Continuing on something of a Krautrock kick. I first heard of Can via an (excellenct) cover Radiohead did at a show at the shoreline, and while I know I've heard Ege Bamyasi, I have little memory of it.
This more or less fits what I've come to expect from Krautrock, very long songs, sparse instrumentation, a general sense of space, built up over time through ambient tones and repetitive jamming. What's harder to put my finger on is why its so good. I can certainly see the influence on Radiohead and Liars, two bands with no small degree of mastery over making a song work via the details between the notes.
The weird thing about it is (though I'm sure plenty of people would disagree with me on this) it doesn't come across as pretentious. The songs are long, there's disregard for pop appeal, the singing descends into chanting, and songs ascend into tribal raveups. But somehow I didn't get the impression that it was trying to impress me with how arty it is; it just is what it is. It seems outside of music in ways the best Radiohead and Beatles songs do. It is patient, occasionally catchy, and it is alive in subtle ways. I don't know if I'm just getting swept up in the hype around this band, which is much acclaimed in certain circles, but I found that the 77 or so minutes of music went down surprisingly easily, and left me excited instead of bored 4.5/5
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