Can
Soundtracks

In 1970, the band found themselves without a vocalist, as Malcom Mooney left due to a nervous breakdown... The solution was discovered by chance outside a café where Czuckay and company met a young Japanese homeless man performing a delirious street show... Immediately, the IDEA struck their twisted minds: "Let's take him with us and have him perform at our concert tonight...". The rest is history.

The album that inaugurates the magical decade is "Soundtracks", a collection of songs composed as soundtracks for various underground films.

Despite its "Original Soundtrack" nature, the album is very cohesive, the quality of the tracks is exceedingly excellent and on par with its (rightfully) acclaimed successor "Tago Mago", and it marks the appearance of the first great classic of Can, "Mother Sky": a great psychedelic ride with great editing by the usual Czuckay on the tapes, in which he also engages in the overdubbing of two hypnotic bass parts.

"Deadlock" also stands out for its intensity, especially in Damo Suzuki's powerful vocal performance and the presence of Karoli's highly reverberated and tormented guitar. The harmonies are tragic but not pietistic, with a very decadent flavor. In short, another great classic effective even in its brevity. The subsequent reprise is also notable.

Another great track is "Tango Whiskyman" with its strange Nippo/Germanic taste, especially in the transition from minor to major in the refrain, where Liebezeit's brilliant rhythm dominates (whose arrangement truly makes a difference, projecting the track directly into the 90s) and especially the beautiful melody of the verse (I might be off, but it strongly reminds me of that recent HipHop "song" where Mariah Carey sings "baby if you give it to me I'll give it to you"... plagiarism?).
"Don't turn the light..." is another "highlight" of the album (excuse the pun). Great whispered atmosphere and beautiful descending harmonic progression on the bass pedal.

Within the album, in addition to these tracks, which are the very first vocal performances of Damo Suzuki, we find the last vocal performances of the departed Mooney, specifically "Soul Desert", not bad but not comparable to the rest of the album, and the surprising swing-like exploit of "She brings the rain", where on a very smooth jazzy guitar by Karoli, the American vocalist shows great feeling (a note on the track: the sound that appears to be a violin in the background is actually Karoli's guitar overdubbed; it tricked me on the first listen... eh eh eh...).

In conclusion, a great and highly underrated album from our Teutonic heroes, almost always overshadowed due to its "Soundtrack" nature, but in my opinion, it should be elevated and joined with the recognized Tago/Ege/Future trilogy...