Now this is absolutely remarkable. Basically if I played this to you 'blind' and said it was a set of instrumental Can outtakes from the classic days of the mid-70's you would drool with delight, leap up and down off your seat, and just be absolutely wide-eyed with sheer amazement at how something so good by Can could be lost for so long. Only thing is, it's not by Can, The fact that it could pass as Can is a testament to the instrumental skills of this group and whether this is a tribute to Can or just the group 'happening to 'sound the same by accident' or whatever, is entirely immaterial. This is one absolutely fantastic CD of driving, roaring, melodic, rhythmic, intense and powerful music that is every Can fans delight and is probably more of an essential purchase to the Can fan, musically, than practically any of the resultant Can members solo works, it's that good. You will not believe the strength and sound of the guitar and drum work.
CUL DE SAC:China Gate CD
The brand new studio album and it's excellently produced and recorded. Not only that but, musically, it's another killer, again firmly in the instrumental Can vein with some tremendous work from all the musicians. Really, you cannot afford to miss out on this excellent band. The guitar work sizzles with a full-sounding keyboard/synth backup that straddles a number of musical universes but always with the influence of Can never far away. The group spark off and interact with each otheer in a 'live' manner in an almost telepathic display of group performance.
CUL DE SAC: Death Of The Sun CD
Title couldn't be more apt since, despite its largely huge sounding nature, this is a pretty oppressive instrumental album that probably owes as much to Third Ear Band's 'Macbeth' as it does to some of Can's more experimental offerings. Decidedly soundtrack in nature, it tens to conform to a world of electronics, drums, effects, violins, acoustic guitars, samples and more to provide the soundtrack to the end of existence. It's all a mix of epic and melodic, inventive and serene, somehow majestic yet futile, its music perfectly conveying a sense of hopelessness, so that while there is rhythm, there's no joy. If you are menopausal, depressed, a potential suicide victim or an Abba fan, stay clear - come to that, unless you fancy wallowing in musical despair, stay clear anyway.
CUL DE SAC: The Strangler's Wife CD
This one really IS a soundtrack with eighteen tracks across 41 minutes, so you've got no time for despair here. Well, not exactly - you despair here because this is one of those typical bleedin' soundtracks whereby nothing really lasts long enough to be satisfying and all the time you 're thinking it was probably really good in the film, but outside of it all, relatively unsatisfying. With tracks less than a minute and up to a whopping 2 minutes +, you actually breathe a sigh of relief when a 5 minute one arrives even if it does sound like a chamber orchestra with John Fahey leading the way on acoustic guitar, and another 4 minute piece that is all eerie electronics and booming drum beats - back to oppressive - but overall, far too piecemeal for the normal listener but probably manna from heaven for the soundtrack buff or anyone with a small attention span (or not as the case may be).
CUL DE SAC/DAMO SUZUKI: Abhayamudra DBLCD
Can by any other name?? Oh yessssss!!!!! Over the course of 2 CD's of excellently recorded live music, you hear a whole - a complete organic entity - a melting of minds between musicians who have an almost telepathic understanding of each other's improvising, while the master ex-Can/Dunkelziffer vocalist Suzuki, weaves his unique and inimitable way around and over the music that is emanating as if magically, from the airwaves. 'Beograd 8' that opens CD2 is pure vintage Can in both sound and structure, eight minutes of the absolute essence that was the early seventies band. On the other hand, the following track, 'Cambridge 1', is almost blues-meets-Krautrock as this slowly moving juggernaut of rhythm and strung-out guitar chords, wheezy harmonica and sludge-like electric bass, slithers along while Suzuki and his vocal improves just shines over the top, another eight minutes of music stripped to the bones of what constitutes its very heart and soul.
The four minute 'Berlin 6' is so crushingly intense as to be almost industrial, while the nine minute 'Kopenhagen 3' flows along on a bed of wicked bass, crunching drums, strummed guitars and emerging feedback, the sound of early Can returning with a vengeance as the whole thing threatens to self-destruct under the ever present vocalising but then gathers steam, fires up, powers ahead and suddenly you're into supercharged territories as band and vocalist go supernova on a sea of searing guitars, bowel-rumbling bass and pummelling drums, quite meaty, mighty and immense. The ten minute 'Berlin 3' is also the true sound and feel of early seventies Can, so much so that you'd swear you were listening to that band in action - and the effect is shattering as you sit there listening, unaware you're so wrapped up in the process, you're hardly daring to breathe. Unbelievable and then some - just listen to that drum work, that massive bass and those guitars - not to mention what must be Suzuki on stellar form and travelling the universe with ease.
By contrast, the eighteen minute 'Zagreb 3' is much more languid, twisting and turning, at times almost exploratory, intricate, studied, restrained, band and vocalist trying hard NOT to erupt and keep it all on a much more flowing level, which they manage to just short of fourteen minutes whereupon the tension that's been built, simply snaps amid a cataclysm of guitar chords that pour over everything in sight as Suzuki rises even higher, the bass growls and thunders while the drums and effects rumble and glue it all together, all heading towards a truly explosive finale, ending abruptly in the middle of the raging storm.
That's only CD2 - there's a CD1 to go at, with tracks from six to over twenty minutes in length and every bit as incredible. You have to get this album - simple as that.
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