Damo Suzuki (16 January 1950 – 9 February 2024) Can: Cannibalism 1978

 

Damo Suzuki, the Japanese musician who spent a handful of memorable years as the lead singer of

Can, died in February 9, at the age of 74. Can’s label, Spoon Records, did not disclose a cause of death in its announcement, but Suzuki had been diagnosed with colon cancer in 2014. “His boundless creative energy has touched so many over the whole world, not just with Can, but also with his all continents spanning Network Tour,” the label wrote. “Damo’s kind soul and cheeky smile will be forever missed.”
              

Born Kenji Suzuki in Kobe, Japan, the musician found his way to Germany by the late 1960s, joining

Can after bassist Holger Czukay and drummer Jaki Liebezeit spotted him busking outside of a Munich cafe. Can had released just one album, 1969’s Monster Movie, with original vocalist Malcolm Mooney before Suzuki joined for some work on 1970’s Soundtracks.
                 

In 1968, while still a teenager, he moved to Europe, first to a Swedish commune, while spending time

in Ireland, France, the UK and Germany, living money earned while busking. Can had just split with their vocalist Malcolm Mooney, and asked Suzuki to sing over tracks from their 1970 compilation album Soundtracks. Afterwards, he became their full time singer, appearing on the hugely influential albums Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyası (1972) and Future Days (1973), before departing in 1973.
             

Can (stylized in all caps) were a German experimental rock band formed in Cologne in 1968 by Holger

Czukay (bass, tape editing), Irmin Schmidt (keyboards), Michael Karoli (guitar), and Jaki Liebezeit (drums). The group featured several vocalists, including the American Malcolm Mooney (1968–70) and the Japanese Damo Suzuki (1970–73). They have been widely hailed as pioneers of the German krautrock scene.
              

The founding members of Can came from backgrounds in avant-garde music and jazz. They blended

elements of psychedelic rock, funk, and musique concrète on influential albums such as Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyasi (1972) and Future Days (1973). Can also had commercial success with singles such as "Spoon" (1971) and "I Want More" (1976) reaching national singles charts. Their work has influenced rock, post-punk, ambient, and electronic acts.
              

After leaving Can in 1973, Suzuki abandoned music and became a Jehovah's Witness. He returned to

music in the mid 1980s and toured widely, recording a large number of albums under different aliases, which he later grouped as the "Damo Suzuki's Network".
                   

He was first diagnosed with colon cancer when he was 33 years old; a disease that his father died of

when Suzuki was five years old. He was diagnosed with colon cancer again in 2014 and given a 10% chance of survival. He died on 9 February 2024, aged 74.  The documentary Energy explores Suzuki's battle with cancer and relationship with Morsbach.

DISCOGRAPHY

Can – Tago Mago (1971)
Can – Ege Bamyası (1972)
Can – Future Days (1973)

CAN - CANNIBALISM 1978

                                 

Can – Cannibalism
Label: United Artists Records – UDM 105/6
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Country: UK
Released: 1978
Genre: Rock
Style: Krautrock, Avantgarde, Experimental

               

SIDE A.

                  

A1. Father Cannot Yell   7:05
Written-By – Can, Irmin Schmidt
A2. Soul Desert   3:46
Written-By – Can
A3. Soup   3:03
Written-By – Can
A4. Mother Sky   6:41
Written-By – Can

SIDE B.

               

B1. She Brings The Rain   4:07
Written-By – Can
B2. Mushroom   4:31
Written-By – Can
B3. One More Night   5:37
Written-By – Can
B4. Spray   2:55
Written-By – Can
B5. Outside My Door   4:11
Written-By – Can, Irmin Schmidt

Side A. + B. Flac (24bit 96khz) Size: 889 MB

SIDE C.

                  

C1. Chain Reaction   5:38
Written-By – Can
C2. Halleluwah   5:39
Written-By – Can
C3. Aumgn   7:18
Written-By – Can
C4. Dizzy Dizzy   3:30
Written-By – Can, Fallowell

SIDE D.

