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Future Days

Can

1973

Future Days
Album Summary

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.

Wikipedia

Rating

2.98

Votes

7116
Genres
Rock
Psychedelic Rock

Reviews

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Mon Sep 28 2020
3

theres a track on here so long it managed to soundtrack my run from the middle of town all the way to my flat to take a shit

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Fri Apr 01 2022
5

I am very happy that this record is in this list. It allowed me to listen to it again and appreciate it at its fair value. An album full of small subtleties and intoxicating details. It's both pop and experimental, charming and relaxing, yet uplifting. A masterpiece.

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Fri Apr 01 2022
5

50 years later and it still sounds like the future.

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Thu Apr 22 2021
3

This was pretty cool! Not much to say, just a few songs. But I think it's amazing that an album with this sound and structure was made in the early '70s. I don't mind long songs, and the longest one here was my favorite. Favorite tracks: Bel Air, Future Days. Album art: Very simple logo, but a cool design. Nice colors too. "Can" might be the simplest band name I've ever heard. 3.5/5

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Mon Feb 01 2021
5

Absolutely excellent, groundbreaking tunes and an addictive listen.

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Thu Jun 17 2021
5

Yup. It’s a keeper. Definitely knew nothing of them until this program turned me on to it. Keep them coming.

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Wed Apr 13 2022
5

I loved how calm it made me feel

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Mon May 23 2022
5

Magical album. Loved the drumming on this.

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Fri Apr 01 2022
5

Awesome explorations into the depths of the future. Moonshake and Spray are top tier stuff. Ideal soundtrack to eat Chef Boyardee's Raviolis to.

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Mon Apr 11 2022
5

So Krautrock. Damo Suzuki. All these things I know by name but not aurally. It's definitely not prog rock, I mean it can't be as I enjoyed it, nay, was really taken aback. A real wowsers album.

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Fri May 27 2022
5

Well this is already great. Previous knowledge of Can was basically all of Tago Mago and Vitamin C. But this is Can chilled out and spaced out. Real head music, as they say... So glad I've got another go-to record by them now.

