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All Gates Open
'A real treat for Can fans.' Spectator
All Gates Open is the definitive story of the most influential and revered avant-garde band of the late twentieth century: Can.
In part one, Rob Young gives us the full biography- an in-depth and exhilarating history of the band.
In part two, Irmin Schmidt presents an oral history of Can, drawing on extensive interviews with many musicians who cite the band as an influence, including Bobby Gillespie and Mark E. Smith.
An essential book for Can fans, All Gates Open is illustrated throughout with previously unseen art, photographs and ephemera from the band's archive.
All Gates Open is the definitive story of the most influential and revered avant-garde band of the late twentieth century: Can.
In part one, Rob Young gives us the full biography- an in-depth and exhilarating history of the band.
In part two, Irmin Schmidt presents an oral history of Can, drawing on extensive interviews with many musicians who cite the band as an influence, including Bobby Gillespie and Mark E. Smith.
An essential book for Can fans, All Gates Open is illustrated throughout with previously unseen art, photographs and ephemera from the band's archive.
573 pages, Paperback
Published November 5, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
May 18, 2019
This is actually two books in one.
The first, written by Rob Young, is the story of Can, the best band most people don't know. As musical biographies go, it is fairly conventional - lots of interesting stories, very detailed, and full of flowery adjectives that attempt to describe the music and fail spectacularly. A book like this can only be written by a huge fan, for better or worse: you will learn a lot about Can, but it also veers dangerously close to hagiography at some points.
However, the second book is the true treasure here. "Can Kiosk", by Irmin Schmidt. A collage of texts, interviews and conversations by the Can keyboard player which offers an extraordinary glimpse of how Can worked, how he thinks about all sorts of topics in art and music, and how he developed his views of the world. This book is truly fascinating and offers excellent themes for reflection and thought.
The first, written by Rob Young, is the story of Can, the best band most people don't know. As musical biographies go, it is fairly conventional - lots of interesting stories, very detailed, and full of flowery adjectives that attempt to describe the music and fail spectacularly. A book like this can only be written by a huge fan, for better or worse: you will learn a lot about Can, but it also veers dangerously close to hagiography at some points.
However, the second book is the true treasure here. "Can Kiosk", by Irmin Schmidt. A collage of texts, interviews and conversations by the Can keyboard player which offers an extraordinary glimpse of how Can worked, how he thinks about all sorts of topics in art and music, and how he developed his views of the world. This book is truly fascinating and offers excellent themes for reflection and thought.
April 28, 2023
Can have a reputation for being one of the ultimate cult, hipster groups, listened to by the cognoscenti. I remember learning about them some time around 2000 because I kept hearing that bands that I liked such as Radiohead or Sonic Youth were fans. I found one of their albums in a record shop and was perplexed when I listened to it, and thought it really wasn't that great. As it turns out I found their self titled album from 1978, which is widely considered to be a stinker. I tried them again a couple of years later when I found Tago Mago in another record store, and this time I could understand why so many cool musicians were such big fans.
I've been listening to them now for 20 years or so, and despite their cult status (up there with the Velvet Underground) their story is much less well known than some of their peers. This book fills the gap. The first half is a fairly conventional biography of the group. It is fascinating to see how the band come together from disparate backgrounds, with Irmin and Holger starting off in Avant Garde classical music, studying under Stockhausen, Jaki having played in jazz groups as a virtuoso drummer working his way through corpus of the genre though to Free Jazz, before becoming disenchanted with it and turning towards simplicity and monotony, and Michael being discovered by Holger as a guitar virtuoso when he taught music in Austria. It's also very interesting to see how they emerged in the context of post-war Germany, and Rob Young explores the artistic and political ferment that was taking place at the time. You then learn how they adopted two outsiders to be their lead singers, the African American hippy artist Malcolm Mooney and the free-spirited Japanese wanderer Damo Suzuki, who both managed to bring a singular and unrepeatably quintessence to the group.
