MOVIES

Holger Czukay the CAN bassist has released a lot of solo albums over the years, this happens to be the third one I've reviewed and my least favourite by far of those three. Loved his "Canaxis 5" release from the late 60's and to a lesser extent "Full Circle" from 1982 but this particular album goes places I do not like. Lots of humour and of course sampling. Everyone from CAN but their vocalist is involved on one track here while Jaki Liebezeit does play drums and congas throughout. Holger thanks John Foxx of ULTRAVOX for pushing him to finish this album when he wanted to give up. This was released in 1979.

Up first is "Cool In The Pool" a poppy and humerous tune that I cannot hardly stand(haha). Catchy but lame especially the vocals of Holger and the lyrics. Oh my! Lots of silliness late. So yes this is getting off on the wrong foot big time. "Oh Lord Give Us More Money" has all the CAN guys helping out but Damo. Sadly Holger's vocals really disappoint. Lots of repetitive beats, synths and guitars. It kicks in loudly after 3 minutes with vocals almost shouting the words. Samples before 4 1/2 minutes go on for some time then more vocals. We get an extended instrumental section late.

"Persian Love" actually does work sounding very much like a Persian love song with male and female vocals. It's kind of cool actually and my favourite from the album. "Hollywood Symphony" is the longest tune at 15 1/2 minutes but I'm not convinced. We get vocals in a strange soundscape and synths give us this orchestral vibe. Suddenly before 2 1/2 minutes we get random snippets of Hollywood movies. This is all over the place though and I'm just not into it at all.

So I would recommend "Canaxix 5" and "Full Circle" to anyone wanting to check out Holger's solo stuff but for my tastes this was a disappointment. 3 stars.