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Sat Sep 17 2022
5

Quick, name a group where the drummer is the most important member. First, let's deal with some obvious choices. Keith Moon of the Who would crash bang wallop into plenty of people's minds when posed that question (although, even subtracting the years when they had separated, the Who has existed for for over twice as many years without Keith Moon than with him). John Bonham, the drunken blacksmith of Led Zeppelin, at least had the band disband when he carked it. Some may suggest Neil Peart, but that carries the proviso that Rush were a right load of yellowing wank. And if Rush are yellowing wank, then the Eagles with Don Henley are fluorescently yellow wank, a yellow that can take out your eyeballs. My dear quackers, the connoisseur's choice for the best decisive drummer in a band is Can's Jaki Liebezeit, the funkiest German who ever drew breath. Against sensible writing practice, I shall not discuss the deific rhythm of Jaki Liebezeit here, as it makes more sense to me that such a hagiography belongs in my review of Tago Mago, their freaky-deaky masterpiece where one cannot distinguish between Jaki and his drumkit. So instead, a quick explanation of Can. Can began in the late sixties when keyboardist and student of Karlheinz Stockhausen Irmin Schmidt returned to Cologne from New York, fascinated by the Velvet Underground and Sly and the Family Stone. Schmidt joined up with bassist and fellow Stockhausen alumnus Holger Czukay and Czukay's guitarist pupil Michael Karoli to forge a new, European take on rock, not blues-based but informed by the avant-garde and musique concrete the men had been weaned on. Add to the mixture a disaffected free jazz virtuoso drummer who had been developing a whole new philosophy of beat, and thence were born both Can and krautrock. Krautrock is the not-especially-PC term contemporary British champions gave for experimental German rock of the 1970s. The astute reader might wonder why we employed the term krautrock at all, since Britain also had its share of experimental rock bands, which we unified with the nominer progressive rock. I like to think that the distinction is important because the 70s German experimental rock bands were a billion times better than the 70s British experimental rock bands. The krautrock bands had no time for flatulent solos, dimwitted concept albums or overwhelmingly banal themes pilfered from Tolkien and Heinlein (if you dare compare Can to Pink Floyd, I will break your hands). Instead, they followed their cutting-edge classical forerunners in making genuinely expansive music that stepped beyond the templates of rock song structure into the realm of the infinitely possible. Although the separate krautrock groups each pursued markedly different paths, two broad styles emerged: the dreamy cosmic ambience of Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel, and the 4/4 motorik beat-driven hypnotic bliss of Can, Neu! and Kraftwerk. As much as I love the former, it's the latter that's clearly what you want to spend your pocket money on. There are two figures to Can I haven't mentioned yet: the singers. The first singer was Malcolm Mooney, an African-American beatnik poet who sadly suffered from mental health issues and had to return to New York after cutting their first released album, the excellent Monster Movie. Finding themselves singerless for an upcoming gig one evening, earlier that day Can spotted a Japanese busker called Damo Suzuki giving a performance art piece in the middle of the street and recruited him straight away. Fortunately Damo's beautiful gibberish (a fusion of English, German, Japanese and whatever sounds Damo thought would work, Damo asserted it was "the language of the Stone Age") complimented Can's trippy, pulsing funkiness perfectly, bcoming an essential component in Can's greatest albums. You know how certain bands possess a groove unique to themselves? Like how when Ray Manzarek's organ and Robby Krieger's guitar interlock in the best tracks of the Doors? Can constructed their best albums from their singular groove. Karoli's guitar gently yet determined soars, Damo's nonsensical, mellifluous vocalisms lie gossamer over the music, and His Holiness Jaki Liebezeit shows that the beat don't stop and that's a fact, Jack. "Constructed" is the apt verb: Can would jam for extended periods (16-hour sessions were common), and Schmidt would subsequently edit the recordings of these, cutting pieces from the tangle that the organism Can weaved. The best example of the Can groove on Future Days is on Bel Air, the 20-minute album finisher. Like pretty much every 20-minuter Can released, it's a real treat, even though the length might render the casual listener apprehensive: casual listener, try growing some balls and a pair of ears. This is in no way to dismiss the rest of the album: Future Days is an unrestricted corker. Can have two albums on the list (they really deserve to have at least 4), and whilst Future Days might not be quite as good as their other included album Tago Mago (in fairness, Tago Mago is a bit ONE OF THE GREATEST ALBUMS EVER MADE), Future Days still justifies, without qualification but with aplomb, its 5 stars. Just listen to the damn drums, man!

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Sun Jan 09 2022
4

Now this is the weird shit I've been waiting for. Never heard of Can before but I love this type of music. It feels very ahead of it's time. I span this a couple of times today and will do so again as it was a trip. Keep this stuff coming.

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Mon Mar 21 2022
4

I love the krautrock, and krautrock doesn't get much better than this. I still prefer Tago Mago (which I find a little more focused), but this album is full of goodness.

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Thu Feb 24 2022
5

Love it! Prog, but on a more chill side.

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Fri Mar 04 2022
5

5 out of 5. Love the vibes. Experimental, but I get what’s happening. Love it.

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Fri Mar 04 2022
5

Very good, love the ambience of the first track, love the chaos of the second one, and the in-between chaos and calm of the last 2. Fantastic album.

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Fri Apr 01 2022
5

Only the second time I listen to It. WOW !

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Mon May 23 2022
5

Classic Can album. Tago Mago - Ege Bamyasi - Future Days - Soon Over Babaluma: a sequence of 4 consecutive 5-star albums.

