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I'm totally jealous of your fresh first impressions of Can. Discovering them is amazing. It's been almost 20 years for me.

Gramsci wrote:I haven't heard a note I haven't enjoyed yet.It's possible that you'll find a superfluous one or two in "Peking O."

Holy crap Tago Mago is fucking brillant. Could have been recorded last week.I'm actually happy I had accidentally let this band slip over the years as now I have a whole new world to explore.

El Protoolio wrote:I'm totally jealous of your fresh first impressions of Can. Discovering them is amazing. It's been almost 20 years for me.Just getting through Tago Mago for the first time as I type this... really surprised at how good it is. Innovative even in 2014, really tasteful even with the "jam band" parts, weird vocals, really well recorded. I haven't heard a note I haven't enjoyed yet.

Gramsci wrote:Just getting through Tago Mago for the first time as I type this..I haven't heard a note I haven't enjoyed yet.Tago Mago is a pretty flipping amazing record, yeah.

Or Ege Bamyesi? Tago Mago is more jammy while Ege is more song-oriented. Both are standouts of western music of the 20th century. I started with Tago but prefer Ege at the moment.

I've been apprised that this is a perverse choice, but Soundtracks is my favorite.Man, you have many hours of getting your mind blown ahead of you.

tmidgett wrote:Soundtracks is my favoriteSoundtracks was the first Can LP I bought, this was just before the 90s Spoon reissues were common and I found an original on United Artists. I didn't eat proper food for about two weeks but always thought that was a fair trade. It's a great album and one to come back to when you've blazed through the others to explore the tracks that aren't Mother Sky. Soul Desert, Don't Turn On The Light, first rate.Gramsci: each early Can album is its own universe. You could do worse to explore them chronologically as it's fascinating how they develop (Monster Movie is the most rock, simple, stark, the others add complexity) but however you approach them they break down like this for me.Essential: Monster Movie, Soundtracks, Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi, Future DaysAlso essential but come to them later: Delay, Lost TapesWorthwhile, excellent in places: Unlimited Edition, Soon Over Babaluma (side 2).Landed is pretty cool but it's clear we're dealing with a somewhat different animal from this point forward. The rest contain some great moments (if I have a Can guilty pleasure it's Sunday Jam from the 1978 Can LP, it sounds like Balearic disco prog) but the albums lose coherence and become curate's eggs at best.But that early run of five or six albums covers a ridiculous amount of ground and as as good as experimental rock music gets. Once you've absorbed them you'll hear their influence everywhere.

tmidgett wrote:I've been apprised that this is a perverse choice, but Soundtracks is my favorite.Man, you have many hours of getting your mind blown ahead of you.Last year you ranked this at the top of a Can list I'd asked you for, and that got me listening to Can in a whole new way. So thanks for that, it is now one of my two or three favorite Cans. Possibly the best?I might have to bother you for more lists of records some time.