Can
Koln Sporthalle 03 -
02 - 1972
Horrortrip In The Paperhouse
Legendary Can bootleg
01 Paperhouse
02 Spoon
03 Love Me Tonight
04 Bring Me Coffee Or
Tea
05 Hallelujah
Tracks 1-5: Koln
Sporthalle 3.2.72
Some editions have also a sixth track, Pinch,
from 1973 BBC sessions
Check the "visual bootlegs" page here
Check also the entire bootlegs collection here
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Super-eerie and
disturbingly bloodthirsty. The band sold
out to lite funk almost immediately after this was recorded, so do not pass
this up at any cost, unless you listen to Arcade Fire or something. Most of this disc was recorded live at the
infamous 1972 "Can Free Concert," which has been highly circulated on
video forever.
The first song, a
slowed-down "Paperhouse" (with a "Mushroom" intro)
exemplifies the album as a whole; this track would be perfect for use in Gitmo
to break down prisoners & make 'em sing (as in: tell secrets, not as in:
croon). It is a slow-burning aural
massacre. The most frightening part of
this song is the repeated mantra "I can hardly SLEEP AT NIGHT" (not
foud in the album version) followed by a key shift + extended feedback/drone
guitar & drum solo at the 4:30 mark.
Even the throwaway pop single "Spoon" is given a 12-minute
remake into a fierce prowler. The only
nonessential song is the rarity "Love Me Tonight." The freewheeling 28-minute version of
"Pinch" (from '73) will test even Can diehards.
To point out that
Jaki's drumming is awesome on this goes without saying.
In short, one of the
most hallucinatory, and fearlessly-bold, recordings I have ever heard. You can feel rock being ripped right from its
very placenta into a new realm. Every
audience member's jaw at this concert must have been nailed to the floor for
the duration of the gig. Basically, this
is what Bitches Brew wishes it sounded like (or what diehard devotees of
Bitches Brew try to brainwash people into thinking it sounds like).
I would not be
surprised if Godspeed You Black Emperor or Rake formed after their members sat
around a campfire one night and blasted this really loudly and were all imbued
with its raw power.
This CD really needs
to be picked up by Mute/Spoon and finally given a "real," official
issuing to a broader audience.
Even the cover art is
simple and effective, not corny like most bootleg artwork. And Merzbow (who
began as a prog drummer in the '70s, and likely idolized Jaki) later
appropriated a very similar design on his Pulse Demon LP. I downloaded this PRE-punk gem for free at
the usually-tepid mp3 blog Post-Punk Junk.
Thank you for posting this. My next goal is obviously to get the video
of the concert.
The first five tracks
on this Can release of dubious authenticity were taken from the famous Can free
concert in Cologne, Germany, on February 3, 1972. This is the audio from the
same concert documented by the video item of the out of print Can Box set, and
the audio quality is quite good and the performances are outstanding. On these
tracks, the group locks into one long, propulsive groove after another,
blending minimalism with improvisation. Whereas "Spoon" and
"Paperhouse" diverge quite a bit from the studio cuts with more
improvisational moves, the versions of "Bring Me Coffee or Tea" and
"Hallelujah" are fairly straightforward renderings of the Tago Mago
tracks, though certainly with Can's looseness there is still enough variation.
What the live versions lack in instrumental depth and studio effects they make
up in energy. The only non-studio album track, "Love Me Tonight," is
a nice bit of avant funk, with powerful rhythms and some great keyboard drones.
"Spoon" is the highlight, with Michael Karoli's soaring, droning
guitar solos wailing over the perfectly metronomic rhythm section, until
halfway through the song the group turns up the intensity. The lengthy final
track was recorded live at the BBC exactly a year and a month later. It seems
like there are any number of these early-'70s BBC recordings where Can
completely improvises for half an hour or more while vocals flow freely off
Damo Suzuki's lips. On this piece, which uses rhythms loosely based on
"Pinch" from Ege Bamyasi, the band flows from one sound to another
without ever losing the fluid rhythm structure, occasionally pumping up the
energy and at other times soaring out into more space rock territory to keep
the piece from getting tiresome, and there are even a few freakouts where
everything seems to collapse before the rhythms propel it on again. Very good
sound quality and excellent performances make this one of the best Can
bootlegs.
Ref:
Full Album mp3:
1 commento:
Scusa se lascio qui il commento su "Musica per Immagini, Immagini per la Musica" e' fa-vo-lo-so!
Grazie per averlo pubblicato..
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