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Fri Jun 10 2022
5

"50 years later and it still sounds like the future," as someone wise said in this group. It's no coincidence Can has been quoted, praised or embraced by the likes of Radiohead, Portishead or LCD Soundsystem. This German answer to seventies prog-rock understood how one could convey the same hypnotic canvas without resorting to shtick or unnecessary campy solos. A wide variety of styles, from punk to techno, can thank those kraut prophets for their groundbreaking work. This particular album, the last one fronted by singer/howler Damo Suzuki is remarkable for many things, but what's probably most striking is the mesmerizing intricacies of the rhythm section and the very chilled, laidback instrumentation. Think of avant-garde brainy music students being suddenly stranded on a tropical desert island. The end result is lean, devoid of fat, and it's both tense and dreamy all at the same time. This is the last album in the legendary trilogy *Tago Mago*, *Ege Bayasim* and *Future Days* (to which one could easily add precursor *Monster Movie*--Malcolm Mooney was a spectacular frontman, too). As such, it should be owned by every fan of inventive, evocative, groovy, moody, leftfield, forward-sounding music. Number of albums left to review or just listen to: 890 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 58 (including this one) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 29 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more important): 24

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Fri Jul 01 2022
5

Damo's glorious Swan Song with Can. His era was their best, and he left on a beautiful high note. There's nothing else quite like this album, except maybe some of Miles Davis' fusion material? I used to listen to this album to go to sleep to all the time. It has this completely intoxicating, hypnotic sound that just transports me to another place. The atmosphere is exquisite on headphones. I could also see it working well at a chill social gathering. It has such a tranquil and pleasant mood, yet it is far from fluff. In a word: sublime.

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Wed Aug 17 2022
5

The titular track ‘Future Days’ serves as an optimistic opener. The song sails to shore amid slurpy water and warbling wind for two minutes; an ocean-liner organ honks and all the sounds shift into a breezy beat upon reaching the beach. Busily building tension, the band doesn’t drop the volleyball; each instrument skillfully serves the sound and keeps aloft the ambience. Sandpaper percussion scrapes away endlessly; guitar goes again-n-again high and harmonic; onion-y organ peals colorful chords, layered; bass only occasionally underlines a downbeat. Birds chirp and a man mumbles atop this noisy bop. Few words can be discerned; but the one for-sure phrase, for the sake of future days, attached as it is to its hummable lilt, makes for an auspicious and very memorable message. The song jives in its stratified structure, so delicate in its development. Every man jams and no one leads; but everything flows together consistently like a moving amoeba for the entire ten-minutes of tune. The big finish final minute turns into a total trance, the listener likely under the influence of fantasy for the future days. ‘Spray’ starts off burbling and bursting with watery horrid chords. The song swims away as if stalked by prey, the pace quick and panicked. The mad mood persists throughout the piece, repetitive but relentless. Despite the drone, every sudden sound startles. Crash, bump, boo! As principle propeller of the piece, the cymbals are sharp and assertive here. Bongos bonk. Dark guitars reach out of their trench, threateningly. Organ tones blow bubbles and pop. As before, the band spreads out their idiosyncratic organic jam all over the song. Indeed, the Can just can’t contain the jam. Every instrument manages to maintain interesting textural intricacy in an utterly minimalistic manner. The track eventually calms down long enough to settle into a subdued groove for the final few minutes. Words are heard with no chance to be understood. Muttered and mixed low, the lyrics are as mysterious as the deepest sea. In its mere three minutes, fast-blast ‘Moonshake’ proves that Can could be both an always-open “Can of Jam” as well as an effervescing “Pop Can”. The track shudders under a taut beat. Right from the get-go, grossly low ghost tones quaver as if plucked on a rubber band while a groovy guitar cuts a couple chords and the keys keep to a quiet variety. Supplemental percussion reverberates with the brisk beat. The muddled melody bobs along using more choice words of obscurity. Cue keyboard “solo”: the song proceeds through a passage of electronic fiddle-diddle, a sequence of bizarre beeps and squeaks, sweeps and scratches. Although out of touch with the epic and impressionistic pieces found on the rest of the album, ‘Moonshake’ is a dandy danceable tune in its own right. Big ‘Bel Air’ begins with floaty tones, guitar predominating with some sunny chords as flutes and synths move melodically and squeaky bass plays all over the place. Busy drums begin to boogie. If ‘Future Days’ stays on the earthen beach and ‘Spray’ takes a plunge into deep waters, then ‘Bel Air’ ascends into the skies. Welcome to a new world: more mumbly words likely describe the cosmic majesty of this mysterious world from on high, but who can tell? On and up the music moves at will with no impediments to its progress. Chords descend again and again in mesmerizing patterns. The elevation changes. The song passes through clouds and comes into open airs, next sections, a touch of turbulence. The tune travels around different sides of the sky. Everything changes, but still, nothing changes. In this static way, the music is more like visual art; the song experience may be compared to the way a viewer’s eye gazes freely around the contents of a canvas to discern details. It’s all there at once, but the subtle shades of color make the masterpiece. A song is a song, and ‘Bel Air’ is a guided tour of course; but unlike other songs, this one has no definite direction—it chooses to cruise uncompromisingly through its own noble domain. In its middle, the song settles down back to the ground (hear the birds, hear the bugs) only to start the lift-off all over again with a few new mellower melodies included in the mix, all as bewitching as before. If “bel air” is to be translated from French and understood as “beautiful air”, then this track’s title couldn’t be more truthful. As a product of 1973, Future Days predates ambient music. But in keeping with its forward-looking title, the album managed to defy time with its own utterly unique brand of texture-jam. The attention is on the atmosphere alone. The climate is very cool. Don’t wait for a future day to hear this album.