The second half is a looser text from Irmin Schmidt, one of the co-founders of the group, featuring interviews with musicians, artists, actors and film makers who were inspired by them including Mark E Smith, Bobby Gillespie, John Malkovich, Wim Wenders, Peter Savile, Geoff Barrow and others. It also has Irmin's musings and diaries. It gets a bit repetitive and it isn't neatly ordered, but that fits with the artistic risk taking and improvisation that made Can what they were.
Altogether, well worth reading if your a fan of Can and any kind of arty, Avant Garde rock music.
I've been listening to them now for 20 years or so, and despite their cult status (up there with the Velvet Underground) their story is much less well known than some of their peers. This book fills the gap. The first half is a fairly conventional biography of the group. It is fascinating to see how the band come together from disparate backgrounds, with Irmin and Holger starting off in Avant Garde classical music, studying under Stockhausen, Jaki having played in jazz groups as a virtuoso drummer working his way through corpus of the genre though to Free Jazz, before becoming disenchanted with it and turning towards simplicity and monotony, and Michael being discovered by Holger as a guitar virtuoso when he taught music in Austria. It's also very interesting to see how they emerged in the context of post-war Germany, and Rob Young explores the artistic and political ferment that was taking place at the time. You then learn how they adopted two outsiders to be their lead singers, the African American hippy artist Malcolm Mooney and the free-spirited Japanese wanderer Damo Suzuki, who both managed to bring a singular and unrepeatably quintessence to the group.
The second half is a looser text from Irmin Schmidt, one of the co-founders of the group, featuring interviews with musicians, artists, actors and film makers who were inspired by them including Mark E Smith, Bobby Gillespie, John Malkovich, Wim Wenders, Peter Savile, Geoff Barrow and others. It also has Irmin's musings and diaries. It gets a bit repetitive and it isn't neatly ordered, but that fits with the artistic risk taking and improvisation that made Can what they were.
Altogether, well worth reading if your a fan of Can and any kind of arty, Avant Garde rock music.
June 1, 2018
A few years ago, David Stubbs wrote the definitive history of German kosmische music, Future Days: Krautrock and the Birth of a Revolutionary New Music (2015). The book treated Can as important, but just one piece of the story, the second chapter dedicated to the band, sandwiched between Amon Düül II and Kraftwerk. Rob Young’s thesis, on the other hand, is that Can towers above their contemporaries. Nevermind that Kraftwerk achieved far greater commercial success, and Neu!, Cluster and Faust were hipper names to drop, at least in certain circles in the 90s. Nevermind that Can’s influences reach far and wide, from punk and post-punk to Brian Eno & David Byrne’s My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (1981) and sampling culture, hip hop, Tortoise and Radiohead. Even if they were forgotten and influenced no one, what matters to me most is that they’re a fucking magnificent band in any context. Tracks from their peak work from 1971 to 1975 sound timeless, even fresh. I love that Rob Young also appreciates the music for what it is.
I became aware of Can due to an eerie, mysterious 1985 track by The Fall called “I Am Damo Suzuki.” I learned that was the name of Can’s singer during their peak period, but I was unable to hear the original because their albums simply were not available. I may have heard “Vitamin C,” “Soup,” or “I Want More” during some late-night listening to a local college radio station, but I had no idea what they were at the time. Loop covered “Mother Sky” in 1988 which whet my appetite, and I dug hard and deep through the used record stores, but came up with zilch. Luckily, the albums were issued on CD for the first time on their Spoon label in 1989, and I finally got to hear the glorious run of albums of Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyasi (1972), Future Days (1973), and Soon Over Babaluma (1974). I gradually filled out my collection with all the albums, even the considerably less great Out Of Reach (1978) and the reunion album Rite Time (1989).
