Can: The Singles – Krautrock brew that’s still so special

We need more bands to listen to Can and be buzzed-up enough to start their own freak scenes. In the midst of a burst of Can-related activity – the Can Project show a few months ago, an authorised biography next year – this collection of the influential Cologne band’s singles is an excellent primer on the various sounds produced by the band.

What Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt, Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit (who died earlier this year), Malcom Mooney, Damo Suzuki and friends produced through the ages was fascinating, a Krautrock brew of avant-garde classical and jazz amplified and maximised with strains of electronic, psych and funk.

Again and again on this compilation, you can hear the whirr of new ideas and fresh thinking take flight. It's instructive that tracks such as Vitamin C, I Want More and Spoon still sound like electric shocks even now. Get these into you, take a dander through the albums, especially Monster Movie, Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi, and start your own revolution.

[ spoonrecords.com ]