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Sun Aug 21 2022
5

This a landmark album. The mix of ambient music, psychedelic rock, and more electronic sounds sounded like something I could expect to be released by an experimental indie band today. For this to have been released 49 years ago and still sound as relevant as it does is incredible. Can was clearly extremely ahead of their time.

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Fri Sep 16 2022
5

Favorite album I've heard so far. Sort of a Bitches Brew lite. Works as background music but if you give it your attention there is a lot to discover on repeated listens. I will be listening to this one many more times. Incredible drumming also.

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Fri Jan 13 2023
5

Felt like i was meditating listening to this. Very out there, but really liked it.

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Wed Jan 18 2023
5

Metronomic greatness. If you can class this as proggy, this is how it should be not that bloated Genesis album I just had to listen to.

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Thu Mar 09 2023
5

This is next level awesome. Still sounds fresh and cool today.

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Tue Mar 14 2023
5

Arguably the best CAN album, drumming is wild absolute classic

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Mon Mar 27 2023
5

Oh hell yeah! Love love LOVE CAN!! This record is one of my personal favorites! Love all the builds and the drumming is phenomenal! Fantastic guitar work as well on this album.

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Mon Apr 24 2023
5

This is the first album that felt really truly ahead of its time. This feels like post rock. This is soothing and amazing. Five stars.

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Thu Jun 29 2023
5

Very ambient and chill but still super jammy. I can definitely see how much this influenced post-rock down the line. I need to listen to more Can.

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Thu Aug 24 2023
5

A good starting point for CAN and arguably their best album. I would occasionally put this on when I would go to sleep, not because it's boring but because you can get lost in it. I'm always struck by how subdued this feels, particularly the title track and the album closer, at least in comparison to the previous two albums. Even Damo Suzuki sounds like he's restraining himself, vocally at least, either intentionally or from the input of the other band members. Whatever the case is, the end result creates a very focused, fuller realized, set of songs open to more texture and atmospherics in line with their aspirations for writing music for film. In a way, this is CAN at their most mysterious, weird, and adventurous. A 5 rating from me for the albums weight but really more of a high 4 because it doesn't always stick in my head the way I would think.

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Thu Aug 24 2023
5

Not for everyone, but a really strange and beautiful album if you give it a chance. Bel Air is one of the most engaging 20 minute songs I can think of.

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Wed Sep 20 2023
5

Very unexpected 5. I would not predict give full marks to avant-garde, kraut-rock but here we are. Jazzy, ambient, weird but accessible. Sounds like a lot of the Ninja Tune stuff or Beastie Boy tracks I was listening to 25 years later.

