Back catalogue: Post Rock/Experimental

Review: RECOMMENDED
You always feel like you've pushed through the other side of the mirror when it comes to CAN. A mysterious, groove-laden, funk-infused yet utterly lucid place where guitar hooks seem to come out of the walls, rhythmic hypnosis draws listeners ever-deeper into a place that, while perhaps not entirely theirs, is one which they helped build in the outer limits of late-1960s surrealist rock.

Laying the foundations for early progressive and krautrock with an avant-garde approach to songwriting, by the time this Stuttgart gig took place they had almost a decade of work to go at, and yet as the tracklist suggests the band always had improvisation at their core in a live setting. Concerts that would transport crowds far beyond the venue, into thick layers of melody, hooks and strange effects, every single recording of every show is a genuine moment in history never to be repeated again.

Review: A classic album in the category of slowcore - which emerged in the late 80s and early 90s as a reaction to the fast and noisy music of punk and hardcore - Codeine's The White Birch is the band's final project. Whereas their first project was a proto-slowcore album to say the least, this finale came at a time in which the genre had fully formed and found its corner. The band by now were building on the bare bones of the sound, adding more melodic variation and extra-ambitious arrangements to an already refined vision. The up-close-and-personal feel of cuts like 'Smoking Room' in particular make us feel like we're right there in the recording studio with Codeine, as if to convey the true rawness of the emotions they'd always tried to convey, but could only accrue the resources and expertise to do during their last hurrah. Fans will be pleased to hear Numero Group are locking in a full reissue bundle of their first and last albums, of which this version of 'The White Birch' is a part.

Review: Numero Group have embarked on a reissues bundle of slowcore pioneer band Codeine's first and last albums, as well as an intermediary EP. 'Frigid Stars' is the former, and made for a remarkable debut album, epitomizing the late-80s-to-early-90s sound that still continues to influence trailblazers in the genre to this day, from Deathcrash to Bardo Pond. Codeine laid it bare before its name was coined: proto-slowcore is heavy, but not aggressive; quiet, but not silent; its vocals are hushed but present, perhaps reflecting the mood of doom that had set upon the local music scene in New York, where the band originate from. Thematically, the LP deals with angsty themes from loss to despair, with choice cuts like 'When I See The Sun' lumbering through ultra-reverb, gothic melodic lulls and guitarry plods to the death.