Movies

Oh, thank god! Finally something weird. This 1001 album experiment works best for me when there's something I've never heard, or even better, never heard *of*. The layers, the sampling, the clear influences of people like Zappa, this is fantastic stuff. Instant add to my library.

In the (technically) solo debut of the leader of the krautrock giant CAN, he follows many of the artsy electronic principles that CAN was so renowned in its innovation, but incorporates that with more accessible genres, including Bowie-esque disco in "Cool in the Pool" or world music in "Persian Love." I like how distinct each of the 4 songs is in style, but I never felt bored or tired of any of them. The jammy space rock "Oh Lord Give Us Money" was both soothing and intriguing to see which direction they'll go. "Holly Symphony", the most intense of the songs, reminded me heavily of afrobeat and disco. The most remarkable aspect is the innovation in sampling, which was still very new in 1979, and yet he spams it all over this record in a way that seems to work from my perspective, likely influencing old school hip hop like Malcolm McLaren.

I'm often a fan of experimental music but this was terrible. Experimental albums usually have their high points and their low points, this was just the latter. Just seems to be rambling, directionless, no emotion/soul behind it.

This was a really fun listen. Pallete cleansing. Loaded with surprises and overflowing with ideas but in a digestible way. Loved this.

A release that sounds like what Can would have sounded like in 1979 at there best taking in more disco and fusion elements. I loved it.

Wacky

Groovy

I love Holger, he was the secret sauce in Can; the engineer, the editor, the true experimenter. Here he's using samples in a way that was way ahead of its time. Before even Eno and Byrne made their acclaimed "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" (81). You know Eno listened to this and took notes.

This album must have JUST been added because as I'm writing this there is only one other person who has left a review here. How lucky for me <3 I liked Future Days a ton, and most of Tago Mago. I can see some slight similarity between Can and this guy's solo work, but of course it's not on the same level, as is usual with solo albums from members of awesome bands. I liked the two long tracks well enough. I didn't care for the two shorter ones much. Probably won't return to this one. I'm gonna go listen to some more classic krautrock now

Movies ‘Hello!’ ‘Hello Darling!’ No idea who or what this is, but before I listened I saw the album cover had a sticker on it saying Holger Czukay from Can, so I thought it might be some atmospheric motorik driven krautrock. But although you can see the through line from Can, it feels experimental in a slightly more fun way, kind of signposting stuff that would come in the 80s, like Tom Tom Club, Malcolm McClaren et al, although with less obvious concessions to accessibility. Although my sense is that he's the type of person who thought he was making something very poppy and accessible, it just came out funny. Cool in the Pool is a part Bowie synthy disco, part Can, part Afrobeat, but with added teutonic avant garde noises and oddness, it’s great. Oh Lord, Give Us More Money is maybe the most Can sounding track, but the samples take it somewhere else, occasionally feeling like the theme from a 70s cop show, occasionally feeling like an ominous dream, but always with the insistent drumming and bass. Great track. Persian Love has a great groove and more pleasing oddness, seemingly built from the middle eastern vocal sample, but ending up as a sort of calypso-folk-funk hybrid, and it sounds a lot better than that combination would suggest. I absolutely loved Hollywood Symphony, excellent noises, synths and vocal samples, kind of unfolding itself over an unhurried 15 minutes, seeming to settle on a groove and atmosphere before squelching off into some bit of spacey weirdness. I’ve seen in a few places people say that the album laid the groundwork for My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and it’s really evident on this one, it sounds quite a lot like America is Waiting. Although each track has its own sensibility they are all underpinned by truly excellent percussion, rhythms and drumming and absolutely superb bass playing, slightly reminiscent of Jah Wobble’s playing with PiL. It's alternately groovy, melodic and propulsive, working perfectly with the drums, while all the mad shit happens around it. This was right up my straße, I loved it. It's great when the list throws up something like this that I’ve never heard of making up for all the woeful metal we get. On first listen this was an immediate 4, and it got better and better, I just kept wanting to go round again and have listened to it pretty much non stop for about 5 hours. 5 hours = 5 stars then. 🎥🎥🎥🎥🎥 Playlist submission: Hollywood Symphony

Track 2 is insane. This album is a trip in itself.