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Sun Sep 24 2023
5

10 Albums You Actually Need to Hear Before You Die Chapter 5 Save that Money for a Rainy Day: Can’s “Future Days” It’s an exceptionally rainy and chilly late-September day here in New Jersey, the kind of day where there’s no point in leaving the house, unless it’s an absolute necessity. Better to just stay indoors and take advantage of a rare lazy Saturday. Truth be told, in my twenty-odd years of Can fandom, I’ve really never considered Future Days to be a “rainy day” album. Odd as that might seem, given Future Days’ aqueous themes, it never occurred to me until today. This album always felt very summery, like an album to put on around 7pm on an August night at the beach: the perfect soundtrack to an ocean-viewed sunset. While it fits well for that type of scenario, there is a sense of foreboding running through Future Days, which I am more attuned to today, making it a fantastic record for a rainy day. Can’s intense, minimalist rhythmic drone pulsates, like the sound of droplets of rain pounding down onto your windowsill. Keyboards and sound effects mimic gusts of wind, pushing the sheets of rain back and forth through the air, all while you share a conversation with a close friend (in the form of Can frontman Damo Suzuki). You’re left with a feeling of timelessness: the sky outside looks the same at 4pm as it did at 9 am and there’s no point in keeping track as the hours slowly tick by. It’s a feeling that was true fifty years ago, it’s true today and it will still be true fifty years in the future. Can, seemingly, has found a way to transcend time and space with their music. How else do we account for an album that, 50 years from its release, sounds just as fresh and ahead of its time today? I suspect that in 2073, 100 years from its release, it will still sound ahead of its time, even if I’m not around to confirm that theory. You might think I’m crazy for that statement, but do yourself a favor and listen to Bel Air at the 4:30 mark. Right there, that is the moment that modern-day Radiohead was born. That’s a good 25 years before Johnny Greenwood and Thom Yorke would find success in bringing experimental music to a mainstream audience. Now imagine where this record might lead us, with future generations discovering Can and turning their influence into something new… For the sake of future days, indeed.

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Mon Jun 21 2021
4

Well I'm new to Can but I could see them becoming a new obsession. Brilliant rhythms make for an upbeat enjoyable listening experience and one that I think will hold up to repeated listens...already listened twice today. 4 🌟 bordering on 5

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Thu Oct 14 2021
4

huge surprise here. i'd never heard of them, and yet they were reborn in the late 90s in the form of Air. i've found myself saying this a lot, but i really enjoyed that final track - i guess that was a thing, to throw out some truly ridiculous stuff right at the close of the album. never really thought about it, but now that i am, of course it was a thing. anyway, it's a fun one, and i'm still having trouble believing this album came from 1973. we really did just recycle a lot of the stuff from our collective youth, i suppose, in the 90s...we brought back disco in the form of techno, the vw beetle in the form of the vw beetle...and the influence of the light, airy feel of this album persists across the feathered hair of the 80s, all the way into the 'retro' instagram filters of the moment. it's like they found a wormhole, and somehow lived on both sides of it at once.

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Fri Mar 18 2022
4

The CAN man can, and the CAN'T man can't, but what happens when the CANT man CAN'T cant?

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Fri Apr 22 2022
3

Well this was very interesting. Wasn't sure at first but this grew on me! I need to give a second listen though but I enjoyed the Pink Floyd vibes and I wonder if Radiohead were inspired by this

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Sun Feb 14 2021
1

Sometimes 'experimental' goes too far, and music just becomes a series of unrelated sounds thrown together as has happened here. This is not for me.

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Sun May 09 2021
1

Bobbins. Just pretentious hippy beatnik noise.

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Fri Jul 09 2021
1

Maybe I wasn't in the mood but didn't get much from this.... Definitely too experimental for me. Maybe would get more from it under different circumstances...

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Mon Apr 26 2021
5

Obra maestra del krautrock, inquietante y luminosa al mismo tiempo. Con un tema como Moonshake que puede servir de entrada a su universo y otro como Bel Air, de 20 minutazos, que desarrolla todo su mundo de un solo disparo. Impresionante.

