Track Listing

1. Pinch
2. Sing Swan Song
3. One More Night
4. Vitamin C
5. Soup
6. I'm So Green
7. Spoon

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88990 in Music
• Released on: 2004-10-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording remastered, SACD

Customer Reviews

Okraschoten
This album, along with 'Tago Mago' marks a tremendous growth in the sound of Can. Ege Bamyasi, to me is the best album of the Damo years, Vitamin C is a testament to that. Jaki's drums are at the forefront and drive the album as a whole. Karoli is somewhat more muted than Tago Mago, but the arrangements (edits) make this album a more pastoral and reflective set than what had gone before. It stands up today as a great album, as do most Can albums..even the later period such as 'Saw Delight' etc are hugely underrated. many people hold on to the Damo years as Can's definitive period, but their whole output is definitive, full stop. For a newcomer this is a great place to start, and it holds many nuances in what appears to be a rather streamlined and simplistic sound, part of Can's genius. I cannot reccomend this band enough, they espoused true innovation and improvisation within a closely knit group dynamic, rarely seen bar the likes of This Heat et al.
Dip in and enjoy.

Can can, Can do
This is THE album that opened my ears in 1973 and revealed unlimited possibilities in rock. It was a heady time with many great bands and amazing records emerging almost daily, but for me "Ege Bamyasi" stood at the top. It's still there.

The Velvet Underground leanings of Can's astonishing debut, "Monster Movie" (1969), had gone by 1972. Even the dark, churning funk of "Tago Mago" (1971) had been pared back to a more zen-trancing groove by the time Can recorded "Ege Bamyasi" in 1972. The howl of feedback that opens the album remains, for me, a defining moment in rock and a clarion call announcing that rock would and should never be the same again. Few listened in 1972 and rock lumbered onwards to its inexorable fate, only to be stripped down and remodeled by the punks in 1976. Little wonder that John Lydon cites Can as an influence. Can were the cyber psycho punks of their day.

If you buy no other Can album, make it this one. It's the least confronting and the most rewarding. It will inveigle its way into your consciousness and refresh you endlessly. Recorded to two-track in Can's hermetic studio the audio quality remains astonishingly good. "Ege Bamyasi" is ageless in every sense. Since its release in 1972, the album continues to sound as if it could have been recorded yesterday. It will, I strongly suspect, remain one of the most relevant and revolutionary recordings of all time.

Remastered masterpiece
The first Can LP I ever owned (and sadly the poor UA pressing of that period has not stood the test of time - or too much playing!). To have anew in SACD quality remix is a dream come true.

This was their fourth UK release and came out as the group first toured the UK and in this glorious remastering brings back what an truly innovative group they were both then and still are now. A group of two classically avante garde Stockhausen trained members (Czukay and Schmidt); a German answer to the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia (the sadly deceased Karoli); a jazz drummer whose rhythm style pre-dated drum machines (Liebezeit) and a Korean vocalist who used his vocals (not his voice) as an instrument (Suzuki) was always going to be a heady mix.

The CD features a good mix of shorter items (under 5 minutes) and the much loved "longer workouts" that made their live acts so memorable, being here the challenging (especially as it is the first track) "Pinch" and variety of sonic and World Music flourishes (remembering this is 1972!) of "Soup". On re-hearing here with the greater clarity of remastering the more ear catching and resonating items are the shorter tracks such as "Sing Swan Song" with its water sound opening setting the ethereal tones (I recall John Peel playing on Top Gear one night and stating he hoped all the new German music was going to be as exciting) and "Spoon" a catchy German TV thriller theme and their first single hit!.

Music of this calibre has not been heard since Can's demise (several years later after the release of this disc) and sadly all their later solo efforts would only prove the sum of the parts and the chemistry resulting was what made the magic in the first place.

Only disappointment is the liner notes by David Stubbs - one hopes other contributors will be used for later releases in better putting the original release into original and current context. One still has no idea for example about the history of the photo off the original LP sleeve of a bow tied MC on stage with the group (especially as in the UK it was used in 35mm format as the cover for "Soundtracks"). Even the notes comment on the front cover do not appear to appreciate that it was apparently based on a last minute decision to use a photo of a Turkish canned tin of okra fingers seen in an German foodstore, the producer giving his name to the LP as a result.