Monster Movie | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 2 August 1969 [1] | |||
Recorded | July 1969 | |||
Studio | Schloss Nörvenich (Nörvenich, West Germany) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 38:05 | |||
Label |
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Producer | Can | |||
Can chronology | ||||
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Original cover | ||||
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [4] |
BBC | very favorable [5] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [6] |
The Great Rock Discography | 7/10 [7] |
Pitchfork | 8.7/10 [8] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [9] |
Spectrum Culture | 5/5 [10] |
Spin Alternative Record Guide | 7/10 [11] |
Stylus Magazine | A [12] |
Tom Hull | A− [13] |
Monster Movie is the debut studio album by German rock band Can, released in August 1969 by Music Factory and Liberty Records.
In 1968, Can had recorded an album entitled Prepared to Meet Thy PNOOM, which no record company agreed to release; these recordings were eventually released in 1981 as Delay 1968 . Monster Movie was the group's subsequent attempt at a more commercial record. [14] The album is credited to "The Can", a name suggested by vocalist Malcolm Mooney and adopted by democratic vote. Previously the band had been known as "Inner Space", which later became the name of their recording studio. Some copies of the LP bore the subtitle "Made in a castle with better equipment", [15] referring to Schloss Nörvenich, the 14th-century castle in Nörvenich, North Rhine-Westphalia, where the band recorded from 1968–69. [16]
Monster Movie was mastered at Studio for Electronic Music (WDR) in Cologne by Can's engineer Holger Czukay, the former student of Karlheinz Stockhausen. [17]
The image on the cover is a retrace of Galactus, as originally depicted by Jack Kirby (inked by Vince Colletta) in Marvel's Thor #134 - page 3, released in 1966. [18] [19] The original sleeve art, produced by Music Factory and designed by artist Helge Bauch, features a large orange circle against a white background containing a printmaking drawing. The head of the Music Factory, Karlheinz Freynik, described the drawing as "mystical from Greek myths that fits to the music". Rob Young, Can's biographer, saw a naked old man on the drawing "peering into what looks like the flaming portal of hell. He is surrounded by demons and a goat-headed man gnawing on a limb". [20]
Monster Movie brings together elements of psychedelic rock, blues, free jazz, world music and other styles, the influence of the Velvet Underground [21] [22] being particularly obvious on the opening track "Father Cannot Yell". The use of improvisation, experimentation, tape editing and layering of sounds set a standard for Can's subsequent albums in the early 1970s, which helped form the style labeled "krautrock" by the British music press. The 20-minute closing track "Yoo Doo Right" was edited down from 6 hours of improvisation. [21] The lyrics of "Mary, Mary So Contrary" are based on the English nursery rhyme "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary".
Monster Movie was the last Can album on which Malcolm Mooney performed all of the vocals until Rite Time , recorded in late 1986 and issued in 1989. [23] [24]
Monster Movie initially came out in late August 1969 on a small German label "Music Factory". Kalle Freynik, the head of the label, as a part of his contract with the band had a goal to "promote the product as good as the label can, and when there's any reaction the label will try to get it on a major label". The initial pressing was five hundred copies, distributed by Freynik "in carefully selected head shops and underground shops to boost the band's reputation by word of mouth". The first pressing quickly sold out, and Freynik approached Liberty Records/United Artists signing a distribution deal for Monster Movie. [25] Liberty's issue released in May 1970 with an updated cover. [26]
Richard Williams, writing for New Musical Express, identified the Velvet Underground influence on the album's shorter tracks, bu admitted "they have a lot of themselves to offer, mainly in the field of electronics, which they use with sparing brilliance, and the interplay between the Morse-code organ and the machine-gun drums on "You Do Right" [ sic ] is extremely startling". Williams praised Malcolm's performance—"wailing and screaming fits perfectly where a less reticent singer would obtrude. In fact they use another of the Velvets' favourite tricks, putting the voice beneath the instruments so that it tantalises the listener unbearably." [27] [28]
All tracks are written by Can (Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit, Irmin Schmidt, and Malcolm Mooney).
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Father Cannot Yell" | 7:06 |
2. | "Mary, Mary So Contrary" | 6:22 |
3. | "Outside My Door" | 4:11 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
4. | "Yoo Doo Right" | 20:27 |
Total length: | 38:06 |
Can were a German experimental rock band formed in Cologne in 1968 by Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt (keyboards), Michael Karoli (guitar), and Jaki Liebezeit (drums). They featured several vocalists, including the American Malcolm Mooney (1968–70) and the Japanese Damo Suzuki (1970–73). They have been hailed as pioneers of the German krautrock scene.
Irmin Schmidt is a German keyboardist and composer, best known as a founding member of the band Can.
Michael Karoli was a German guitarist, violinist and composer. He was a founding member of the influential krautrock band Can.
Kenji Suzuki, known as Damo Suzuki (ダモ鈴木), was a Japanese musician best known as the vocalist for the German Krautrock group Can between 1970 and 1973. Born in 1950 in Kobe, Japan, he moved to Europe in the late 1960s where he was spotted busking in Munich, West Germany, by Can bassist Holger Czukay and drummer Jaki Liebezeit. Can had just split with their vocalist Malcolm Mooney, and asked Suzuki to sing over tracks from their 1970 compilation album Soundtracks. Afterwards, he became their full time singer, appearing on the three influential albums Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyası (1972) and Future Days (1973).