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Sun Mar 20 2022
5

Ovo mi je najdraži Krautrock album, definitivno. ***Krautrock (također nazvan kosmische Musik, njemački za "kozmičku glazbu") je širok žanr eksperimentalnog rocka koji se razvio u Zapadnoj Njemačkoj kasnih 1960-ih i ranih 1970-ih među umjetnicima koji su spojili elemente psihodeličnog rocka, elektronske glazbe i avangardne kompozicije..*** Nekako ovaj album spajam sa proljećem, sredina pjesme Bel Air, cvrkutanje, taj mir što bude, znam točno gdje sam sjedio kad sam prvi put slušo tu stvar, općenito taj album, a da ne govorim s/t pjesmu, definitivno jaka ocjena, 4.5. čim dođe negdje vinyl u blizini, moram ga imati. e da, to je taj Damo Suzuki, u kojem pjevač The Fall-a pjeva na "This Nation's Saving Grace" albumu na pjesmi "I Am Damo Suzuki." možd nisam dugo piso ovo, ali jebem ti majku, fali pola zvjezdice!!!!!!!!

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Fri Jan 20 2023
5

Very free from, chill, playful

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Fri Mar 10 2023
5

We need more white men to get high and write 20 minute long songs

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Mon Mar 13 2023
5

Yes yes yes. This is insanity.

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Wed Mar 15 2023
5

Amazing unique album that gets better with every listen - drumming is unbelievable.

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Fri Mar 17 2023
5

PREFS : TOUT MOINS PREF : RIEN

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Fri Mar 17 2023
5

Super onirique et envoûtant 5*

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Fri Mar 17 2023
5

Rythmiques et transitions de l'espace, une folie

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Sat May 06 2023
5

Really cool stuff, I think the German avant era really speaks to me a lot, but I would say this maybe gets a low 5.

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Thu Jul 08 2021
4

Love it and most all of their stuff

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Thu Jan 21 2021
4

very smooth and at times jazzy

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Fri Feb 05 2021
4

Good album. Would definitely listen to again

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Wed Mar 24 2021
4

Took me by surprise. First track is killer.

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Thu Feb 04 2021
4

Es perfecto para meditar o volar en un viaje astral por el Amazona

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Wed Feb 03 2021
4

Very cool, wasn’t super in the mood

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Thu Jun 10 2021
4

Chilled background psychedelic rock music, some songs better than others but nice for working to

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Thu Jun 10 2021
4

Chilled background psychedelic rock music, some songs better than others but good background for working.

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Wed May 12 2021
4

Great surround sound, has 3d audio. Pink Floyd esque 8/10

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Fri Jul 09 2021
4

I knew Moonrocks but other than that it was a first listen and an a very enjoyable one.

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Thu Aug 19 2021
4

Airy and light, clear influence on future electronica and art-rock outfits like Radiohead. Prog elements and interesting rhythms / chord progressions put above other Krautrock like Kraftwerk.

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Thu Sep 16 2021
4

Interesting and very nice album. Feels like it was made before Tago Mago since it is less experimental but was actually made five years later. It has a nice balance and is very listenable, not as amazing as Tago Mago or Monster Movie.

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Sun Sep 19 2021
4

last song could have been broken up but really talented and technically good :)

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Mon Sep 27 2021
4

Funky, soulful, genre bending

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Wed Nov 10 2021
4

Nice 70s prog. Similar to pink Floyd, needs a re listen

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Fri Dec 17 2021
4

‘Future Days’ is a calm, spaced out mix of shifting prog, ambient and electronic sounds and textures with a jazz sensibility. It’s not quite as off the wall, bonkers or daring as their other album in this list, ‘Tago Mago’, but it’s ultimately more accessible.

