dylan's writing was in a rich vein of form in the mid 70s and prior to Desire he had released another fan favourite, Blood on the Tracks. It is easy to forget that Dylan had been around a long time and by 1975, when equivalent singer song writers of the era were maybe on to the their sixth album or so, he had already recorded fourteen. Blood on the Tracks was his cathartic "break-up" album featuring heartbreaking odes to his ex-wife Sara, and some anger too such as Idiot Wind.

Of course Dylan's song writing genius is much celebrated, and he has recently been honoured by the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first time the award has gone to a song writer. This is not the place to offer any lyrical analysis or interpretation from such a vast body of work as I could choose practically any verse from practically any song so where could one possibly start? Suffice to say he often surprises with wit and humour as with this simple stream of consciousness dialogue between a husband and wife in Isis:

She said "Where you been ?" I said "No place special?"
She said "You look different" I said "Well I guess"
She said "You been gone"
I said "That's only natural"
She said "You gonna stay?"
I said "If you want me to, Yeah."

Then there's always this sort of wit and devastating commentary, this time from Joey:

The police department hounded him, they called him Mr. Smith
They got him on conspiracy, they were never sure who with
"What time is it?" said the judge to Joey when they met
"Five to ten," said Joey, the judge says, "that's exactly what you get!"

Dylan is an artist I return to again and again. Always offering something new or something reassuringly familiar.

This week's magazine then:

1. Can - Tago Mago
2. Can - Anthology
3. Neu! - Neu!
4. Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
5. Bob Dylan - Desire
6. Kruder and Dorfmeister - Sessions CD 1

The Tago Mago speaking alien brain man - usually in orange    

Another group who have stood the test of time is Can. Indeed their 70s music really was ahead of its time. Of all the "Krautrock" bands Can are probably the most revered and influential. In a genre that had a relatively short heyday Can had the greatest longevity. Tago Mago is an amazing piece of work - probably in my Top Ten albums of all time (now, what would they be I ask myself?). Originally a double LP the album consists of only 7 tracks. Two of the more lengthy numbers are Aumgn and Peking O which are both mind-blowing sonic soundscapes of random avant garde experimentation. Good for them putting these tracks to record. It took me a while to fully appreciate these tracks when I first had the album - in fact I bought the vinyl album second hand from an old record shop in the bus terminal at Chichester (a great shop that introduced me to many unusual bands - oh the excitement of thumbing through racks of old records!) and one of these side long tracks was marred by a nasty scratch that was possibly a blessing in disguise. Thankfully the absolutely amazing Hallelujah was unaffected and remains arguably the greatest Can track of all time. At 18 minutes long it gives full reign to drummer Jaki Liebezeit's hypnotic patterns and Holger Czukay's funky bass, over which eccentric singer Damo Suzuki repetively shouts what sounds like "I'm searching for my brother, yes I am!" It was for many years my go to track when I wanted to impress and astound a new friend.

Irmin Schmidt's sythesizer has been likened to the sound of a UFO taking off.

There is a brief respite during Hallelujah around the five or six minute point which is where the edit is made for the Anthology compilation. I'm normally not a fan of anthologies or greatest hits packages but despite one or two such edits (Can are rather like Pink Floyd in that it is quite difficult to create a greatest hits summary without trimming the length of the tracks) it's a very good career retrospective - unnecessary for completists like me but a good primer for less religious Can fans.

Kruder and Dorfmeister are also German (or Austrian rather I think?) but of a much more recent vintage. The Sessions album is lovely. It is remixes of various pop and jazz tunes mostly in the dub vein but these talented DJs really make the music their own. Who would have thought Depeche Mode could ever sound this good. Highly recommended and also one of my favourite records certainly a decade or so ago.

Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister - master DJ mixers

Actually it is so odd how your mind plays tricks on you. I was convinced someone introduced me to this music in 1992 (I remember as it was a certain time and place that was particularly memorable as I was travelling on a year out in Asia). I even remember the name of the person, who was called Dave Person and came from San Francisco! I then shared notes with an old muso friend of mine that I hooked up with when I moved to Brighton in 1997. But blow me down, both these memories are fundamentally flawed - I've checked and the album was released in 1998. I just can't understand how that is possible!

Last up this week in this German flavoured listing is Neu!

Please note that Neu! are the only band permitted to use punctuation in their name without being mercilessly ridiculed.

Tim Sommer 

Neu! - Sound like more than a 2-piece

Their music is quintessential Krautrock - mostly instrumental with the basic 4/4 rock "motorik" beat and very effective. Certainly not as groundbreaking or prolific as Can but very similar and this, their debut, is many people's favourite album of the whole genre, and the opening track Hallagallo is frequently proffered as the krautrock track.

