I'm guessing that you went by allmusic's 5 star rating on both of these Schulze albums (I do that frequently to determine which album of an artist I try first), but I think in this case allmusic gives the stars to the wrong album. Hands down, the best album of Schulze is X. The opening song "Friedrich Neitzsche" is his best in my opinion - and lots of people agree. I just checked amazon and they sell this album for $39!! =( Since you probably don't want to shell out 40 bucks just to TRY an artist that 95% of listeners wouldn't "get", then I'd say Timewind followed by Moondawn are the next best albums.

If you want a great run down of Schulzes albums go to this site http://starling.rinet.ru/music/schulze.htm . In fact it's from this page that I found out about Schulze in the first place.

OK< i'll keep an eye peeled for X.

And yeah, i find all music works best when the same person has reviewed each album by an artist, that way there's a standard set, whereas like w/ schultze's entries, when you have many reviewers, the stars themselves really dont account for too much. The actual review for X agrees w/ you and your informer.

If you like Can, Damo Suzuki recently blessed the mic on the new Sixtoo album out on Ninja Tune!
I heard a advance of it and Damo's lyrics are so improv-o-licious!

If you get a chance to listen.....tell me what you think!

M.M

Future Days is their most concise album. Good stuff...

Would Embryo be considered Kraut Rock?

seeing as I recollect you enjoy "World Music" I think it would behoove you. The thing about CAN is that they threw everything to the wall to see what would stick. Lo and behold, most of it did.

Another nod for "Future Days" but "Tago Mago" is pretty marvelous also.

I think they are as important as any Rock Band of the era just because the net they cast was so wide and they caught so many wonderful things in it.

My friend played "storm clouds and silver linings" for me and I can't get enough of it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love Damo Suzuki's voice.

What's it gonna take to get some more Can discussion? Am I gonna have to buy everyone copies of Tago Mago, Ege Bayamasi, and Future Days?? I mean these guys pioneered so many genres of today's music it's unbelievable. Their sound is totally unique and hip to the max. Except for the elite few on this board, no one here seems to know ANYTHING about this band - and I think it's a shame, cause Can are one of the greats of the 70's.

I think a lot of the Can ignorance can be blamed on their own sound...they were hugely influential, sure...but not everyone will enjoy their music on its own terms; they were very experimental and innaccessible for the "rock & roll" music of the time (( perhaps less so than say, Faust, but they were still fairly "out there")) and I doubt every fan of music from this period will appreciate them...

For such an experimental band, they were remarkably listenable. I always thought they were a fairly easy to enjoy band. The first thing I heard by Can was "Mother Sky" and I knew I liked the band on the very first listen. For other bands it can take numerous listens before I grow accustomed to their style (and this is for pop bands!).

They are kind of like the Velvet Underground to me - experimental for their time, but still very listenable (although both bands sound totally different).

Brilliant band, for sure.

I've had some great reactions from friends when I play 'Tago Mago' for them. One guy cried during 'Halleluhwah' at the intensity of it all, and another guy said 'Wow - I never knew Germans could be that FUNKY!!!'

I'm going to get on the case with that Krautrock thread...