The basics of Can’s story has been told numerous times since the 90s. Students of Karlheinz Stockhausen with backgrounds in classical (György Ligeti, Pierre Boulez) and jazz (Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, John Coltrane) got together and organically evolved to a new sort of avant rock, influenced not only by The Velvet Underground and film soundtracks, but also James Brown, electric era Miles Davis, Silver Apples, Pink Floyd and Captain Beefheart. From the earliest tracks in 1968, released later as Delay (originally meant to be called Prepared To Meet Thy Pnoom), the band sounded like no one else. Coming out of the psychedelic era, their music was not expansive like space rock and prog, but seemed to deconstruct the DNA of rock’s heartbeat, stripping rhythm down to bare bones, stream-of-consciousness lyrics from both Malcolm Mooney and Damo Suzuki that suggest an inward journey. It made all kinds of sense that they named their studio Inner Space.
“Inner Space: could any phrase be more appropriate, more suggestive of Can’s destination and destiny? The opposite direction from outer space, in contrast to the tendency towards ‘kosmische’, or cosmic, rock perpetrated by many German acts such as Tangerine Dream, Cluster and Ash Ra Tempel several years later. It suggested a retreat to a psychological state, a self-examination, a hermetic environment, a laboratory of the mind. It is possible that, while in New York, Irmin heard about or even saw Andy Warhol’s film Outer and Inner Space – premiered in January 1966 – and the phrase lodged in his mind.”
Along with the vocalists, Holger Czukay, Jaki Liebezeit, Irmin Schmidt and Michael Karoli were all deeply weird, unique individuals, never cut out to be rock stars, at least as conceived in the traditional sense. It doesn’t seem that they consciously tried to avoid mainstream popularity. They simply had no clue how to play that game. I laughed at loud at this passage:
“…he wrongfoots the interviewer’s expectations that he should act as a spokesman for politically disaffected youth. Instead, he attempts a McLuhanite deconstruction of the Fourth Estate. ‘TV is interested in the opinions of beat musicians in politics because it knows they have nothing to say, or a confused message,’ he says. ‘They are not interested in anything that has a clear socialist message, but they know they are not going to get it … Television knows that only a sound bite can be included. “
Intellectuals to the core, they were unintentionally “difficult” interview subjects, yet at the same time earnest and down to earth, at least in terms of how their creative process involved more instinct than thinking.
According to my Kindle, I highlighted over 120 passages in the book. And that’s even before getting to the second part by Irmin Schmidt. Assembled as a collage with snippets from various interviews with modern musicians, filmmakers and artists, it feels to me more of an appendix rather than an essential part of the book. The interview with The Fall’s Mark E. Smith was amusing, but hearing a bunch of people talk about how they were influenced by Can gets old. If anything, after the losses of Czukay and Liebezeit last year, it helps ward off the melancholy to read some contributions from the sole remaining original member. I’m sure there’s a few gems of insight hidden in the final pages which I’ll get to eventually, but to me, the essential part of the book is by Rob Young. Essential.
Further listening: Intimidated by the band’s large-ish catalog? Last year’s The Singles compilation is a great place to start, including more manageable edits of some sprawling tracks, plus some great non-album singles like “Turtles Have Short Legs.” Though if you’re a true Can geek, you’ll want to hear everything while reading the book, including The Lost Tapes box set and Unlimited Edition, which includes some of their global music experiments in the Ethnological Forgery Series tracks.
I became aware of Can due to an eerie, mysterious 1985 track by The Fall called “I Am Damo Suzuki.” I learned that was the name of Can’s singer during their peak period, but I was unable to hear the original because their albums simply were not available. I may have heard “Vitamin C,” “Soup,” or “I Want More” during some late-night listening to a local college radio station, but I had no idea what they were at the time. Loop covered “Mother Sky” in 1988 which whet my appetite, and I dug hard and deep through the used record stores, but came up with zilch. Luckily, the albums were issued on CD for the first time on their Spoon label in 1989, and I finally got to hear the glorious run of albums of Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyasi (1972), Future Days (1973), and Soon Over Babaluma (1974). I gradually filled out my collection with all the albums, even the considerably less great Out Of Reach (1978) and the reunion album Rite Time (1989).