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Wed Dec 22 2021
4

extrem genießbar, direkt mehr gehört

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Fri Dec 31 2021
4

Såja! God kål. Har strölyssnat på Can i ett par år, kul att ha en anledning att lyssna lite mer fokuserat, även om det inte är det mest lättuggade. Väldigt stämningsfullt, experimentellt, och lite psykedeliskt. Albumet består av fyra låtar. Låt nr. 3, Moonshake, är väl den mest konventionella, mest för att den är endast ca. 3 minuter lång, till skillnad från låt 1 och 2, som är nära 10 minuter vardera, och låt 4, Bel Air, som tar upp hela B-sidan med sina 20 minuter. Trots att det hör till genren att det ska vara lite svårtillgängligt är det ändå ett relativt vänligt album för ovana lyssnare. Låtarna har till största delen en härlig, ambient vibe, och går bra att bara ha i bakgrunden. Även om det ofta pågår ganska mycket, kanske framför allt i delar av Bel Air, känns det ändå väl uttänkt och samspelt - det blir aldrig för mycket, för spretigt. Bel Air är albumets höjdpunkt, speciellt andra halvan, där tempot successivt ökas. Velade mellan en 3:a och en 4:a. Album av denna typen bör lyssnas på minst 20 gånger innan en rättvis bedömning kan göras, men det hinner jag inte med! Så väljer att fria hellre än fälla. Bästa låt: Bel Air.

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Wed Jan 12 2022
4

I had never even heard of this band before this. While sparse at times, this is still a solid piece of what you could call ambient rock. Has a perfect vibe for putting on as background music.

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Fri Jan 14 2022
4

This was a very interesting, yet relaxing listen. This is definitely something I need to return to and soak in. A unique album full of good, soothing vibes.

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Wed Jan 19 2022
4

Interesting album. Very different and uniquely seductive

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Fri Jan 21 2022
4

What an absolutely gorgeous album. I'm only discovering Can now...in the last year it so and every listen reveals something new (to me). I'm always surprised at how soulful the music. 4.5 🌟

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Tue Feb 15 2022
4

Nice background listen while getting on with work - when you see the tracklist and see 4 tracks, 40 mins, and the last track is half that runtime, you kind of have an expectation of what you're going to get, and you do get that, but I didn't find it as offputting as a lot of that kind of prog. Enjoyed it, would listen again.

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Wed Feb 23 2022
4

Disco bastante extraño pero supongo influencias de lo que harían muchas bandas de los últimos años de combinar fondos electrónicos y de rock, estilo Kasabian. Comienza lento pero cierra mucho mejor. 3.5 que sube a 4 por la sorpresa de que me gustara.

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Sun Mar 13 2022
4

Genre: Krautrock 4/5 This was an album I was looking forward to listening to once I RNG'd it, as Krautrock was a genre I had yet to step foot in. This album by Can, Future Days, is a real treat. This is a rock album we can truly dub as "progressive", as the remnants of early R&B are completely missing, and instead are replaced with more ambient, experimental soundscapes. There's still some guitar, there's still some jammin' (Moonshake), but it's truly a unique space that only a few bands were in at the time. This album in particular was one of the more interesting listens so far throughout this exercise. Completely out of left field for me, as I was expecting something a bit more "difficult". I was treated to some really mellow, really beautiful ambient backdrops, with some true free-time feel. Rather other-wordly, and something I'd never really heard before. Very forward thinking in its sound (re: Animal Collective), but also borrows from contemporate symphonic rock groups at the time like Yes. The 20-minute Krautrock epic, the dreamy and ethereal Bel Air, is a very well-done piece of experimental music that I'm sure will reward repeat listens. Brian Eno's Another Green World is a supposed ambient hallmark, a ripple in music that we still feel today thanks to his stunning ingenuity. It seems that groups like Can had already perfected this sound a few years before that, and did it way better than Eno.

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Fri Mar 25 2022
4

Figo mi è piaciuto, è un viaggio delirante.

