Ege Bamyasi

Production and release

With the commercial success of their hit single "Spoon" (which reached #6 on the German charts and sold 300,000 copies), Can was able to hire a large ex-cinema which they used as a part-working, part-living space. However, things nearly didn't work out as guitarist Michael Karoli recalled that the sessions were "frustrated by keyboardist Irmin Schmidt and vocalist Damo Suzuki's playing chess obsessively day in, day out" and that "completing recording became a frantic process, with some tracks having to be recorded practically in real time and the single 'Spoon' added to make up for a shortfall in material."

Ege Bamyası was recorded by Czukay in the Inner Space studio at Weilerswist, a town near Cologne. It was originally released in 1972 by United Artists. In September 2004, the album, along with the majority of Can's discography, was remastered and released as a hybrid SACD. The re-release includes a booklet with commentary on the album by David Stubbs, as well as previously unreleased photos of the band.

The success of the song "Spoon" and sales from this album inspired Can to throw a free concert in an attempt to reach a wider audience. The Can Free Concert was filmed by Martin Schäfer, Robbie Müller and Egon Mann for director Peter Przygodda at the Cologne Sporthalle on 3 February 1972 and is included on the Can DVD.

Reception and influence

Ege Bamyasi has received considerable critical acclaim since its release. Pitchfork Media featured the record at #19 on its "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s". British music weekly Melody Maker wrote: "Can are without doubt the most talented and most consistent experimental rock band in Europe, England included." PopMatters characterized the album as "every bit as compact and tetchy as its predecessor was epic and spacey," calling it "a masterful piece of psychedelic rock fused with tightly wound funk."

Various artists have cited Ege Bamyası as an influence. Stephen Malkmus of Pavement has been quoted as saying "I played Can's Ege Bamyası album every night before I went to sleep for about three years." Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth recalls, "I found Ege Bamyası in the 49-cent bin at Woolworth's. I didn't see anything written about Can, I didn't know anything about them except this okra can on the cover, which seemed completely bizarre. I finally picked that record up, and I completely wore it out. It was so alluring. Something about it made Can seem to be playing outside of rock 'n' roll. It was unlike anything else I was hearing at the time." Geoff Barrow of Portishead picked Ege Bamyası as one of their favourite 13 albums on The Quietus's Bakers Dozen series. The band Spoon takes its name from the eponymous track on this album, and cites the band as a major influence.

There have been cover versions of songs from Ege Bamyası by various artists. "I'm So Green" was covered by Beck and was submitted for a planned Can tribute album produced by the Dust Brothers. Kanye West sampled from "Sing Swan Song" for his song "Drunk and Hot Girls" on the album Graduation, and derives many of the song's lyrics from Damo Suzuki's vocals. Remix versions of several Ege Bamyası songs are included on the album Sacrilege.

Minneapolis-based hip hop artist I Self Devine sampled from "Vitamin C" for the song "Overthrow" on his 2005 release Self Destruction. The Kleptones have incorporated "Vitamin C" into their mix "Hectic City 7 – May Daze". "Vitamin C" can also be heard in Pedro Almodóvar's movie Broken Embraces. Joe Frank used "One More Night" as the score for "The Road to Calvary" from Somewhere Out There. "Vitamin C" is used in Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice. "Vitamin C" also features prominently in the 2016 Netflix series The Get Down as a theme for the character Dizzee Kipling.

For the album's 40th anniversary, Stephen Malkmus played it in its entirety on December 1, 2012 at WEEK-END Festival in Cologne, Germany. A recording of this performance was released as a limited-edition live album on Record Store Day 2013.

Track listing

All tracks written by Czukay, Karoli, Liebezeit, Schmidt, Suzuki.

Personnel

Production