The basics of Can’s story has been told numerous times since the 90s. Students of Karlheinz Stockhausen with backgrounds in classical (György Ligeti, Pierre Boulez) and jazz (Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, John Coltrane) got together and organically evolved to a new sort of avant rock, influenced not only by The Velvet Underground and film soundtracks, but also James Brown, electric era Miles Davis, Silver Apples, Pink Floyd and Captain Beefheart. From the earliest tracks in 1968, released later as Delay (originally meant to be called Prepared To Meet Thy Pnoom), the band sounded like no one else. Coming out of the psychedelic era, their music was not expansive like space rock and prog, but seemed to deconstruct the DNA of rock’s heartbeat, stripping rhythm down to bare bones, stream-of-consciousness lyrics from both Malcolm Mooney and Damo Suzuki that suggest an inward journey. It made all kinds of sense that they named their studio Inner Space.
“Inner Space: could any phrase be more appropriate, more suggestive of Can’s destination and destiny? The opposite direction from outer space, in contrast to the tendency towards ‘kosmische’, or cosmic, rock perpetrated by many German acts such as Tangerine Dream, Cluster and Ash Ra Tempel several years later. It suggested a retreat to a psychological state, a self-examination, a hermetic environment, a laboratory of the mind. It is possible that, while in New York, Irmin heard about or even saw Andy Warhol’s film Outer and Inner Space – premiered in January 1966 – and the phrase lodged in his mind.”
Along with the vocalists, Holger Czukay, Jaki Liebezeit, Irmin Schmidt and Michael Karoli were all deeply weird, unique individuals, never cut out to be rock stars, at least as conceived in the traditional sense. It doesn’t seem that they consciously tried to avoid mainstream popularity. They simply had no clue how to play that game. I laughed at loud at this passage:
“…he wrongfoots the interviewer’s expectations that he should act as a spokesman for politically disaffected youth. Instead, he attempts a McLuhanite deconstruction of the Fourth Estate. ‘TV is interested in the opinions of beat musicians in politics because it knows they have nothing to say, or a confused message,’ he says. ‘They are not interested in anything that has a clear socialist message, but they know they are not going to get it … Television knows that only a sound bite can be included. “
Intellectuals to the core, they were unintentionally “difficult” interview subjects, yet at the same time earnest and down to earth, at least in terms of how their creative process involved more instinct than thinking.
According to my Kindle, I highlighted over 120 passages in the book. And that’s even before getting to the second part by Irmin Schmidt. Assembled as a collage with snippets from various interviews with modern musicians, filmmakers and artists, it feels to me more of an appendix rather than an essential part of the book. The interview with The Fall’s Mark E. Smith was amusing, but hearing a bunch of people talk about how they were influenced by Can gets old. If anything, after the losses of Czukay and Liebezeit last year, it helps ward off the melancholy to read some contributions from the sole remaining original member. I’m sure there’s a few gems of insight hidden in the final pages which I’ll get to eventually, but to me, the essential part of the book is by Rob Young. Essential.
Further listening: Intimidated by the band’s large-ish catalog? Last year’s The Singles compilation is a great place to start, including more manageable edits of some sprawling tracks, plus some great non-album singles like “Turtles Have Short Legs.” Though if you’re a true Can geek, you’ll want to hear everything while reading the book, including The Lost Tapes box set and Unlimited Edition, which includes some of their global music experiments in the Ethnological Forgery Series tracks.