                       

D. Yoo Doo Right
Written-By – Can, Irmin Schmidt   20:20

Side C. + D. Flac (24bit 96khz) Size: 861 MB

NOTES

                     

Father Cannot Yell - (From Can - Monstermovie)  1969
Soul Desert - (From Can - Soundtracks)  1974
Soup - (Re-edited from Can - Ege Bamyasi)  1972
Mother Sky - (Re-edited from Can - Soundtracks)  1974
She Brings The Rain - (From Can - Soundtracks)  1974
Mushroom - (From Can - Tago Mago)  1972
One More Night - (From Can - Ege Bamyasi)  1972
Spray - (Re-edited from Can - Future Days)
Outside My Door - (From Can - Monstermovie)  1969
Chain Reaction - (Re-edited from Can - Soon Over Babaluma)  1974
Halleluwah - (Re-edited from Can - Tago Mago) 1971
Aumgn - (Re-edited from Can - Tago Mago)  1971
Dizzy Dizzy - (From Can - Soon Over Babaluma)  1974
Yoo Doo Right - (From Can - Monstermovie)  1969

Can (5 Albums) on Urban Aspirines HERE 

Can: Monster Movie 1969 + Future Days 1973 + Soon Over Babaluma 1974

Influential German group Can brought an improvisatory approach to rock music, prioritizing textural

experimentation and rhythmic interplay over pop hooks.
Though its members came from avant-garde classical and jazz backgrounds, they embraced the energy and hypnotic rhythms of funk and psychedelic rock, producing a spontaneous yet highly disciplined form of groove-heavy experimental music.
                                                             

Can's albums were typically boiled down from lengthy, intense studio improvisation sessions, similar to Teo Macero's editing techniques on Miles Davis' late-'60s work, and the results ranged from sprawling sidelong epics to songs potent enough to be released as 45s, even making the pop charts on two occasions.

MONSTER MOVIE   AUGUST 1969

                                                 

Monster Movie is the debut studio album by German rock band Can, released in August 1969 by Music Factory and Liberty Records.
Monster Movie brings together elements of psychedelic rock, blues, free jazz, world music and other styles, the influence of the Velvet Underground being particularly obvious on the opening track "Father Cannot Yell". The use of improvisation, experimentation, editing and layering of sounds set a standard for Can's subsequent albums in the early 1970s, which were seminal to the freewheeling avant-garde style dubbed "krautrock" by the British music press. The 20-minute jam "Yoo Doo Right" was pared down from 6 hours' taping, while the lyrics of "Mary, Mary So Contrary" riff off "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary", a popular English nursery rhyme.
                                              

                                             
Monster Movie was the last Can album on which Malcolm Mooney performed all of the vocals until Rite Time, recorded in late 1986 and issued in 1989.

Personnel

                                                   

Irmin Schmidt – keyboards
Jaki Liebezeit – drums
Holger Czukay – bass
Michael Karoli – guitar
Malcolm Mooney – vocals, harmonica

TRACKS

                                                               

01. Father Cannot Yell    7:06
02. Mary, Mary So Contrary    6:21
03. Outside My Door    4:11
04. Yoo Doo Right    20:27

Total length:    38:05

MP3 @ 320 Size: 89 MB
Flac  Size: 222 MB

FUTURE DAYS    AUGUST 1973

                                               

Future Days is the fourth studio album by the German experimental rock group Can, released in 1973.

It was the last Can album to feature Japanese vocalist Damo Suzuki, and sees the band exploring a more atmospheric sound than their previous releases.
On Future Days, Can foregrounds the ambient elements they had explored on previous albums, dispensing largely with traditional rock song structures and instead "creating hazy, expansive soundscapes dominated by percolating rhythms and evocative layers of keys". PopMatters wrote that "It feels as if Future Days is driven by a coastal breeze, exuding a more pleasant, relaxed mood than anything the band had previously recorded."