I liked basically everything about this recording, from the careening vibe to the great sample work. Let's get cooooool... in the pool

That was really cool

10/10 super funky, super weird, based af

Krautrock tends to cross paths with progressive rock a lot, since they take inspiration from each other at different points in time. So I’m pretty familiar with this kind of music. And Holger Czukay’s previous group Can has ventured into prog territory before, so I went into this album keeping an ear open for it. But I didn’t find much that really “popped” from the album. A lot of meandering, like uninspired jazz, permeated about the record. And while it didn’t sound bad, it didn’t really do much to sound good either. A shame, I guess. Back to “Future Days” for my kraut-prog fix then.

It’s kind of wild to think that Can may have acted as a force to *reign in* Holger Czukay, if the experimental madness on “Movies” is any indication of where he could have gone with them. An absolutely brilliant record.

I love this album so much. Holgar Czukay is some kind of mad scientist genius. I'm very stoked and very surprised that this is on this list. The music video for "Cool in the Pool" is one of the best videos ever made IMO as well.

Krautrock but with an 80s update. Touches of early 80s sampling in the vein of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. I can dig it. 3.5 stars rounding up

Ok. Not my jam, but well done.

I didn't hate that nearly as much as I thought I was going to. Eclectic and musical enough to be intriguing throughout and not get boring.

What the hell was that?

Meh

Album #983 may be the one that broke me. 900 albums ago, I might've been able to give this more of a chance. But today I was just bored and irritated and had to keep reminding myself that my participation in this listening project is voluntary. 900 albums ago, I had points to give for "uniqueness" but I think I've heard this kind of "uniqueness" before which isn't a great feature of "uniqueness." Is music a thing I used to like? Was it ever anything but an "obligation"? I don't know anymore. Another day, another mood, and maybe I could be more generous. But not today.

Like listening to a bad movie you’ve never seen before

I love experimental music. I love silly music. But when it comes along, it needs to be pushing something truly well produced and unique. I just don't get that from these rambling and silly songs.

Interesting - I suspect drugs were involved

Dat slechte accent! ‘Koelllll in ze poelllll’.

Did he smash his head on the mixing table?

How to make "Movies" by Holger Czukay: 1. Start with a repeating backing track 2. Play every instrument at your disposal but only with your teeth. 3. Mush your face onto a soundboard as much as possible 4. Scream out in pain every once in a while for good measure 5. Enjoy

Kjell Höglund fast på Tyska. Spotify har ingen låttext :( Definitivt sämst hittills.

I wish I had heard of this earlier. Weird in a good way.

Really enjoyable strange sounds. More of this please!

This album feels like gripping a raw chicken breast with freshly washed hands. Never felt more connected to life, it was disgusting.

Look, I didn't like TAGO MAGO. In one hand, it was boring-ass white funk; in the other, it was boring-ass wankery I'm supposed to like because it's "experimental." There weren't exactly a lot of positives for me to latch on to. I mean, the most interesting thing to me about that album is the fact that I found it so boring. From what I remember of the other reviews I read, I might've been the only person who thought it **wasn't weird enough**. When you raise yourself on Frank Zappa and a long-held interest in The Residents, I suppose it's hard to be too impressed. So being an album by CAN's frontman — or an EP, according to Spotify — I can't say I was too excited. In fact, when I found out that this album was on the list, my mind raced ahead of my listening to think of all of the ways I could slag it. That's bad practice, of course, but it's not like I'd been given any reason to expect more from this. What could an album from the man from CAN honestly offer me? Entertaining and interesting music, as it turns out. Who woulda known, eh? To begin with, the funk on this thing is way better than on TAGO MAGO. There's not even that much of it, but believe me, anything's better than what I heard on TAGO MAGO, I swear. So already that's a big point in this album's favor. And then there's just these, like... great instrumental bits. There's some really good synth, and guitar that reminds me a lot of Pink Floyd in places, and these engaging rhythms... Jus', wow. Part of me's kind of amazed I liked these as much as I do, given my preconception. I especially didn't think it'd all sound so... For lack of a better word, "commercial?" And you can view that as a bad word in the shadow of what's so often considered a masterwork of Krautrock, but you gotta understand: I can be really basic sometimes. Most times, really. You might say it takes the edge off — for me, at the end of the day, all I want is some good melodies, and this thing provided that. I can't complain. But then there's the thing that interested me the most: the sampling. I believe I might've said this before — or maybe it was just implied by how often I've mentioned ones I like, but I love mashups. I make 'em myself, even, and I've always had an interest in its history. So, to hear some real plunderphonics-style stuff on this album — I mean, dang, my only complaint is that there should've been more. Jus', mm, mm. It's so good. And those are my largely stream of consciousness thoughts while I listened to this album. Somewhat restructured to a "review" format, but otherwise... Yeah. I mean, that should tell you how much I liked this thing; I couldn't even wait to take notes on it. It does suffer the problem where some of these tracks do feel their length — and when there's only four, that's not the best thing — but whatever. This strikes me as music to zonk out to, and in that pantheon... Yeah, I can only give it my thumbs-up. Not a bad second showing, Mr. CAN Man. I guess here's to hoping the second CAN album on this list plays out nearly as well as this does — I mean, I kinda doubt it, but I can always hope.

