Can, Ege Bamyasi (1972)

Where bought? Crocodile Records, in the Manchester University student union, in approximately 2002.

 
Whilst I suppose it is not impossible to overstate things, this record is an incredibly important milestone in my own listening and confidence in self-discovery. For one, it was the first record I actually bought on vinyl, and for quite a while would be played through and the loop back to the beginning to enjoy it all again.

Ege Bamyasi was often played in humble surroundings; firstly my student home in Manchester, and then through spells at my parents, or in rent-a-wrecks where I didn't own my own turntable but clung onto this and a small amount of others in the hope I might hear them again (internet was not a constant in my life until about 2010). Even when I went through a period of abject poverty and had to sell records, I couldn't bear to let this one go, so that probably answers your questions about whether I'm keeping it or not.

In 2021 this is a fairly regular selection in rock lists, with Stephen Malkmus getting a band together to cover the whole thing in full, and even pop luminaries like Kanye West have pilfered parts ('Sing Swan Song' is the main sample on his 'Drunk and Hot Girls') to bolster their cred. But I feel like I have a bit more ownership: not quite someone who was in Cologne in the 1970s, or even someone like James Murphy, but someone who was all over this in the years when it was not so roundly loved.

Every part of it works, and is memorable, and plays into the strength of each member perfectly. Damo Suzuki is on vocals now, bringing a cool ethereality that chimes perfectly with Holger's modal bass, Michael's searching guitar, Jaki's hypnotic drums (just listen to 'Vitamin C' NOW) and - in my opinion the secret star of this record - Irmin's glacial, haunted keyboard playing. 

The songs are edited jams, songs bashed into shape rather than built from the ground up. Having spent some time 'jamming' it is almost impossible to think that in rock music there were five players gifted with such incredible ears as well as playing style. That they managed to get entire songs worth out of paring down the tapes and refining them through the mix is incredible to me (these songs tended to sound much different live).

Maybe rock music reached some kind of perfection here, or at least some kind of ideal. It manages to conform to commune-based ideals like democracy and a unified vision, whilst also touching on the personal and psychological and idiosyncratic. No idea how you can get this good again, basically, let alone imagining how they did it on 2-track.