eMusic Review 0
Can’s 1970 release captures the most important transition in an ever-evolving band. It contains the final material from the quintet’s original singer Malcolm Mooney until the band’s 1989 reunion disc Rite Time, as well as the recorded debut of his successor, definitive Can vocalist Damo Suzuki. Although it’s ostensibly a collection of cuts created for European cinema, Soundtracks plays out like a quintessential acid rock LP: Michael Karoli’s shrieking guitar is the album’s featured instrument, and although keyboardist Irmin Schmidt called the shots, there’s little of his atmospheric keys that the album’s title suggests; only the brief, über-Gothic instrumental “Deadlock” resembles a traditional soundtrack.
Just as producer Teo Macero edited the work of Miles Davis and his musicians into trailblazing compositions, bassist Holger Czukay structured hours of Can improvisation in a way that predated sampling. On Soundtracks, his editing is remarkably brusque: “Deadlock” and “Tango Whiskyman” fade abruptly; “Soul Desert” ends with a dead stop, and the epic “Mother Sky” starts full-tilt, as if in mid-jam. The edits throughout its 14-and-a-half minutes are obvious, but they give the sprawl its pacing and crucial dynamics; without them, the repetition would be unbearable. Czukay and drummer Jaki Liebezeit lock themselves into… read more »
