Can - "Radio Waves"

Your Honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury...

The defendant in today's trial, a German band by the name of Can, stands accused of being a completely kick-ass band. While I am certain that you will agree and help to convict them, I would like to erase any potential doubts you might have by offering up several pieces of evidence. This should cement Can's "guilty" status in your mind.

At this time, I would like to call your attention to Exhibit A, the opening track on Radio Waves. This particular number is called "Up the Bakerloo." It was recorded live for John Peel's BBC radio show and one need look no further than its 35 minute, 19 second running time to grasp the diabolical minds at work here. Can's singer at the time, one Damo Suzuki, is if not the ringleader than certainly a primary driving force. He vocalizes at great length in English, German, Japanese, and (one suspects) even verbal tones with no literal meaning. This piece of music builds and builds, at points positively seething with creativity as though there were too many ideas in the studio on that day for the band to commit to any of them for too long.

Exhibit B follows later in Radio Waves' running order--witness, if you can without turning away, the glaring brilliance of the track called "Entropy." This particular piece, while it is half as long as "Up the Bakerloo," is still as long as one side of most other bands' albums and it too is full of manic, wild instrumentation and more of Suzuki's meta-linguistics. After hearing the guitar playing of one Michael Karoli on this particular piece, I firmly believe that any remaining jury members who have not yet decided on a verdict will quickly find themselves swayed.

However, if that is not enough evidence, I offer up Exhibits C and D: "Little Star of Bethlehem" and "Shikaku Maru Ten". The former is a piece recorded with Can's original vocalist, Malcolm Mooney; Mooney, it is worth noting, was a tall gentlemen of African-American origin whose delivery could not be more different from the subtle, flowing cascade of Suzuki. Mooney's vocals are much more choppy and rhythmic, and certainly more forceful. "Little Star" represents a live alternate take on a song that was originally featured on the group's aborted debut album Delay 1968. The latter piece, "Shikaku Maru Ten," was a B-side to a single from the Tago Mago album, and is clearly a prelude to the work the group would do on their following record Future Days. Drummer Jaki Leibezeit employs a light, jazzy shuffle and keyboard player Irmin Schmidt's use of steel-drum-like tones clearly predict the direction the band would head in shortly after Tago Mago.

Ladies and gentlemen, what you have before you are six of the most notorious musicians ever to pick up instruments in front of microphones. These men have committed unspeakable crimes against boredom and safe formats, and I recommend that you take action for the rest of society: convict them. If you find them guilty of the charges brought against them, hopefully they will receive the punishment they deserve at the hands of justice--that is to say, a few million people buying this record here and making the surviving members of this band as wealthy as they deserve to be for subjecting us to such... such... such superior musical experimentation.

These men are guilty, and I trust that your verdict will render unto them the fate that they deserve.

I have nothing further, Your Honor.