Jump to content

Future Days

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the Pearl Jam song, see Lightning Bolt (Pearl Jam album).
Future Days
Studio album
ReleasedLate 1973
RecordedJuly-September 1973[1]
StudioInner Space Studio [de] (Weilerswist, West Germany)
Genre
Length41:04
Label
ProducerCan
chronology
Ege Bamyasi
(1972) 		Future Days
(1973) 		Soon Over Babaluma
(1974)
Singles from Future Days
  1. "Moonshake/Future Days"
    Released: 1973[4]

Future Days is the fourth studio album by the German Krautrock group Can, released by United Artists in late 1973. The album employed significantly more complex production than any other album in the Can discography, and explored a more ambient–influenced sound. It was the group's final album to feature vocalist Damo Suzuki, who left the band within a few months after its release.[5]

According to Can biographer Rob Young, Future Days distinguishes itself as the group's "most weightless achievement, perpetuum mobile, solar-powered in an eternal peach sunset, skipping over the tips of green coastal sierras, gulping lungfuls of delicious air."[6]

Background and production

[edit]

In the aftermath of the Ege Bamyasi tour spanning February-May 1973, Can drew their attention back into the recording studio in order to capitalise on the recent live appearances. Before they started working on a new album, the band took a four-weeks vacation,[7] which put them into a "sunny" mood that left an impression on the core sonic themes of Future Days.[8] Holger Czukay took a trip to southeast Asia, his admired region since he sampled traditional Vietnamese music for his Canaxis 5 project.[7] Damo Suzuki traveled back to Japan for the first time in six years, and returned with his hair cropped to just below the ears. He recalled feeling that his home country was very busy, and he found it much better to stay in the slower-paced West Germany.[9] Irmin Schmidt took his family to the south of France, and Michael Karoli visited his family's summer villa at Carvoeiro on the Portuguese coast.[8]

Future Days was recorded at the band's Inner Space Studio [de] in Weilerswist, North Rhine-Westphalia. The recording started in July and ended in early September, undertaking the most complex production to date.[1] "Bel Air" was the first song recorded by the band, captured on tape during one session.[10] While they were recording the track, the studio's heating system sprung a gas leak.[11]

As noted on the original LP sleeve, "Bel Air" is dedicated to Hedy Lamarr, the Vienna-born Hollywood actress and the co-creator of frequency-hopping system for the US navy's torpedoes. Irmin Schmidt, band's keyboard player, greatly admired her story.[12]

Composition

[edit]

Future Days emphasises the ambient elements that Can had explored on previous albums, dispensing with traditional rock song structures and instead "creating hazy, expansive soundscapes dominated by percolating rhythms and evocative layers of keys".[2] PopMatters wrote that Future Days is "driven by a coastal breeze, exuding a more pleasant, relaxed mood than anything the band had previously recorded."[13]

When creating Future Days, Irmin Schmidt kept in mind "the scene they existed in before; made up of an elite imagining it had bought the whole spirit and culture for itself." Schmidt wanted to create something that was "lacking in the [contemporary] music he was making before, was that it had no relation to the body […] What he wanted was to play music with his whole body."[14] According to Rob Young's observation, the instruments performed by Can members on Future Days indeed sounded like a unified and harmonious whole.[15] He highlighted the limited frame of reference on the album, compared to the contemporary albums; capturing the innovative sounds of psychedelic rock and space rock, but in contrast, playing in less "performative and theatrical" tone.[16]

Songs

[edit]

The track "Future Days" opens with a minute of abstract electroacoustic music,[12] which builds into a Latin-tinged groove that languidly cruises through a "turbulent, undulating course".[17] Michael Karoli, Can's guitarist, had a concrete video imagery of "Future Days" as a space story with "a sort of Jules Verne spaceship, a nineteenth century spaceship".[12] "Future Days" has notes of melancholy and the disillusionment heard on "Doko E" from Unlimited Edition, which expresses Damo Suzuki's negative feelings from his recent trip to Japan. The song manifests a picture of a "daily existence that feels empty of meaning, a life postponed".[18]

The shimmering, scouring texture, reminiscent of buzzing cicadas, was created by "overloading the organ through the Farfisa's rotating speaker, processed with the Alpha 77, with extra gating in the mix." Another sound was created as a looped recording of crunching cushion from Can's studio. Holger Czukay integrated an editing trick for the song's coda, looping a segment of the rhythm track at double speed.[17]

The instrumentalism of "Spray", while masterfully performed, doesn't sound "showy or professionalised; the drums played by Jaki Liebezeit hurtle headlong with minimal loss of energy". The drums are "forever in motion" and don't land squarely on a backbeat but "relentlessly ricochet off the pulse in seething drifts".[19] It has been compared to Miles Davis's Bitches Brew and Isaac Hayes's Hot Buttered Soul.[20]