I’m at a 5. I entered a big long zen state for that one, so my analysis isn’t going to be as fruitful as it might normally be, but that felt like a more accessible, commercially friendly take on the avantgarde sound design & manic instrumentation from “Tago Mago”; the residue of that album is still kind of in my ear, so perhaps I’m a little biased in giving this a 5, but I think it earned it. There’s some really neat soundscapes on this, including a Funkadelic meets David Bowie vibe on “Cool in the Pool”, the vaguely biblical panic of “Oh Lord, Give Us More Money” with the car horns, destroyed buildings, loud guitars, and oddly, a sort of Kraftwerk meets Queen vibe. “Persian Love” is, well, lovely – sort of a calypso vibe mixed with 70s disco & rock, and it works surprisingly well. “Hollywood Symphony” returns to the same kind of Kraftwerk meets Queen vibe, but with more of a prog rock bend reminiscent of Yes, and synth work that feels adjacent to Van Halen’s “Jump”. I enjoyed it a lot – obviously, the shadow of “Tago Mago” & how innovative and beyond its time it felt looms large on this, but the safer approach works really nice here, and this album being like, 30 minutes shorter certainly helps quite a bit. It’s got a good solid variety, a great core base of instruments to work from, & the sampling on this gives a sort of pseudo-plunderphonics vibe that feels unique for 1979 all its own. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, & it does occasionally get a little lost in the weight of its own ambition, but I think it’s a pretty successful solo work. Hence, the 5. At worst, a 3.

I'm digging all the crazy this thing is. I think I want to find this on vinyl. It just feels meant for that format. You know, inconvenient, expensive, pretentious, and too cool for school.

It makes no damn sense compels me though

YUUUUP

My kind of weird

Rare funk om mensen even van het ritme te gooien, en ik ben er helemaal bij

Loved that!

This. Was. Awesome. I've listened to it at least three times already. All the different layers and sampling are just so entertaining. It's such an animated collection of songs, songs that are continuously morphing in surprising ways. I'm loving all the world music incorporated as well. Holger Czukay is a founding member of Can. I haven't generated any Can albums yet, but I just recently listened to a couple of them, so this was timely. I definitely declare Movies to be a headphones album. Ahh, I don't think I could ever get bored of this!

Yes. This is what I was hoping this little experiment would deliver—hidden gems that I might not otherwise have discovered.

Slowly realizing that Can and its members might be some of my favorite music. Czukay delivers some wonderfully challenging yet approachable pop music on Movies. Quite the masterpiece.

really interesting album. it's a bit goofy at times (get used to canned sound effects, etc.) but the musicianship here is great and the songs are so interesting to me. none of them are boring and take you every which way, which is what i loved about it.

I can’t believe this was from 1979. So inventive.

Awesome and weird

This is wild.

Where has this been all my life. Spotify kept the higs coming on a Czukay radio afterwards as well.

Weirdly awesome, and awesomely weird! Amazingly mature use of sampling for 1979 - prefigures a whole bunch of genres. The video for "Cool in the Pool" is a true oddity, and well worth seeking out. Turns out I was familiar with that track (and one other from a different album) from the "Morvern Callar" soundtrack. Loved this, and definitely need to dig through the rest of his discography! Fave track - "Cool in the Pool" for something a little poppy, "Oh Lord Give Us More Money" for feeling like a voyage.