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Fri Apr 08 2022
4

There's been sort of a notable absence of Kraut rock on this list so far, as I've been doing this for over a year and this is the first such album that I've gotten. I liked this album. Like most in the genre it's good to just put on and listen to in the background. I'm a bigger fan of Neu than Can, but this is still really cool for the era in which it was made. Really influential stuff that doesn't get its due for its historical importance 4/5

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Sun May 08 2022
4

If you like to walk, hike especially, you’ll certainly appreciate and enjoy the meandering of Can throughout 'Future Days.' The whole journey begins with an ambient wash of machine waves, if that makes sense. Not a lot does on 'Future Days,' seemingly, at least in the accepted wisdom of traditional pop/rock song composition- intro, first verse, chorus, second verse, chorus, bridge, third verse, chorus, conclusion. You can throw all that out the window for this trip. After a full minute ambient introduction, things give way to a slightly Caribbean beat, suggesting steel drums, to which a drone note (only one chord in this nine and a half minute opener) eventually attaches itself, followed by some wonderful synth creations. ‘Spray’ follows, with it’s predominate percussion and some excellent syncopation from drummer, Jaki Liebezeit. The third, and final song on the first side, ‘Moonshake,’ most closely resembles a traditional song structure, but only for three short minutes. It was about this time when I realized how difficult it was to place the vocalist’s nationality. A most unusual accent- a whisper of German, but something else undiscernible, at least to me. In truth, vocalist Damo Suzuki is from Japan, one of the founding members of the mostly German ensemble. His lyrics (in collaboration with the rest of Can) are even more elusive than his vocalization. Here’s a sampling, from the final number: ‘And when nobody can say that you hate. But then your story made the store right now. And when you started to say that you hate. You're coming down to the start up gown.’ And that is just a sampling. The lyrics on Future Days are about as surreal as you’re going to find. Trippy, brothers and sisters. Suzuki’s voice itself, however, it’s tone and timber, gradually grew on me. By the conclusion, I was a fan. It does come with conditions, though, number one being the necessity of written lyrics. Both Suzuki’s pronunciation of English and the heavy studio effects (including a shallow burial of vocals into the overall instrumental mix) make comprehension by ear difficult. But it was during the final and stunning song, ‘Bel Air,’ that I realized that Suzuki’s vocals were better heard as simply another instrument- weaving in and out as soloists do in jazz improvisation- rather than for the goal of achieving some reasonable interpretation. Is it possible that Can’s lyrics (or anyone’s, for that matter) don’t 'have to' mean anything, at least on a rational level? And that final song, ‘Bel Air.’ It’s worth the price of the whole recording. This is where Can really stretches their legs. It’s a long walk, but very satisfying. Part free jazz, part progressive rock, somewhat rehearsed, of course, yet allowing some periodic off-roading improvisation, too. Fans of King Crimson’s stuff will dig 'Future Days,' and ‘Bel Air,’ in particular. And just when you think the song’s complete, surprise! A lightly strummed soul guitar fades in, followed by the entire band, including vocals, settling into an extremely pleasant vibe, like a listening sedative. More free jazz transpires for a few minutes, then giving way to pure ambient noise, slowly crystalized down to one drone note… and yet again, just when you think things are finally winding down, the entire band zooms back in, rocking to the original tempo! I’m not sure what part of this almost twenty minute composition was the conclusion, nor do I care. All I know is that both the journey and the destination were quite enjoyable.

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Thu May 12 2022
4

Post-rock decades before it populaized, it's no wonder they were a huge influence to the likes of Talk Talk. Out of all their albums, it's the most consistent in scope and objective, ambient but doesn't suffer from boring repetition that I felt in Eno's works. Here you could pay attention to each minute. They continue the influence of world music in the percussion style, but also jazz and horror movie soundtrack(?) in "Spray." There's your Public Image Ltd influence. Suzuki vocally interjects here and there, and I have no idea what he's saying, but it fits well with the instrumental. Never excessive. The exception is our standard pop song "Moonshake" where they dump several experimental ideas in something intended to be accessible to audiences... It's hilarious. "Bel Air" pays off for me in the middle, leading to wondrous tension and a decisive 3 minute conclusion.

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Wed May 18 2022
4

Surprisingly delightful. Similar to spirogyra...

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