''Out of Reach'' is the ninth studio album by the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

krautrock band Can, released as an LP in 1978 on

Harvest Records Harvest Records is a British-American record label belonging to Capitol Music Group, originally created by EMI in 1969. History Harvest Records was created by EMI in 1969 to market progressive rock music, and to compete with Philips' Vertigo ...

. It is their tenth official studio album, discounting compilations such as '' Unlimited Edition''.

Context

The band's previous album '' Saw Delight'' was the first to include former

Traffic Traffic comprises pedestrians, vehicles, ridden or herded animals, trains, and other conveyances that use public ways (roads) for travel and transportation. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffi ...

members

Rosko Gee Rosko Gee is a Jamaican bassist, who has played with the English band Traffic on their albums ''When the Eagle Flies'' (1974) and ''The Last Great Traffic Jam'' (2005); with Go featuring Stomu Yamashta, Steve Winwood, Michael Shrieve, Klaus Sc ...

and

Rebop Kwaku Baah Anthony "Rebop" Kwaku Baah (13 February 1944 – 12 January 1983) was a Ghanaian percussionist who worked with the 1970s rock groups Traffic and Can. Biography Baah was born on 13 February 1944, in Konongo, Gold Coast. In 1969, Baah performe ...

. Founding bassist and producer Holger Czukay was reduced to the position of making electronic sounds as Gee took over the bass duties. Czukay left the band during the recording sessions for what was to become ''Out of Reach''.

Style

As a partial result of Czukay's departure, the new members are said to dominate the group's sound on this album (or "to impose too strict a sense of rhythm on Can's once free-flowing music", according to an interview). Critically acclaimed drummer

Jaki Liebezeit Jaki Liebezeit (born Hans Liebezeit; 26 May 1938 – 22 January 2017) was a German drummer, best known as a founding member of experimental rock band Can. He was called "one of the few drummers to convincingly meld the funky and the cerebral". ...

's beats are greatly reduced in their power in relation to Baah's

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

. However, the album's strong guitar solos from

Michael Karoli Michael Karoli (29 April 1948 – 17 November 2001) was a German guitarist, violinist and composer. He was a founding member of the influential krautrock band Can. Career Karoli was born and grew up in Straubing, Bavaria, moving to St. Gall ...

are a link to the older Can sound, and have drawn comparisons to those of Carlos Santana. Gee has also been praised as creating a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

sound, but equally ''Out of Reach'' has been criticized for delving into a disco style.

Music

Rosko Gee takes lead

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

on "Pauper's Daughter and I" (quoting the "

Jack and Jill "Jack and Jill" (sometimes "Jack and Gill", particularly in earlier versions) is a traditional English nursery rhyme. The Roud Folk Song Index classifies the commonest tune and its variations as number 10266, although it has been set to severa ...

" nursery rhyme) and "Give Me No 'Roses'", and is credited with writing these two tracks, although according to a 1997 interview with the band in ''Mojo'' magazine, this lack of collaboration with the rest of the group was a sign that the band was about to collapse. Rebop sings on the track "Like INOBE GOD", which has been called Can's worst-ever recorded piece. The four other songs ("Serpentine", "November", "Seven Days Awake" and "One More Day") are

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...

. A simpler version of November was called "Mighty Girl" in the 1975 session for BBC's John Peel Show.

Reissued versions

''Out of Reach'' has variously been reissued as a double CD with Can's

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

self-titled release '' Can'' (also known as ''Inner Space'' after the band's recording studio) and on its own in several single CD versions, e.g. on MagMid (TKO Magnum Music) in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, but was more difficult to find than other Can albums. Being the only Can album that features no input from Holger Czukay (its followup ''Can'' had some editing by Czukay), it was disowned by the band for many years - hence its rather haphazard reissue history - and was not listed as part of their discography on their official website. It was not issued either as part of Spoon Records' first CD reissues of most of their albums in 1989, nor in a remastered

Super Audio CD Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics and intended to be the successor to the Compact Disc (CD) format. The SACD format allows multiple a ...

edition in 2006 unlike all the other Can studio albums. It was finally officially re-issued by Spoon Records, in CD, vinyl and digital formats, on 18 August 2014.

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

According to the liner notes: ;Can *

- drums *

- guitars, violins on "Roses" *

Irmin Schmidt Irmin Schmidt (born 29 May 1937) is a German keyboardist and composer, best known as a founding member of the band Can. Biography Schmidt was born in Berlin, Germany, began his studies in music at the conservatorium in Dortmund, at the Folkwan ...

- piano, keyboards, Alpha 77 *

- bass, vocal and words on "Roses" and "Pauper's Daughter and I", Fender piano on "Roses", flangbass on "Seven Days Awake" and "Serpentine" *

- percussion,

Polymoog The Polymoog is a hybrid polyphonic analog synthesizer that was manufactured by Moog Music from 1975 to 1980. The Polymoog was based on divide-down oscillator technology similar to electronic organs and string synthesizers of the time. His ...

on "Roses", voice, word melody on "Like Inobe God"

Other personnel

René Tinner René Tinner (born February 18, 1953, in St. Gallen) is a Swiss recording engineer and producer, who has produced over 200 studio records and numerous live performances. Career Tinner began his career as the audio engineer of the German ro ...

- recording engineer *

Conny Plank Konrad "Conny" Plank (3 May 1940 – 5 December 1987) was a German record producer and musician. He is known for his innovative work as a sound engineer and producer in Germany's krautrock and kosmische music scene in the 1970s. Plank was invol ...

- mixing *Hildegard Schmidt - manager *A. Backhausen - photography, cover design

Notes and references

Notes

Citations

{{Authority control 1978 albums Can (band) albums Harvest Records albums