For fans of experiment, mash up or, hell, breakcorefans taking opium. This one hell of an album, flirting with everything from pop to classical and even Arabic music.

FIRE 10/10

This album took me a few minutes to get into. To be honest I nearly switched it off for another time as I thought I wasn't in the mood. Then it grabbed me. Not knowing Holger Czukay was from Can, I started to think this was folk music take on Kraut Rock. F'ing mesmerising stuff. I was kind of upset when it ended as only about 28 minutes had passed. Felt like hours but in a good way

hell yeah that's what I'm here for

Wild vibes but sort of a groove

Czukay is weird and a genius, loved his minimal albums with David Sylvian, ant this freaky music also nice. Some songs were stolen from Life In The Bush of Ghosts (Eno/Byrne) I thought and only then found out the album is released years before! More prove this man deserve full marks

What an incredibly cool and fun album! Its so charming and has some gorgeous moments that really are just awe inspiring. Most of it is just background music, but its really chill background music that I can easily sink my teeth into, and Holger Czukay's voice is a little silly, but overall really nice, making for a really great little jam thing with bits of greatness sprinkled in; enough so that I don't have anything but praise for this record. Really surprising, but a welcome surprise nonetheless.

YAYAYAYAYYA I LOVED IT 5/5 Fave Tracks: all of them

This is why I’m doing this. Very interesting music from an interesting guy. Recommend reading the wiki about him

Ну чувствуется что потом породнятся с Ино Алкоальбом: 5 шотов водки подряд и в конце перчик халапеньо

Ну это конечно ебанутая хуйня слегка. Какие-то арабско-индийские вайбы, всё намешано... концепт крут. А Тёма ещё и историю хорошо рассказал, что прям всё хорошо и понятно стало :)

ля как же я рад, что бабушка решила на поезде семью отвозить

Cool in the Pool pour moi c'est du génie débile a la Phillipe Katerine avec une compo contemporaine super réussie a la fois groovy et super pérchée et la combinaison est explosivo-débilo. Le reste de l'album j'ai pas reussi a me concentrer dessus. Jsuis conscient que ça raconte surement quelque chose de beau et de profond mais c'est pas la musique que j'ecouterai de maniere passive. (sauf persian love qui me fait actuellement bouger mon gros boulard)

I like CAN, I like german „Krautrock“ - 5 stars from me for Holger

Loved it

like the first 3 songs, last one was hard to get through

cool

Wow! I really liked this. It's refreshingly strange and vintage-y. This dude Holger was kinda ahead of his time. This stuff evolved further in the 80's but built up that indelible 80's stank that you can't get rid of.

I was prepared to not like this album because I don't usually listen to this genre. I had heard some tracks from his former band Can and I was not impressed. Was I wrong. Every track on this album is amazing. It is the perfect marriage of experimentation and pop music.

Really enjoyed this - lighthearted and innovative at the same time. I love the idea that he was improvising scores for his amusement as he watched movies. I think "Cool in the Pool" is my new favorite song.

This was so weird and cool. Really enjoyed it.

Super fun first track

I think it's fair to say that I was more interested by this album when reading its Wikipedia entry than I was enthused. However, I was pleasantly surprised. It's all approachable and, actually quite enjoyable.

A wild dream: full of free associations, digressions and changes of direction. Incredible drumming anchors montaged flights of fancy, playful synth parts, audio samples and crystal clear guitar leads. It has a prog feel to it, but more patient and willing to settle in a groove and let the drums work their trance magic, opening your mind to the collage piled on top. Extremely cool by the pool.

This one was weird but enjoyable for some reason! Good instrumentals and decent vocal work. 'Persian Love' was my fave.

My tastes must be expanding because I didn't find this as annoying as I thought I would after scrolling through the comment section. The instrumentals were really fun and quirky, though I did find his vocals off-putting, he simply did not sing well at all (maybe this was an artistic choice but if so—I did not like it). Other than that, I will say I enjoyed this album a whole lot and would listen to it again. 4 stars

Oh, this is fun, a change of pace. I like it, I think I'd listen again.