"Moonshake" has been identified by Can's biographer Rob Young among the "Can catalogue of perfectly formed pop songs", alongside "She Brings the Rain" from Soundtracks and "Sing Swan Song" from Ege Bamyasi. It introduces "elements of rock convention and erasing any sense of cliché around them".[4]

Karoli, when working on "Bel Air", was inspired by his recent oceanside vacation. He added an echo effect to his guitar to get a feeling of the cliff's outlines, overlapped with a progression of strong and softer chords. Schmidt, in turn, "got the exact sound of the wind which was blowing in the house where Karoli was staying".[21] Schmidt recalled: "Everybody played very soft and we had headphones on, whoever was at the mixer didn't want to bring the sound up because we would have heard that and it would have disturbed the atmosphere so he didn't dare to move the controls. Thus it got a lot of tape noise," which pretty much starts off the piece.[11] Another highlight for Schmidt was the fact that he he had to "listen, and never interfere" embodying a "just one big ear, looking stunned to my fingers".[22] Can integrated a field recording of a bird in a meadow, which "took pains" for Schmidt to locate in the WDR's sound library.[22]

Release

[edit]

Future Days was released in late 1973 by United Artists Records and supported by the double A-side single "Moonshake/Future Days".[4] While Future Days was still in post-production, Can performed at the Edinburgh International Festival on 25 August, and recorded the show with the intention of releasing a live album, but couldn't release it, because the tapes didn't record crucial elements from the show, such as Michael's guitar and Damo's voice. Before Damo's departure, he performed with the band on eight live dates in Germany between 1 and 14 October, including three double bills with Amon Düül II.[23]

Future Days, along with the rest of Can discography, was remastered from the original tapes and released by the joint efforts of Spoon Records and Mute Records, in both vinyl and CD formats.[24][25]

Artwork

[edit]

The album cover features a midnight blue background contrasted against the serif version of the Greek letter Psi placed in the middle, above the title, and the Chinese I Ching hexagram dǐng, underlining the title. The surrounding graphics are based on the art nouveau.[26] The Psi is shaped like a trident, reflecting the fluid atmosphere of the album; while the upper trigram stands for fire and the lower means gentleness, wind, and wood. Schmidt added the hexagrames, feeling they suited the most "summery and tender record that they've ever done".[26]

Critical reception

[edit]

Contemporary

[edit]

Ian MacDonald of NME praised Future Days, calling it "an immaculate piece of work"—a sound "full of distance and air, halfway between abstract and concrete [..] the best German rock record so far, apart from Faust".[27] Additionally, he praised "Bel Air", saying that "the standard of creative interplay" during the last minutes was "close to supernatural".[22] NME subsequently ranked it the 11th best album of 1974.[28] The french critic Jacques LeBlanc was was impressed by the musicians' ability to submerge themselves "in the ensemble to become Can and express the soul of the group […] a penetrating, hovering sound which ransacks and annihilates you".[29] Paul Alessandrini, writing for Rock & Folk magazine, was captivated by the album, experiencing it as "an invitation to a voyage, a descent into a kind of musical unconscious, a slow, planetary, cosmic vibration, a psychedelic trip […] It's not so much an intellectual music, more of a musical appeal to the senses".[30] John Payne, describing the vocals, said that Damo Suzuki is "more often than not an evanescent sprite, poking his head in on select passages of each piece, as if to prod or enhance, only to dash away as the band takes off on their rigorous roamings into the unknown."[31]

Ray Fox-Cumming of Disc gave the album a negative review, stating that "even after half a dozen hearings I still found most of it went in one ear and straight out the other."[32]

John Peel, reviewing the single Moonshake for Sounds, described it as "less than promising" but overall feeling that "it's great", although its chances to become a hit were "roughly comparable to his chances of being asked to join Ivy Benson's All-Girl Orchestra on harp".[33]

Retrospective

[edit]
Retrospective professional reviews
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[34]
The Great Rock Discography7/10[35]
Pitchfork8.8/10[36]
Spin Alternative Record Guide9/10[37]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[38]

In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Anthony Tognazzini called it "fiercely progressive, calming, complex, intense, and beautiful all at once" and "one of Can's most fully realized and lasting achievements." He especially praised Suzuki's vocals as "all minimal texture and shading" and the track "Bel Air" as "a gloriously expansive piece of music".[2] The Pitchfork review by Dominique Leone admired the "lush veneer" of Future Days, somehow inventing "the greatest tropicália known to man", and Can performing at their most "sensuous or divorced from gravity".[36]

Suzuki called it his best album he made with Can, explaining: "It was very easy to quit from Can after that album. I wanted nothing from them after that. Musically, I was very satisfied."[20] Liebezeit, on the other hand, felt the album was too fragmented, loathing the idea of constructing a track "artificially from the best fragments of tape", while he leaned more towards the "very simple things" from the early Can and preferred to "hone down one monotonous rhythm pattern". In another quote, Liebezeit further explained that the band's music became too symphonic on Future Days—"there was too much the feeling of stitched-together movements, of long-form pieces moving through different variations and atmospheres."[39]

