Out of Reach (album)

Out of Reach is the ninth studio album by the German krautrock band Can, released as an LP in 1978 on Harvest Records.[1] It is their tenth official studio album, discounting compilations such as Unlimited Edition.

Out of Reach
Studio album by Can
Released	July 1978
Recorded	October 1977
Genre	Krautrock disco Latin rock
Length	35:19
Label	Harvest
Producer	Can
Can chronology
Saw Delight (1977) Out of Reach (1978) Can (1979)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[2]
Pitchfork	3.7/10[3]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[4]

Context

The band's previous album Saw Delight 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[5] as Gee took over the bass duties. Czukay left the band during the recording sessions for what was to become Out of Reach.[1]

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[6]). Critically acclaimed drummer Jaki Liebezeit's beats are greatly reduced in their power in relation to Baah's percussion.[1] 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.[7] Gee has also been praised as creating a jazz sound,[1] but equally Out of Reach has been criticized for delving into a disco style.[7]

Music

Rosko Gee takes lead vocals 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,[1] 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.[6] Rebop sings on the track "Like INOBE GOD", which has been called Can's worst-ever recorded piece.[1]

The four other songs ("Serpentine", "November", "Seven Days Awake" and "One More Day") are instrumental.

Reissued versions

Out of Reach has variously been reissued as a double CD with Can's 1979 self-titled release Can (also known as Inner Space after the band's recording studio)[8] and on its own in several single CD versions, e.g. on MagMid (TKO Magnum Music) in the United Kingdom,[9] but was long more difficult to find than other Can albums.[1] Being the only Can album that features no input from Holger Czukay (its followup Can had some editing by Czukay[10]), 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.[11] 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 edition in 2006 unlike all the other Can studio albums.[12] It was finally officially re-issued by Spoon Records, in CD, vinyl and digital formats, on 18 August 2014.[13]

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
1.	"Serpentine[1]"	none	Karoli, Liebezeit, Schmidt, Gee, Baah	4:03
2.	"Pauper's Daughter and I"	Gee	Gee	5:57
3.	"November"	none	Karoli, Liebezeit, Schmidt, Gee, Baah	7:37

Side two

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
4.	"Seven Days Awake"	none	Karoli, Liebezeit, Schmidt, Gee, Baah	5:12
5.	"Give Me No 'Roses'"	Gee	Gee	5:21
6.	"Like Inobe God[lower-alpha 1]"	wordmelody by Baah	Karoli, Liebezeit, Schmidt, Gee, Baah	5:51
7.	"One More Day"	none	Karoli, Liebezeit, Schmidt, Gee, Baah	1:37
Total length:				35:19

Personnel

Musicians

According to the liner notes:

• Jaki Liebezeit: drums
• Michael Karoli: guitars, violins on "Roses"
• Irmin Schmidt: piano, keyboards, Alpha 77
• Rosko Gee: bass, vocal and words on "Roses" and "Pauper's Daughter and I", Fender piano on "Roses", flangbass on "Seven Days a Week" and "Serpentine"
• Rebop Kwaku Baah: percussion, Polymoog on "Roses", voice, wordmelody on "Like Inobe God"

Other personnel

• René Tinner: recording engineer
• Conny Plank: mixer
• Hildegard Schmidt: manager
• A. Backhausen: photography, cover design

Notes and references

Notes

1. 6:18 on remastered edition.

Citations

1. Mason, Stewart. "Can: Out of Reach" at AllMusic. Retrieved 21 February 2007.
2. Larkin, Colin (2011). "Can". Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0857125958.
3. Richardson, Mark (11 August 2003). "Can: Out of Reach". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
4. Nathan Brackett; Christian David Hoard (2004). The new Rolling Stone album guide. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-7432-0169-8.
5. "Saw Delight". Can Releases. Spoon Records. Archived from the original on 2007-01-03. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
6. Gill, Andy (April 1997). "Can". Mojo. London: EMAP Performance. ISSN 1351-0193. Archived from the original on 5 May 1999.
7. Prindle, Mark. "Out of Reach". Can. MarkPrindle.com. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
8. "Can & Out of Reach" at AllMusic. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
9. Channel 4 SlashMusic Archived January 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
10. "Can". Can Releases. Spoon Records. Archived from the original on 2007-01-01. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
11. "Can Releases". Discography. Spoon Records. Archived from the original on 2007-02-27. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
12. "Can ‒ Remastered!!!". News. Spoon Records. July 2005. Archived from the original on 1 December 2005.
13. "MUTE • Can • Release all their studio albums individually on vinyl – including Out Of Reach, available for the first time since 1978 (CD/LP/Digital)". Mute.com. 18 June 2012. Retrieved 18 August 2014.