Can: Ege Bamyasi (1972)

Ege Bamyasi is Can’s followup to Tago Mago. This time around, the band decides to get even funkier, with a more percussive-oriented approach. The album opens with “Pinch” which, during the first few listens, seems pretty pointless, as it sounds like a groove and little else, with some rather bizarre and unintelligible voices from Damo Suzuki. After a few listens, it started to grow on me, but still isn’t my favorite.

Luckily the next cut, “Sing Swan Song” is much better, a rather meloncholic sounding piece with a killer psychedelic vibe. “One More Night” reminds me of pre-Autobahn Kraftwerk, but with vocals (where what Kraftwerk did prior to Autobahn was completely instrumental), and it tends to groove more.

“Vitamin C” is one song I felt was rather overrated, but I liked the end part as the electronic effects start kicking in. “Soup” starts off in standard Can territory, with Suzuki attempting to sound like Malcolm Mooney, Can’s previous vocalist, then all hell breaks loose with all sorts of insane electronic effects and feedback. Gets compared to “Aumgn” from their previous album, it reminds me more of “Peking O” from that previous album, especially from all that strange squawking and screeching from Suzuki himself.

After that, the band returns to music, with the silly “I’m So Green”. Quite funky, percussion dominated song, it’s definately one of my favorites here. The last cut, “Spoon” was the closing cut, and was originally released as a single at the end of 1971 and was actually a hit in Germany.

I noticed the occasional Middle Eastern influences found in this album, possibly Turkish influenced, especially because Ege Bamyasi was named after a can of okra from Turkey. As far as Can albums go, I personally prefer the albums that came before and after Ege Bamyasi (Tago Mago, Future Days) over this one. But I still recommend this album, especially if you like Krautrock.
Year of release: 1972 (United Artists)
– Holger Czukay: bass
– Irmin Schmidt: keyboards
– Michael Karoli: guitars, violin
– Jaki Liebezeit: drums
– Damo Suzuki: vocals