From contemporary reviews, Ian MacDonald of NME praised the album, opining it was "an immaculate piece of work, the best German rock record so far, apart from Faust", and concluded that it was "sheer good music and is perfectly easy for anyone with a pair of ears attached to their heads to get into and thoroughly enjoy.

 

 

Personnel

                                            

Holger Czukay – bass, double bass
Michael Karoli – guitar, violin
Jaki Liebezeit – drums, percussion
Irmin Schmidt – keyboards, synthesizers
Damo Suzuki – vocals, percussion

TRACKS

                                            

01. Future Days    9:30
02. Spray    8:29
03. Moonshake    3:04
04. Bel Air    19:53

Total length:    40:56

MP3 @ 320 Size: 95 MB
Flac  Size: 268 MB

SOON OVER BABALUMA NOVEMBER 1974

                                                

Soon Over Babaluma is the fifth studio album by the rock music group Can. This is the band's first album following the departure of Damo Suzuki in 1973. The vocals are provided by guitarist Michael

Karoli and keyboardist Irmin Schmidt. It is also their last album that was created using a two-track tape recorder.
It takes the ambient style of Future Days and pushes it even further at times, as on "Quantum Physics", although there are also some upbeat tracks, such as "Chain Reaction" and "Dizzy Dizzy". American musician Dominique Leone reviewed Soon Over Babaluma for Pitchfork, writing that he "was constantly surprised at how clear everything sounded, as if the band had recorded all of this stuff in one fell swoop during an unbelievably inspired, marathon session. One of the great things about Can[, ... ,] was the attention to detail and realization that the effect of each tiny moment in the course of a song can

affect the momentum of the entire piece. No small miracles here: even if it's sad to think these albums represent Can's last great gasp, none of their moments have ever sounded better". In his review for Allmusic, American music journalist Ned Raggett stated that "With Suzuki departed, vocal responsibilities were now split between Karoli and Schmidt. Wisely, neither try to clone Mooney or Suzuki, instead aiming for their own low-key way around things", giving the album a rating of four stars out of five.

TRACK LISTING AND PERSONNEL

                                             

01. Dizzy Dizzy - (Lyrics: Duncan Fallowell; music: Czukay, Karoli, Liebezeit, Schmidt) - 5:40
Michael Karoli - vocals, violin, guitar
Irmin Schmidt - organ, electric piano, alpha 77
Jaki Liebezeit - percussion
Holger Czukay - bass
02. Come Sta, La Luna - (Czukay, Karoli, Liebezeit, Schmidt) - 5:42
Michael Karoli - electric violin, guitar, backing vocals
Irmin Schmidt - vocals, piano, organ, alpha 77, electronic percussion
Jaki Liebezeit - percussion
Holger Czukay - bass
03. Splash - (Czukay, Karoli, Liebezeit, Schmidt) - 7:45
Michael Karoli - electric violin, guitar
Irmin Schmidt - organ, electric piano, alpha 77
Jaki Liebezeit - percussion
Holger Czukay - bass
04. Chain Reaction - (Czukay, Karoli, Liebezeit, Schmidt) - 11:09
Michael Karoli - vocals, guitar
Irmin Schmidt - organ, electric piano, alpha 77
Jaki Liebezeit - percussion
Holger Czukay - bass
05. Quantum Physics - (Czukay, Karoli, Liebezeit, Schmidt) - 8:31
Michael Karoli - vocals, guitar
Irmin Schmidt - organ, electric piano, alpha 77
Jaki Liebezeit - percussion
Holger Czukay - bass

MP3 @ 320 Size: 90 MB
Flac  Size: 237 MB

Can on Urban Aspirines HERE 

Can : Ege Bamyasi 1972

Ege Bamyasi is the fourth studio album by German krautrock band Can which was originally released as an LP in 1972 by United Artists. The album contains the single "Spoon", which charted in the Top 10 in Germany, largely because of its use as the theme of a German TV thriller mini-series called "Das Messer" (The Knife).