July 13, 2023
I gotta be real, I bailed on the last 50 pages of part one. It got a little stuffy and in-depth for me. CAN KIOSK, on the other hand, is what I want books about music to be. Music is inseparable from culture, history, and life. Irmin Schmidt is a genius and I would read a Knausgaard style accounting of his life
June 19, 2018
Excellent biography of one the greatest bands of all time, Can. Well written and researched by Young, a journalist who has written about Can and interviewed band members on multiple occasions. Although I had read other articles and books about the band, Young throws up a few tidbits that were new and surprising to me. Also features contributions from the sole surviving core member of the group, Irmin Schmidt. Jaki Leibizeit and Holgar Szukay both sadly died last year. Note: I read a copy of the actual book, and it is a lovely big thick hardcover. Highly recommended for music fans, a must have for those who love Can and "krautrock" in general.
April 23, 2020
Books about specific musical groups are nice but they are only essential to diehard fans. My usual trajectory when I fall in love with a band is that I listen to a couple of albums and become obsessed, if there is a book about the band I read it and while reading it I listen to as much of their music as I can get my ears on and by the time I finish the book I move onto something else. Long story short this is perfectly fine but unless you are into Can don’t worry about it.
June 16, 2021
The first part of the book, i.e. the chronological chronicle of the band and its times, was good. Even big fans will learn stuff. Rob Young, whose book "Electric Eden" I loved, is a good writer.
The second part (the "Can Kiosk")..I stopped reading it after a few pages. Despite what both Irmin Schmidt and his wife seem to think, Irmin Schmidt isn't all that interesting.
The second part (the "Can Kiosk")..I stopped reading it after a few pages. Despite what both Irmin Schmidt and his wife seem to think, Irmin Schmidt isn't all that interesting.
November 13, 2018
The '70s man. What a crazy time.
September 9, 2018
This is actually two books: the first part, by Rob Young, is very well written and researched with the wealth of detail and information about the band, its players and historical context never overwhelming the narrative. There are occasional rock critic indulgences, incuding perhaps one too many attempts to describe particular musical works in non-musical terminology, but this is more than made up for by the author's obvious enthusiasm and fan's eye for detail.
I haven't spent as much time with the second portion of the book which is made up of recent discussions and diary entries from Irmin Schmidt and various others, but it's quite enjoyable as well, though perhaps better suited for casual browsing than the more attentive reading required for the historical section.
I haven't spent as much time with the second portion of the book which is made up of recent discussions and diary entries from Irmin Schmidt and various others, but it's quite enjoyable as well, though perhaps better suited for casual browsing than the more attentive reading required for the historical section.
September 19, 2019
For those not in the know - Can were a psychedelic/progressive band from Germany, founded in 1968, by two classical music refugees and featuring a young rock-n-roller guitar player, a free-jazz-turned-groovemeister drummer and a succession of singers, from an ex-pat African-American to a Japanese busker. Their music was different from the progressive scenes in the UK and U.S., being mostly based on improvisations that they would hone down into 5-to-10 minute tracks for their albums (occasionally getting to the 15-minute mark). They were one of those bands who weren't enormously popular while they were active, but became a major influence on loads of other artists after they disbanded.
Rob Young occasionally writes for The Wire - the ultimate music-snob magazine. He handles the first half of the book, a straight-up history of the group, starting with post-WWII Germany up to the band's mid-1980s one-off reunion (after they disbanded in 1979). He covers the formation of the band in the late 1960s with detail, especially original singer Malcolm Mooney's back-story and his meeting with keyboardist and de-facto "leader" of Can, Irmin Schmidt. There's also plenty of discussion of their early soundtrack work and even descriptions of the films that the tracks were used in. Each album also gets an in-depth look, though Young goes a bit overboard on some of them. He takes a page and a half to describe how the track "Bel-Air" (from the 1973 'Future Days' LP) sounds to him. Despite his crit-speak sometimes getting in the way of the narrative, he delivers a pretty concise over-view and the flow is exemplary - you never get bogged down in too much detail. There may be a better Can book to be written, but with most of the original members now passed away and second singer Damo Suzuki reluctant to discuss his time in Can - it looks unlikely that will happen.
