SOON OVER BABALUMA

Can sort of has a Genesis-style problem when it comes to its legacy. The way that many progheads turned their backs on Genesis when Peter Gabriel jumped ship, so, it seems, do not just progheads and acidfreaks, but the post-punks and indie kids as well, to Can post-Damo. About the only exception would have to be the EDM acolytes. And the same way that people who shun every last note of Collins sung Genesis are probably missing out on the first few records of that new era, so does everyone who doesn't listen to "Soon Over Babaluma".

I mean, get this, this is the record in which Can, deficient of Damo's vitamin c though they are, manage to pip the ska-punks and practically invent trance.

Do I have your attention?

The gist of "Soon Over Babaluma" is that the band built off of "Future Days"'s ethereal soundscapes by essentially reunifying them with the grooviness of "Ege Bamyasi", if not in a necessarily immediately recognisable form. Rather than achieve most of that funk with Liebezeit's drums, as the band had usually done, he continues to drum mostly in the vein of "Future Days" while instead Karoli's guitar and violin and especially Schmidt's keys abide by the groove. The results? Ambient house and ambient techno have to owe backrent to this LP. "Dizzy Dizzy" manages to get a violin to jam right out of the gate. "Come Sta, La Luna" sounds like an angelic flamenco band engaging in ska and dub revival. "Splash" and "Quantum Physics" are just plain mind blowing. And then there's "Chain Reaction", as outstanding as the tracks directly surrounding it, but here, in the interplay between Schmidt and Liebezeit, is the spark that birthed trance music. We expected nothing less of The Can, now didn't we? Even Karoli and Schmidt's vocals are up to task. This is the dress rehearsal for "The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld", nothing less, probably something more on top of that. Again, truly outstanding.