I quite liked this, the textures and variety of sounds were interesting but also made great background noise for working. I particularly liked the one with the dog's "ow-ow-ow" in the exact rhythm of the percussion. It was funny and clever. Persian Love was great too.

Enthralling

As baffling as it is fun

Enjoyable wackiness

Bonkers fun weird lovely

Weird, experimental and silly kraut rock, easily digestible for (most) listeners. The songs feel a bit rambling at times, but Holger is certainly some sort of mad genius. With this album, he took my already good mood, and took it to a good/silly/lighthearted mood, which I can't complain about.

After a run of so so albums it's refreshing to hear something different and experimental.

There's a lot going on on this one, but the bulk of the album is stellar psychedelic jazz-rock fusion on two long tracks. There's also a Middle Eastern-influenced track. The first song is pretty wacky but everything is great after that. Lots to dig into and lose yourself in.

Now this is my kind of music Take the inventiveness of the krautrock era of music Germany and add a healthy dose of lightheartedness and playfulness to it, it makes what would other wise be experimental psychedelia be about wanting to chill out in the sun or appreciate some Persian music. All these soundscapes just get me in the right places so I just can't but enjoy this one. And ofc, this was made by one of the guys in Can so, awesome

Nothing special, but it's got some very nice synthwork. Solid 4 Stars.

As I'm listening I can't stop giggling picturing this as some sort of early-season Simpsons takeoff on the Germans taking over the Springfield nuclear plant or the "I must get back to Dance centrum in Stuttgart in time to see Kraftwerk - HEY FUN BOIZ - GET A ROOM!" lines. Has a bit of an absurdist alt-early-Roxy sound to it. It's ridiculous ... but why do I kind of love this... Wacky/trippy/beyond unusual but actually unlike much of Czukay's previous incarnation in Can I like this a lot more - although I'm docking a point for a lot of "Persian Love" - it's just that middle-eastern sound I don't love (having said that, i love the ARP and some of the guitar work is reminiscent of Zappa / Watermelon in Easter Hay). Weird keeper - too many of the weird albums here are just fkd-up weird but this is oddly listenable and fun. 8/10 4 stars.

Can't say no to some experimentation, this album excelled at that. From the minute it started I could hear the impact this record has on the way production is handled today. The clever sampling throughout the album was fantastic, and the electronic instrumentation was fun to listen to. While I'm sure a lot of people struggle to get into this because of the lack of lyrics, I think there is some great stuff on here despite that, and I'm someone who prefers lyrical stuff over instrumental tracks. Rating: Really Great (Strong ☆☆☆☆) Favorite Track: Cool In The Pool.

mmggmhmmmm yeessss moreee gimme more experimental, more eccentric, more whimsical, more zappaesque stuff yeesss

Kedvenc/Favourite: Oh Lord, Give Us More Money Nem az a százszor meghallgatós, kicsit nehezen emészthető, de jó. Érdekes a koncepció, meglepődtem, hogy '79-es. Elképesztő érzék kellett hozzá, hogy így össze legyen rakva. Örülök, hogy meghallgattam. It's not one of those albums you listen to a hundred times, a little hard to digest, but good. The concept is interesting, I was surprised it was from '79. It must have taken incredible skill to put it all together in this way. I'm glad I listened to it.

When we're talking in term of avant garde music, this one is deceptively light and balances that fine line between pop and noise. Thouroughly enjoyable!

What a breath of fresh air on this list! I'd heard of him as one of the founding fathers of Krautrock, but never listened to any of his solo stuff. Glad I did!

3.5. Rounded up for album actually being original and something worthy of being on this list. Give me more of things im unfamiliar with and grab my attention. Albums that fell through the cracks, so to speak

very quirky album, really enjoyed it

Interesting

kinda awesome

Intricately layered bonkers mad shit. Jazz funk prog proto-electronica. Sharp and clean but packed with detailed flourishes. Loving it.

This was so strange... but I had so much fun with it! A total discovery for me! I mean, this project is becoming a big part of my working days, because I'm listening to so many albums I didn't know anything about! And then I get to revisit the ones I've always liked ;-)

This was cool. I love it when I get something completely from left field. Never heard of this in any way, and was fully engaged for the duration. Felt like it was probably breaking a lot of ground on the sampling front, so I can see how it may hold some important significance. Regardless, worthy!