The second half of the book is by Irmin Schmidt himself and consists of round-table discussions featuring Schmidt and musicians inspired by Can, snatches of dreams, a few diary extracts and thoughts on music. The memories from his youth in post-war Germany are quite interesting, as are his commentary on paintings. He comes across as a thoughtful and introspective character, almost wistful and you wonder how he made it through the rigours of touring in a rock band. You kind of wish Schmidt had written the entire book, but then I think the first half does benefit from an impartial perspective.
Overall, I enjoyed "All Gates Open", just for an in-depth look at a band that hadn't had this kind of 'major book' treatment before. There was a book included in the "Can Box" set, released in 1999, but I found it difficult to read. If you're a Can fan - this one's well worth a read.
Rob Young occasionally writes for The Wire - the ultimate music-snob magazine. He handles the first half of the book, a straight-up history of the group, starting with post-WWII Germany up to the band's mid-1980s one-off reunion (after they disbanded in 1979). He covers the formation of the band in the late 1960s with detail, especially original singer Malcolm Mooney's back-story and his meeting with keyboardist and de-facto "leader" of Can, Irmin Schmidt. There's also plenty of discussion of their early soundtrack work and even descriptions of the films that the tracks were used in. Each album also gets an in-depth look, though Young goes a bit overboard on some of them. He takes a page and a half to describe how the track "Bel-Air" (from the 1973 'Future Days' LP) sounds to him. Despite his crit-speak sometimes getting in the way of the narrative, he delivers a pretty concise over-view and the flow is exemplary - you never get bogged down in too much detail. There may be a better Can book to be written, but with most of the original members now passed away and second singer Damo Suzuki reluctant to discuss his time in Can - it looks unlikely that will happen.
The second half of the book is by Irmin Schmidt himself and consists of round-table discussions featuring Schmidt and musicians inspired by Can, snatches of dreams, a few diary extracts and thoughts on music. The memories from his youth in post-war Germany are quite interesting, as are his commentary on paintings. He comes across as a thoughtful and introspective character, almost wistful and you wonder how he made it through the rigours of touring in a rock band. You kind of wish Schmidt had written the entire book, but then I think the first half does benefit from an impartial perspective.
Overall, I enjoyed "All Gates Open", just for an in-depth look at a band that hadn't had this kind of 'major book' treatment before. There was a book included in the "Can Box" set, released in 1999, but I found it difficult to read. If you're a Can fan - this one's well worth a read.
February 9, 2019
Finally, a complete biography of my favorite band of all time. I first discovered Can at college in 2001 during the early days of music sharing via kazaa and napster. I spent the next few years scouring ftp sites and IRC rooms looking for bootleg live shows and videos much like a deadhead would for their band. Thankfully nowadays you can find all of their music on youtube or buy it online but there has still been very little reliable info on the band members themselves. Apart from The Can Book which I mail ordered long ago (and was mostly just transcripts of various interviews and reviews of albums) there hasn't been much written about the founders and history. This book pretty much spells it all out, and gives a view of the german "krautrock" scene during the heyday of progressive and psychedelic rock. You won't find much scandal or insane drug stories here, but each member really was as unique and complicated as their musical output suggests. Thank you Rob Young for finally giving us a definitive history of one of the most innovative bands of any time.
February 2, 2024
Well-researched,literate and thoughtful this biography of the German avant-garde band is fascinating - documenting their move from Stockhausen-influenced collage,film and television soundtracks to live improvisation.
As their guitarist put it, their focus was playing as a unit:
‘Kraftwerk were very close to us. But from the beginning they were more on the electronic side, more on the mechanical side, whereas we were always on the physical side, doing physical music.’
Their history places them firmly in the development of modern music, as Rob Young says:
"..the permission Can clearly gave for Germanic music to embrace the machine, to thieve the Promethean fire of technology and make it human. To put forward a distinctive German musical sensibility without shame, unhindered by the calamities of the past."