Malcolm Mooney is an American singer, poet, and artist, best known as the original vocalist for German krautrock band Can.
Tago Mago is the second studio album by the German krautrock band Can, originally released as a double LP in August 1971 on United Artists Records. It was the band's first full studio album to feature vocalist Damo Suzuki after the departure of Malcolm Mooney the year prior, though Suzuki had been featured on most tracks on the 1970 compilation album Soundtracks. Recorded at Schloss Nörvenich, a medieval castle near Cologne, the album features long-form experimental tracks blending rock and jazz improvisation, funk rhythms, and musique concrète tape editing techniques.
Ege Bamyası is the third studio album by German krautrock band Can, released on 29 November 1972 by United Artists Records. The album contains the single "Spoon", which charted in the Top 10 in Germany after being used as the theme song to the German television mini-series Das Messer. The success of the single allowed Can to establish their own studio, Inner Space, in Weilerswist, North Rhine-Westphalia, where they recorded the rest of the album.
Soundtracks is a 1970 compilation album by the German krautrock group Can, containing music written for various films. The album marks the departure of the band's original vocalist Malcolm Mooney, who sings on two tracks, and his replacement by Damo Suzuki. "Don't Turn the Light On, Leave Me Alone" features Suzuki's first recorded performance with the band. Stylistically, the record also documents the group's transition to the more meditative and experimental mode of the studio albums that followed.
Soon Over Babaluma is the fifth studio album by the rock music group Can. This is the band's first album following the departure of Damo Suzuki in 1973. The vocals are provided by guitarist Michael Karoli and keyboardist Irmin Schmidt. It is also their last album that was created using a two-track tape recorder.
Out of Reach is the ninth studio album by the German krautrock band Can, released as an LP in 1978 on Harvest Records. It is their tenth official studio album, discounting compilations such as Unlimited Edition.
Rite Time is the eleventh and final studio album by the German rock band Can. Though Can had not yet split up, it is considered a reunion album because of the time elapsed since the band's previous album, Can, was released in 1979. The album consists of sessions recorded in the South of France in late 1986, edited extensively by the band over the course of subsequent years. Rite Time features the vocals of the band's original singer, Malcolm Mooney, who had left the group in 1970 after their debut album Monster Movie. Upon the album's initial release, "In the Distance Lies the Future" only appeared on the CD version, but it was included on the 2014 vinyl reissue.
Delay 1968 is a compilation album by the German experimental rock band Can released in 1981. It comprises previously unreleased work recorded for Can's rejected debut album, Prepared to Meet Thy Pnoom, recorded with the singer Malcolm Mooney.
"Mushroom" is a song by the German krautrock band Can, from their 1971 album Tago Mago. It's the shortest song on the album, with a duration of 4 minutes and 8 seconds. A video was made for the track which has been shown on MTV.
Can Live Music is a double live album by the band Can, released in 1999 and recorded in the UK and West Germany between 1972 and 1977. It was originally included in the now out-of-print Can box set, Can Box.
Can, also known as Inner Space, is the tenth studio album by experimental rock band Can, released in 1979. Former bassist Holger Czukay's involvement with this album was limited to tape editing. It was Can's last album before the reunion album Rite Time, ten years later, and was released after the band's break-up.
Unlimited Edition is a compilation album by the band Can. Released in 1976 as a double album, it was an expanded version of the 1974 LP Limited Edition on United Artists Records which, as the name suggests, was a limited release of 15,000 copies. The album collects unreleased music across the band's history, from 1968 to 1975, and both of the band's major singers are featured. The cover photos were taken among the Elgin Marbles in the Duveen Gallery of the British Museum.
The Lost Tapes is a compilation album of studio outtakes and live recordings by the German experimental rock band Can, which was originally released as an LP in 2012 by Spoon Records in conjunction with Mute Records. The compilation was curated by Irmin Schmidt and Daniel Miller, compiled by Irmin Schmidt and Jono Podmore, and edited by Jono Podmore.
Kamasutra: Vollendung der Liebe is a 1969 film score by Innerspace Productions, an early name for the band Can. It was recorded as the soundtrack for the West German film of the same name and was released some 40 years later in 2009. The musical styles heard on the album demonstrate a temporary departure from the Krautrock sound the band was producing around that time, experimenting with styles such as South Asian music and blues rock, more in keeping with Indian setting of the film. Among their first recordings, this score, together with the band's previous soundtrack album Agilok & Blubbo, are seldom discussed by the band members. Neither have material on the band's 1970 compilation Soundtracks which consists of songs previously only heard on film soundtracks.
All Gates Open: The Story of Can is a book about the German experimental rock band Can, written by British writer and editor Rob Young and Can founding member Irmin Schmidt. It was published in May 2018 in the United Kingdom by Faber and Faber in two editions, a trade edition in hardback, and a handbound and autographed limited edition.
Live in Paris 1973 is a live double-album by German krautrock band Can, recorded at a performance of the band at L'Olympia in Paris, France. It was released on vinyl and CD by Spoon Records on 23 February 2024, two weeks after the death of Can member Damo Suzuki on 9 February 2024.