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Log #17 - Jaki Liebezeit (1938 - 2017) and the Motorik Beat

1. The Cinematic Orchestra - Ma Fleur
2. Holger Czukay - Movies
3. Klaus Schulze - Picture Music
4. Tangerine Dream - Encore
5. Can - Ege Bamyasi
6. Can - Sacrilege

Well with a pseudonym like Eddy Bamyasi it was inevitable there would be a "Krautrock" entry sooner or later in the blog. The term "Krautrock" in music seems to have been generally accepted without too many negative connotations. Perhaps that is because the purveyors are almost exclusively held in high esteem and are frequently name-checked as hugely influential by more modern artists. Krautrock doesn't literally mean all German rock - it refers to a particular genre arising in the early 70s through bands such as Can, Neu!, Faust, Kraftwerk, Amon Duul, and Tangerine Dream, characterised (very generally speaking) by experimental electronics, and repetitive heavy beats termed motorik.

Here we have three albums shared between Can and Tangerine Dream plus solo efforts from Holger Czukay (of Can) and Klaus Schulze (of Tangerine Dream).

Breaking News! Sadly I have just heard, literally mid post, that Can's drummer Jaki Liebezeit died this week (the music selection being entirely coincidental but subsequently appropriate and poignant). I was surprised to learn he was 78, and was due to play a concert at the Barbican, London, this spring with fellow Can member keyboardist Irmin Schmidt.

Can was one of those bands that blew my mind when I first heard them. I had not heard anything like them before and a huge characteristic of their sound was Jaki's drumming. From that moment on he became, and remained, my favourite drummer.

Jaki Liebezeit behind his minimal kit and singer Damo Suzuki

Ege Bamyasi is probably the best starting point for any new Can fans. Released in 1972 with its Andy Warhol inspired soup can cover it is the middle one of the celebrated "Damo" trilogy, offering more focused grooves than both the preceding avant garde epic Tago Mago, and the following more space-prog-rocky Future Days. Can covered a wide range of genres in their music over their core career (essentially 1969 - 1979) including heavy rock, funk, jazz, and electronic, and even classical avant garde and minimalism (founding members Czukay and Schmidt studied under Stockhausen). Well known for their extended jams and improvisations Ege Bamyasi efficiently covers most components of the Can sound across seven tracks of power and beauty, all underpinned by Jaki's metronomic drumming high in the mix as beautifully demonstrated here in Vitamin C.

As well as Jaki's drumming the bone crushing rhythms were augmented by the thump of Holger Czukay's deep bass. Czukay liked to experiment in the studio with other instruments and unusual sampling, and his full ambitions were realised on a number of experimental solo albums - some with collaborators including David Sylvian and Jah Wobble. Movies must be one of the earliest pop/rock albums (1980) to draw extensively upon samples. In particular Czukay would record voices he picked up on short wave radio. The album has two short poppy tunes and two extended experimental compositions. All four tracks have enough ideas for a whole musical career! There certainly wasn't anything else that sounded like this album when I first heard it, and I don't think there is even today. If you would like to delve into the bizarre mind of Holger Czukay start with the Persian Love tidbit and then progress to the soundbite rich Hollywood Symphony.

The Can Sacrilege album was aptly named as it is a double CD of remixes (by Brian Eno, System 7, Sonic Youth, and The Orb amongst others) of revered Can classics. But I don't think purists should be too precious. It's actually very good and the tracks are different enough to be interesting but at the same time retain a lot of what Can was all about. Befitting of the release date of 1997 (and the Can blueprint itself) most tracks are of the drum and bass persuasion giving off a massive sound!

Tangerine Dream, and former member Klaus Schulze, specialise in what I call pulse music. The tracks are all instrumental (I believe Tan Dream only released one album Cyclone with vocals which was panned by the fans, but I actually think is one of their best) and usually lengthy (these two albums for instance each have single LP side length tracks of around 20 minutes each). Unlike electronic contemporaries Kraftwerk the beat is usually provided by pulsing gated synths rather than drum machines.

There is no death, there is just a change of our cosmic address.

 Edgar Froese

I guess with the emergence of popular music in the 1960s there will now continuously be artists reaching their 60s and 70s and becoming nearer to a change of cosmic address. While researching this piece I learnt that TD's founder Edgar Froese had passed away in 2015. With each passing a chance to see an iconic artist or band live for the first time passes too - a realisation that has resolved me to buy a ticket to see Damo Suzuki coming to Brighton this Spring. Damo is usually backed by a band of local (relatively unrehearsed I assume) musicians at each gig - an intriguing concept not entirely alien to the former Can front man. One can hope his random sonic journeys will lead to the resurrection of some familiar riffs in his sets.

German "Krautrock" pioneers Edgar Froese 1944-2015 and Jaki Liebezeit 1938-2017

To learn more about some key Krautrock artists have a look at this article http://observer.com/2015/07/8-krautrock-artists-you-need-to-hear-right-now/

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