As their guitarist put it, their focus was playing as a unit:
‘Kraftwerk were very close to us. But from the beginning they were more on the electronic side, more on the mechanical side, whereas we were always on the physical side, doing physical music.’
Their history places them firmly in the development of modern music, as Rob Young says:
"..the permission Can clearly gave for Germanic music to embrace the machine, to thieve the Promethean fire of technology and make it human. To put forward a distinctive German musical sensibility without shame, unhindered by the calamities of the past."
February 17, 2024
It seemed appropriate to finish this on the day I learned we lost Damo Suzuki.
An absolutely astonishing book, maybe the best music biography I've read. Can were not a conventional band, and this is not a conventional book. Part 1 is an erudite and passionate history of the band, from their origins in jazz, rock and postwar German classical music, to their status as one of the most influentialbands in history, by music writer Rob Young. Part 2, by keyboard player Irmin Schmidt, is a collage of conversations, memoir, and thoughts on making music. The Can aesthetic in literary form.
Highest possible recommendation if you're a Can fan. And if not, listen to Tago Mago, Future Days, and the rest, with this as your guide. I hope you enjoy the adventure.
An absolutely astonishing book, maybe the best music biography I've read. Can were not a conventional band, and this is not a conventional book. Part 1 is an erudite and passionate history of the band, from their origins in jazz, rock and postwar German classical music, to their status as one of the most influentialbands in history, by music writer Rob Young. Part 2, by keyboard player Irmin Schmidt, is a collage of conversations, memoir, and thoughts on making music. The Can aesthetic in literary form.
Highest possible recommendation if you're a Can fan. And if not, listen to Tago Mago, Future Days, and the rest, with this as your guide. I hope you enjoy the adventure.
July 15, 2018
Really two books in one. The first an extensive and revelatory history and atomization of the albums. The best parts are really the various stories of the complications and creative struggles which are endlessly fascinating to read when they take place with your artist heroes.
The second part of the book is directly from Irman’s notes and various conversations. The first with the recently departed mark e smith of another favorite band. And then onto several more conversations and loads of various reminiscing.
All in all a massive tome to while away your Can fascination while listening to your favorite Can cd. I actually learned that I’d never heard one of them much to my surprise!
The second part of the book is directly from Irman’s notes and various conversations. The first with the recently departed mark e smith of another favorite band. And then onto several more conversations and loads of various reminiscing.
All in all a massive tome to while away your Can fascination while listening to your favorite Can cd. I actually learned that I’d never heard one of them much to my surprise!
August 21, 2018
I've been looking forward to this book ever since it was announced and I have to say that it lived up to every one of my expectations. The main portion, Young's overview of the band's career, does an excellent job of not only tracing their arc, but also how they have influenced the last forty years of creative music. At first I wasn't sure about the last part, where it essentially gets turned over to the journals of Irmin Schmidt and transcripts of conversations between various musicians and producers, but I warmed to his approach and realized that it made sense reaching back to the spirit of exploration.
November 1, 2019
A book of two halves, and not entirely successful. The first half, a biography of Can by British music writer Rob Young, does a great job of putting the band and their music in both historical and artistic context. The second half, Can Kiosk by Irmin Schmidt, has some fascinating parts, mostly the salon-style conversations on various topics by Irmin, friends and famous fans. But the section from his notebooks was self-indulgent and only intermittently interesting, and there were a few other bits that I frankly just didn't get at all. But I feel more grounded in the story of a band I've long loved but really knew very little about.
January 1, 2025
Great overview of this extraordinary band's history and a look behind the scenes of creative processes and as well an entertaining read with amusing anecdotes.
At times quite repetitive with random leaps in time (some extra editing would be beneficial) and plenty of fanboy bias in the description of songs and live shows (there is none but praise for all but one of their albums), and the reader is a bit left in obscurity what lead to the band split and what were the tensions within. Here the reader only gets glimpses of the whole story, since 90% of the content and statements is provided by Keyboarder and founding member Irmin Schmidt.