The cover artwork, in addition to being a pun on the band's name (as it depicts a can labeled "CAN"), reflects several of the band members' continued interest in traditional music; "Ege Bamyas?" means "Aegean Okra" in Turkish.

With the commercial success of their hit single "Spoon" (which reached #6 on the German charts and sold 300,000 copies), Can was able to hire a large ex-cinema which they used as a part-working, part-living

Ege Bamyasi was recorded by Czukay in the Inner Space studio at Weilerswist, a town near Cologne. It

was originally released in 1972 by United Artists. In September 2004, the album, along with the majority of Can's discography, was remastered and released as a hybrid SACD. The re-release includes a booklet with commentary on the album by David Stubbs, as well as previously unreleased photos of the band.

The success of the song "Spoon" and sales from this album inspired Can to throw a free concert in an attempt to reach a wider audience. The Can Free Concert was filmed by Martin Schafer, Robbie Muller and Egon Mann for director Peter Przygodda at the Cologne Sporthalle on 3 February 1972 and is included on the Can DVD.
Ege Bamyasi has received considerable critical acclaim since its release. Pitchfork Media featured the record at #19 on its "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s"

Side one

1. Pinch    9:28
2. Sing Swan Song     4:49
3. One More Night     5:35

Side two

4. Vitamin C    3:34
5. Soup     10:25
6. I'm So Green     3:03
7. Spoon

MEMBERS

Holger Czukay – bass, engineering, editing
Michael Karoli – guitar
Jaki Liebezeit – drums
Irmin Schmidt – keyboards
Damo Suzuki – vocals

SPOON  LYRICS

 

The sound alone will make me move along
This thing speaks, you’re often on
The sound alone, yeah, yeah
All the song now
The hiding measure, you won’t get them
And when you’re down you’re down all bound
The crazy town, all way down

If you last long the warning hound
The warning down, you’re all, yeah
The fregging down, they soothe my neck
The fregging town, it’s all down
This walking all around
This walking all through town
Won’t you laugh?

It’s Monday while I write
And better ever laugh alright
Do no lie just all life
Better ever laugh alright that
What time, just my life
Is ever hanging out of the day
A better life, it’s all I like
It’s better walking all around

Ever back, it’s all, it’s all alive
Ever back, it’s all, it’s all alive

VITAMINE C  LYRICS

Her daddy got a big aeroplane
Her mommy holds all the family cash
A beautiful blows, I stay at the corner
She is living in and out of tune

Hey you
you're losing, you're losing, you're losing, you're losing your vitamin C
Hey you
you're losing, you're losing, you're losing, you're losing your vitamin C
Your vitamin C

And at Christmas, riding on her pony
Or she is stepping on the pigman's head
A beautiful blows, I stay at the corner
She is living in and out of tune

Hey you
You're losing, you're losing, you're losing, you're losing your vitamin C
Hey you
You're… 

 

FLAC  Size  :  260 MB

Can : Tago Mago 1971 . 40th Anniversary Edition

Can was a German experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968 by the core quartet of Holger Czukay (bass), Irmin Schmidt (keyboards), Michael Karoli (guitar), and Jaki Liebezeit (drums).
The group cycled through several vocalists, including Malcolm Mooney ('68–70) and Damo Suzuki ('70–73), as well as various temporary members. Drawing from backgrounds in the avant-garde and jazz, Can incorporated minimalist, electronic, and world music elements into their often psychedelic and funk-inflected music. They have been widely hailed as pioneers of the German krautrock scene.

