CAN - FUTURE DAYS (UNITED ARTISTS) 1973
By; Randy Nieto
Can is one of those bands that sound like a bunch of guys who love Fela Kuti smoked pot in their garage and made music on the instruments their moms bought for them from Montgomery Ward. Actually, members of the group were classically trained German musicians, but a trip to New York City “corrupted” founding member Irwin Schmidt, as he put it. (You’re not the first, Irwin.) Irwin wanted to foray into contemporary music, which at the time in Europe was composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez. Boulez and Stockhausen were actually doing pretty cool stuff, but after you smoke a joint with Andy Warhol and Lou Reed, you realize how relative “cool” really is. At times Future Days sounds a lot like Air’s Moon Safari, but without the heavy bass or serenading vocals. Melding tropicalia, krautrock, afrobeat, and classical influences, Future Days served to really cement together genres and create a mellow yet highly progressive sound. Moonshake is the only song on the record that really serves to fit a typical pop song formula. This doesn’t mean the rest of the album is sub-par, in fact quite the opposite. Future Days exemplifies how disciplined these guys really were. This record belongs in every music lover's collection. Check out Moonshake below.
No comments:
Post a Comment