3.5 / 5
At times quite repetitive with random leaps in time (some extra editing would be beneficial) and plenty of fanboy bias in the description of songs and live shows (there is none but praise for all but one of their albums), and the reader is a bit left in obscurity what lead to the band split and what were the tensions within. Here the reader only gets glimpses of the whole story, since 90% of the content and statements is provided by Keyboarder and founding member Irmin Schmidt.
3.5 / 5
May 7, 2025
Effectively pulls back the curtain on one of the most mysterious and powerful rock bands. Can's music has always sounded to me like transmissions from another planet, so I was initially hesitant to dig into the story of the humans behind the magic. But Rob Young does a great job honoring the elusive, mystical quality of the music while deciphering what makes it so special.
One of the best rock bios I've ever read. If you have even a cursory appreciation of the power of Can you will be immediately sucked in to this engrossing book.
One of the best rock bios I've ever read. If you have even a cursory appreciation of the power of Can you will be immediately sucked in to this engrossing book.
January 16, 2019
Excellent biography. I have all of Can's albums and a few of the solo records. There are a few surprises here- how they found their vocalists; John Lydon pitching himself as lead vocalist only to find the band broke up; the lucrative tv soundtrack work. The second part of the book features band member Irmin Schmidt's notes and conversations relating to the book. When reading music biographies I often listen to music cited by the musicians as influences or simply what they find moving. Irmin references a few 15th century composers in the ecclesiastical/vocal music genre all with unique styles.
October 2, 2021
A thorough history of one of the greatest experimental/art bands of all time. As someone only vaguely familiar with the band's history, the main biography section was excellent and highlighted some touchstones that I will be sure to check out (such as the myriad of European art films to which the band provided soundtracks). The interviews in the book's latter half were also a pleasure to read.
April 13, 2024
This was an ILL with a limited time to read. So i dipped in - here there and the end. Very good, chock a block full of anecdotal you were there stuff and loads of insight into how things came about for Can. And quite a smorgasbord of interesting stuff to comb through. For me, a bit much in the "Jaki drumming was so great like the thunder of Gorillas clapping on the moon".
August 18, 2024
The definitive story of one of the most influential and revered bands of the late 20th century. A band who's fingerprints are everywhere, yet somehow are still beneath the radar for many. The book reveals the band's astonishing story and beautifully captures and pinpoints their essence. An invaluable illumination of why the music of Can matters, and continues to resonate.
July 20, 2025
Not bad. But does dwell a lot on the minutiae of detailed backdrop of recording and who knew who in German arty society. Some ace bits two, the discussion with Mark E Smith was great as was anecdotes about Damo. Not as rich a vein for rock anecdotes as Bowie/Beatles/Stones books. Glad I read it mind and one of the all time greats.
June 10, 2018
This will probably stand as the definitive biography of this amazing German band but, although Rob Young's research and insights can't be faulted, they remain something of an enigma. Personally, I wouldn't want it any other way and it's still essential reading for discerning rock fans.
March 31, 2019
A bio of the German experimental rock band Can. The first 2/3 provides a deep dive into the history of the band. The last 1/3 is transcribed conversations with notable Can fans and Irmin Schmidt’s journal entries. Liked it a lot.
December 20, 2019
love this band and their origin story is fascinating. true artists! makes me feel like a square! but the second half of the book with interviews of admirers was pointless. could have used a better editor.
August 16, 2023
The first half, the story of Can is brilliantly told. The second half, a sort of collection of appendices is of variable quality but has some high peaks including Irmin interviewing MES and John Malkovich
May 31, 2018
An excellent book about one of Germany's most legendary groups.
Read a review on my blog at...
http://www.chrismeloche.com/?p=475
Read a review on my blog at...
http://www.chrismeloche.com/?p=475
July 18, 2018
Strictly for Can superfans. I reviewed All Gates Open for The Current.
September 1, 2018
great book in two parts
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