LANDED

Can: Michael Karoli (vocals, guitar, violin); Irmin Schmidt (vocals, keyboards); Holger Czukay (vocals, bass); Jaki Liebezeit (woodwinds, drums, percussion).
Additional personnel: Olaf Kubler (tenor saxophone).
Recorded at Inner Space Studio, Weilerswist, Germany in 1975.
1975's LANDED is among the most controversial titles in the hefty Can catalog. Opinion varies as to whether it is the last great Can album or a dismal failure that represents the beginning of the end for the legendary German band. The fact is that LANDED is both. And, no matter how you feel, LANDED is too complex an album to submit to such a simplistic good/bad dichotomy.
LANDED can't be dismissed offhand, if only because the album directly follows Can's high-water mark, SOON OVER BABALUMA. Such tracks as "Half Past One" and "Red Hot Indians" repeat BABALUMA's electrifying recombination of pan-cultural rhythms and ethnic flavors but suffer from a lack of definition. A prog-rock mentality creeps into LANDED, manifested with such telltale symptoms as showy musicianship ("Vernal Equinox"), odd keyboard fills, and overly glossy production. But there's excellent material here. The closing "Unfinished" explores an impressive composite soundscape reminiscent of Teutonic contemporaries Faust. "Vernal Equinox" scales multiple peaks between its excesses. "Full Moon on the Highway" and "Hunters and Collectors" bristle with eccentric pop flourishes. The album as a whole may be uneven, but LANDED is still unmistakably Can.

• Genre: Pop
• Format: Vinyl
• Released: 10/07/2014