In 1973, the German group Can was going through a small crisis, one of which could have easily sent other bands down the slippery slope of no return: their frontman for the past few years, Damo Suzuki, left to join the Jehovah's Witnesses (at which point, plenty of Can lovers were exasperated: what the...?). Yet the band, now a quartet, didn't fold to all the pressure & challenges which come with finding a suitable replacement to take over Suzuki's spot. To be honest, lead singers were always an afterthought with Can. Now in fighting trim & guitarist Michael Karoli taking over a majority of the vocal duties, they forged ahead to create their brightest hour ever as a band, 1974's Soon Over Babaluma.
The opening track, "Dizzy Dizzy," displays Karoli with icy croon & all, along with his fellow bandmates (keyboardist Irmin Schmidt, bassist Holger Czukay & drummer Jaki Liebezeit) putting the listener in a trance in short order & all this before the phrase "trance-rock" ever came into being. Syncopated & yet oh so subtle, the unique rhythmic undercurrent Can was always known for creating in their music is at full strength, & the next track "Come Sta, La Luna" with call & response vocals by Schmidt continues that trend.
The last track on side one, "Splash" is the composition which is about to send this album's floodgates open: Liebezeit, being the one-man drumming machine that he always was known as, is on fire, keeping things moving along like a well-timed clock, Karoli burns not only on violin but also during his moments on guitar (tonewise, he sounds a bit like Robert Fripp), Schmidt gets his two cents in on synth while Czukay keeps things tasteful & flowing along nicely on bass.
And like a lot of folks, I thought Brian Eno singlehandedly created what is today known as "ambient music." Boy, was I wrong. Side two features two compositions which combine for 20 minutes of fun, fun, fun (rivaling "Bel Air," their side-long tour de force from 1973's Future Days) & is where ambient in a sense began in earnest & the quartet saying, "Hey, Eno, we love you & all these ambient albums that you did but we were doing ambient first...lol." The first stanza, "Chain Reaction" could be the precursor of trance-rock on the dance floor, pointing its way out into the great unknown, with Karoli's Fripp-ish lines & Schmidt's icy, ambient synthscapes leading the charge. 11 minutes later, we hit a detour on "Quantum Physics." All is space, the sounds dissolving into one dreamlike state, an ambient ether which is as ominous as it is calm, the end of this album's musical journey but not without its foreboding, not without its mystery.
Soon Over Babaluma, I feel, is where Can really put ambient music on the map; Brian Eno didn't begin his ambient series until a year later with his masterpiece Discreet Music. Can already got the head start here though & in all of this music's ominous glory, we find the quartet at its highest point ever, as a collective of musicians working toward a common goal. For that, these guys should be rewarded. Long live the Can!!
The opening track, "Dizzy Dizzy," displays Karoli with icy croon & all, along with his fellow bandmates (keyboardist Irmin Schmidt, bassist Holger Czukay & drummer Jaki Liebezeit) putting the listener in a trance in short order & all this before the phrase "trance-rock" ever came into being. Syncopated & yet oh so subtle, the unique rhythmic undercurrent Can was always known for creating in their music is at full strength, & the next track "Come Sta, La Luna" with call & response vocals by Schmidt continues that trend.
The last track on side one, "Splash" is the composition which is about to send this album's floodgates open: Liebezeit, being the one-man drumming machine that he always was known as, is on fire, keeping things moving along like a well-timed clock, Karoli burns not only on violin but also during his moments on guitar (tonewise, he sounds a bit like Robert Fripp), Schmidt gets his two cents in on synth while Czukay keeps things tasteful & flowing along nicely on bass.
And like a lot of folks, I thought Brian Eno singlehandedly created what is today known as "ambient music." Boy, was I wrong. Side two features two compositions which combine for 20 minutes of fun, fun, fun (rivaling "Bel Air," their side-long tour de force from 1973's Future Days) & is where ambient in a sense began in earnest & the quartet saying, "Hey, Eno, we love you & all these ambient albums that you did but we were doing ambient first...lol." The first stanza, "Chain Reaction" could be the precursor of trance-rock on the dance floor, pointing its way out into the great unknown, with Karoli's Fripp-ish lines & Schmidt's icy, ambient synthscapes leading the charge. 11 minutes later, we hit a detour on "Quantum Physics." All is space, the sounds dissolving into one dreamlike state, an ambient ether which is as ominous as it is calm, the end of this album's musical journey but not without its foreboding, not without its mystery.
Soon Over Babaluma, I feel, is where Can really put ambient music on the map; Brian Eno didn't begin his ambient series until a year later with his masterpiece Discreet Music. Can already got the head start here though & in all of this music's ominous glory, we find the quartet at its highest point ever, as a collective of musicians working toward a common goal. For that, these guys should be rewarded. Long live the Can!!
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