Accolades

[edit]
Publications/sources Accolades Year Rank
Uncut "200 Greatest Albums of All Time" 2016 121[40]
Rolling Stone "50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time" 2015 8[20]
Tom Moon "1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die" 2008 -[41]
GQ "The 100 Coolest Albums in the World Right Now!" 2005 70[42]
Pitchfork "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s" 2004 56[43]
Stylus "Top 101-200 Albums of All Time" 2004 160[44]
Mojo "The 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made" 1995 62[45]

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks are written by Can (Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit, Irmin Schmidt and Damo Suzuki).

Side A

  1. "Future Days" – 9:34
  2. "Spray" – 8:28
  3. "Moonshake" – 3:02
Side B
  1. "Bel Air"[a] – 20:00

Note

  1. ^ "Bel Air" is listed as "Spare a Light" on the vinyl label in the UK vinyl pressing released by the United Artists in 1973 (UAS 29505), however the LP sleeve from the same pressing marks it as "Bel Air".[6]

Personnel

[edit]

Credits adapted from Future Days vinyl liner notes.[46]

Can

Production

  • Ingo Trauer and Richard J. Rudow – cover-art design
  • Chris Sladdin and Volker Liedtke – recording

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Young & Schmidt 2018, pp. 189, 199.
  2. ^ a b c d e Ankeny, Jason. "Can: Future Days > Review" at AllMusic. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  3. ^ "50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone.
  4. ^ a b c d Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 199.
  5. ^ Wray, Daniel Dylan (31 October 2022). "'Having limits is boring': experimental survivor Damo Suzuki on Can, cancer and krautrock". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
  6. ^ a b Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 191.
  7. ^ a b Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 188.
  8. ^ a b Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 189.
  9. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, pp. 188–189.
  10. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 191, 193.
  11. ^ a b Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 192.
  12. ^ a b c Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 194.
  13. ^ "For the Sake of Future Days: Can's Second Golden Era". PopMatters. 5 August 2005. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
  14. ^ Paul Alessandrini (May 1973). "Untitled article". Rock & Folk. No. 76.
  15. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, pp. 189–190.
  16. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, pp. 196–197.
  17. ^ a b c Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 195.
  18. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, pp. 195–196.
  19. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 197.
  20. ^ a b c "50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 17 June 2015. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  21. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 191–192.
  22. ^ a b c Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 193.
  23. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, pp. 202–203.
  24. ^ Gregory Adams (September 4, 2013). "Can Treated to Extensive Vinyl Reissue Campaign; Irmin Schmidt's Solo Work Compiled on 'Villa Wunderbar". Exclaim. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020.
  25. ^ "Can - Serpentine". Nothing but Hope and Passion. 2014.
  26. ^ a b Young & Schmidt 2018, p. 200.
  27. ^ MacDonald 1974.
  28. ^ "NME End Of Year Lists 1974". www.rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  29. ^ Jacques LeBlanc (December 1973). "Future Days review". Extra!.
  30. ^ Paul Alessandrini (December 1973). "Future Days review". Rock & Folk.
  31. ^ John Payne (2005). Sleeve notes to Future Days (remastered edition) (Media notes). Spoon Records.
  32. ^ Fox-Cumming 1974.
  33. ^ John Peel (6 October 1973). "Singles review of Moonshake". Sounds.
  34. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). "Can". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0857125958.
  35. ^ Martin C. Strong (1998). The Great Rock Discography (1st ed.). Canongate Books. ISBN 978-0-86241-827-4.
  36. ^ a b Leone, Dominique (12 July 2005). "Can: Future Days". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  37. ^ Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). "Minutemen". Spin Alternative Record Guide (1st ed.). New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  38. ^ Nathan Brackett; Christian David Hoard (2004). The new Rolling Stone album guide. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-7432-0169-8.
  39. ^ Young & Schmidt 2018, pp. 201–202.
  40. ^ "Uncut Lists". www.rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  41. ^ "Steve Parker - Tom Moon 1000". www.rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  42. ^ "GQ - 100 coolest albums (2006)". www.muzieklijstjes.nl. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  43. ^ "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s – Page 5". pitchfork.com. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  44. ^ "Top 101-200 Favourite Albums Ever : The Stylus Magazine List - Article - Stylus Magazine". stylusmagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2022-02-16. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  45. ^ Stephen, Gordon (August 1995). "Mojo Lists". Mojo. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  46. ^ Future Days (LP liner notes). Can. United Artists. 1973. UAS 29505.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  47. ^ Doyle, Tom (July 2012). "Finding The Lost Can Tapes: Jono Padmore, Irmin Schmidt & Daniel Miller". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 2024-02-19.

Sources

[edit]
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Future_Days&oldid=1280307128"