The band used the names "Inner Space" and "The Can" before finally settling on "CAN". Liebezeit subsequently suggested the backronym "Communism, Anarchism, Nihilism" for the band's name. In mid-1968, the band enlisted the creative, highly rhythmic, but unstable and often confrontational American vocalist Malcolm Mooney, a New York-based sculptor, with whom they recorded the material for an album,Prepared to Meet Thy Pnoom.

The next few years saw Can release their most acclaimed works. While their earlier recordings tended to be at least loosely based on traditional song structures, on their mid-career albums the band reverted to an extremely fluid improvisational style.

The double album Tago Mago (1971) is often seen as a groundbreaking, influential and deeply unconventional record, based on intensely rhythmic jazz-inspired drumming, improvised guitar and keyboard soloing (frequently intertwining each other), tape edits as composition, and Suzuki's idiosyncratic vocalisms. Czukay: "(Tago Mago) was an attempt in achieving a mystery musical world from light to darkness and return."

The later albums Landed (1975) and Flow Motion (1976) saw Can moving towards a somewhat more conventional style as their recording technology improved. Accordingly, the disco single "I Want More" from Flow Motion became their only hit record outside Germany. Co-written by their live sound mixer Peter Gilmour, it reached No 26 in the UK charts in October 1976, which prompted an appearance on Top of the Pops, where Czukay performed with a double bass.

In 1977 Can were joined by former Traffic bassist Rosko Gee and percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah, both of whom provided vocals to Can's music, appearing on the albums Saw Delight (1977), Out of Reach (1978) and Can (1979). During this period Holger Czukay was pushed to the fringes of the group's activity; in fact he just made sounds using shortwave radios, Morse code keys, tape recorders and other sundry objects. He left Can in late 1977 and did not appear on the albums Out of Reach or Can, although he was involved with production work for the latter album. The band seemed to be in a hiatus shortly afterwards, but reunions have taken place on several occasions since.

Tago Mago is the third album by the German krautrock band Can, originally released as a double LP in 1971. It was the band's second studio album and the first to feature Damo Suzuki after their previous vocalist, Malcolm Mooney, quit the band in 1970 to return to the United States.
Tago Mago has been described as Can's best and most extreme record in sound and structure. The album has received much critical acclaim since its release and has been cited as an influence by various artists.

With the band in full artistic flower and Damo Suzuki's sometimes moody, sometimes frenetic speak/sing/shrieking in full effect, Can released not merely one of the best Krautrock albums of all time, but one of the best albums ever, period. Tago Mago is that rarity of the early '70s, a double album without a wasted note, ranging from sweetly gentle float to full-on monster grooves. "Paperhouse" starts things brilliantly, beginning with a low-key chime and beat, before amping up into a rumbling roll in the midsection, then calming down again before one last blast. Both "Mushroom" and "Oh Yeah," the latter with Schmidt filling out the quicker pace with nicely spooky keyboards, continue the fine vibe. After that, though, come the huge highlights three long examples of Can at its absolute best.

"Halleluwah" featuring the Liebezeit/Czukay rhythm section pounding out a monster trance/funk beat; Karoli's and Schmidt's always impressive fills and leads; and Suzuki's slow-building ranting above everything is 19 minutes of pure genius.

Members

Damo Suzuki – vocals
Holger Czukay – bass, engineering, editing
Michael Karoli – guitar, violin
Jaki Liebezeit – drums, double bass, piano
Irmin Schmidt – keyboards, vocals on "Aumgn"

TRACKS

Disc 1

1. Paperhouse 7:29
2. Mushroom 4:04
3. Oh Yeah 7:23
4. Halleluhwah 18:33
5. Aumgn 17:37
6. Peking O 11:38
7. Bring Me Coffee or Tea 6:47

Total length:     73:31

Flac : Size 457 MB 
 

Disc 2

1. Mushroom (Live 1972) 8:42
2. Spoon (Live 1972) 29:55
3. Halleluhwah (Live 1972) 9:12

Total length:     47:49

Flac : Size 250 MB