13: Can - Ege Bamyasi

Never heard this one, I tried to order it on Amazon a while back but it was out of stock - the omens were there but I never expected it. How do you follow Tago Mago? Well, for me at least, you go in a slightly less interesting direction.

This is a friend's favourite Can record - I had high expectations but something about this makes it feels a little like some of the experiments on Unlimited Edition and so on. Like there's a nice sound to it and it all works but it doesn't feel coherent enough to be memorable as a whole. Which is surprising since Tago Mago was almost painfully coherent really so maybe it's the fallout from that achievement that lead Can to this.

Pinch is all drums and bass but is largely forgotten when it's left. Sing Swan Song starts of with a bit of water rippling - not far off Popol Vuh but leads in to quite a beautiful lament with mostly Damo muttering away. Again, quite pleasant but largely disconnected from the previous track and when it's gone it's gone. Then it's off into plastic Can territory with One More Night - there's something about the bass and guitar sound that only Can have that sometimes works but sometimes feels too alien and too considered to be enjoyable.

Vitamin C brings back some of the tension of the Mooney era and genuinely feels quite frightening in parts. Soup is the 10 minute track, so the longest on the LP but feels a bit like Faust: there's about 3 or 4 different tracks fighting to get out of there. Again none of them are pretty memorable.

I'm So Green, however, is incredible and had it not been issued on a 45 would be a reason to get the LP. The drums are all shuffly and the guitars are tingly. Damo sings the title over and over and for the first time on the record it feels like they're going somewhere. But then Spoon ends everything and it's okay but a bit like they've wheeled out the synthesiser for some "experiments".

And that was the forgettable Ege Bamyasi. I really thought I'd like it more than I did and to be honest, beyond I'm so green, it falls into the bad Can category with the previous caveats. To be fair though, I've listened to the other records so much it might just be a question of familiarity...