Out of Reach
Encyclopedia
Out of Reach is the tenth studio album
by the German
krautrock
band Can
, released as an LP
in 1978
on Harvest Records
. It is their tenth official studio album, discounting compilations such as Unlimited Edition
.
was the first to include former Traffic
members Rosko Gee
and Rebop Kwaku Baah
. 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.
's beats are greatly reduced in their power in relation to Baah's percussion
. However, the album's strong guitar solos from Michael Karoli
are a link to the older Can sound, and have drawn comparisons to those of Carlos Santana
and Eric Clapton
. Gee has also been praised as creating a jazz
sound, but equally Out of Reach has been criticized for delving into a disco
style.
on "Pauper's Daughter and I" (quoting the "Jack and Jill
" 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 eschewed for having an 'ethno-disco' feel, and has also been called Can's worst-ever recorded piece.
The four other songs ("Serpentine", "November", "Seven Days Awake" and "One More Day") are instrumental. "November" in particular has been praised as having outstanding guitar work, although others such as the album's closing piece, "One More Day", have been seen as weak and uninspired.
self-titled release Can
(which is also known as Inner Space, named after the band's recording studio). Various other reissued versions of this album do exist on CD
, such as the issue of Out of Reach (without Can) on MagMid (TKO Magnum Music) in the United Kingdom
, although it is considerably more difficult to find than other Can albums in general. However, this album, being the only Can album that features no input from Holger Czukay
(as its 1979 followup Can had some editing by Czukay), has been disowned by the band in recent years as it is not listed as part of Can's discography on their official website, and was not remastered on CD in the 1990s, nor was it reissued on Super Audio CD
in the mid-2000s as all the other Can studio albums were.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
krautrock
Krautrock
Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...
band Can
Can (band)
Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...
, released as an LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
in 1978
1978 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1978.-January–April:*January 14 – The Sex Pistols play their final show at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom....
on Harvest Records
Harvest Records
-References:* Harvest Records collectors guide ISBN 978-5-9622-0021-7...
. It is their tenth official studio album, discounting compilations such as Unlimited Edition
Unlimited Edition (album)
Unlimited Edition is a compilation album by the band Can. Released in 1976 as a double album, it was an expanded version of the 1974 LP Limited Edition on United Artists Records which, as the name suggests, was a limited release of 15,000 copies...
.
Context
The band's previous album Saw DelightSaw Delight
Saw Delight is the ninth Can studio album, and features two new band members who were ex-members of the band Traffic, with Can's bassist Holger Czukay giving up the bass in favour of experimental effects....
was the first to include former Traffic
Traffic (band)
Traffic were an English rock band whose members came from the West Midlands. The group formed in April 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason...
members Rosko Gee
Rosko Gee
Rosko Gee is a Jamaican bassist who has played with the English band Traffic on their albums When the Eagle Flies and The Last Great Traffic Jam , with the supergroup Go conceived by Stomu Yamashta, which also included Steve Winwood, Al Di Meola, Klaus Schulze and Michael Shrieve, and with the...
and Rebop Kwaku Baah
Rebop Kwaku Baah
Anthony "Reebop" Kwaku Baah was a Ghanaian percussionist perhaps best known for working with the 1970s rock groups Traffic and Can.-Biography:...
. Founding bassist
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Holger Czukay
Holger Czukay
Holger Czukay is a German musician, probably best known as a co-founder of the krautrock group Can. Described by critic Jason Ankeny as "successfully bridg[ing] the gap between pop and the avant-garde," Czukay is also notable for creating early important examples of ambient music, for exploring...
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 LiebezeitJaki Liebezeit
Jaki Liebezeit is a drummer probably best known as a founding member of Can who has been 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
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
. However, the album's strong guitar solos from Michael Karoli
Michael Karoli
Michael Karoli was a German guitarist, violinist and composer. He was a founding member of the influential krautrock band Can....
are a link to the older Can sound, and have drawn comparisons to those of Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
and Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
. Gee has also been praised as creating a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
sound, but equally Out of Reach has been criticized for delving into a disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
style.
Music
Rosko Gee takes lead vocalsSinging
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
on "Pauper's Daughter and I" (quoting the "Jack and Jill
Jack and Jill (song)
"Jack and Jill" is a classic nursery rhyme in the English speaking world. The origin of the rhyme is obscure and there are several theories that attempt to interpret the lyrics. The rhyme is known to date back to at least the 18th century. The song is sometimes titled "Jack and Gill", particularly...
" nursery rhyme
Nursery rhyme
The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...
) 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
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
, 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 eschewed for having an 'ethno-disco' feel, and has also been called Can's worst-ever recorded piece.
The four other songs ("Serpentine", "November", "Seven Days Awake" and "One More Day") are instrumental. "November" in particular has been praised as having outstanding guitar work, although others such as the album's closing piece, "One More Day", have been seen as weak and uninspired.
Reissued versions
Out of Reach has been reissued along with Can's 19791979 in music
See also:Record labels established in 1979* 1979 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1979.-January–February:*January 1...
self-titled release Can
Can (album)
Can, also known as Inner Space, is the eleventh studio album by Can, released in 1979. Former bassist Holger Czukay's involvement with this album is limited to tape editing...
(which is also known as Inner Space, named after the band's recording studio). Various other reissued versions of this album do exist on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
, such as the issue of Out of Reach (without Can) on MagMid (TKO Magnum Music) in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, although it is considerably more difficult to find than other Can albums in general. However, this album, being the only Can album that features no input from Holger Czukay
Holger Czukay
Holger Czukay is a German musician, probably best known as a co-founder of the krautrock group Can. Described by critic Jason Ankeny as "successfully bridg[ing] the gap between pop and the avant-garde," Czukay is also notable for creating early important examples of ambient music, for exploring...
(as its 1979 followup Can had some editing by Czukay), has been disowned by the band in recent years as it is not listed as part of Can's discography on their official website, and was not remastered on CD in the 1990s, nor was it reissued on Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD is a high-resolution, read-only optical disc for audio storage. Sony and Philips Electronics jointly developed the technology, and publicized it in 1999. It is designated as the Scarlet Book standard. Sony and Philips previously collaborated to define the Compact Disc standard...
in the mid-2000s as all the other Can studio albums were.
Track listing
Personnel
- Rebop Kwaku BaahRebop Kwaku BaahAnthony "Reebop" Kwaku Baah was a Ghanaian percussionist perhaps best known for working with the 1970s rock groups Traffic and Can.-Biography:...
: Vocal, Polymoog Synth, Percussion - Michael KaroliMichael KaroliMichael Karoli was a German guitarist, violinist and composer. He was a founding member of the influential krautrock band Can....
: Guitars, Violin - Irmin SchmidtIrmin SchmidtIrmin Schmidt is a German keyboard player and composer, probably best known as a founding member of the band Can.-Biography:...
: Keyboards - Rosko GeeRosko GeeRosko Gee is a Jamaican bassist who has played with the English band Traffic on their albums When the Eagle Flies and The Last Great Traffic Jam , with the supergroup Go conceived by Stomu Yamashta, which also included Steve Winwood, Al Di Meola, Klaus Schulze and Michael Shrieve, and with the...
: Bass, Piano, Vocal - Jaki LiebezeitJaki LiebezeitJaki Liebezeit is a drummer probably best known as a founding member of Can who has been called "one of the few drummers to convincingly meld the funky and the cerebral"....
: Drums