The Final CHAOS - H3 - Chairman G 9 - Hippiedrill 8

[osgood]

A - Holger Czukay - Persian Love

B - The Heads - Spliff Riff

[bungo the mungo]

i got quite excited when i saw the YouTube picture and title of B. however, it sounds like a darkness fish selection. way too heavy for me and quite relentless. i couldn't make it to the end without skipping through the final minutes. it caused me some discomfort.

A is weird. i can't say i enjoyed it much, but it was light relief compared to the heads.

probably my least favourite tie of the final... so far.

A

[osgood]

I liked A better when the singing was off, but anyway its weirdness was very much up my street. Not sure it's enough to explore further given I have never got the fuzz about Can, but who knows.

B got me puzzled. I mean I normally play at least twice every track that I use in the cups before posting, to try to anticipate reactions, check the YouTube file, etc. But why on earth would anybody want to listen to this TWICE?


A

[toomanyhatz]

Yeah, really don't like either of these. A is 80s exotica with the worst aspects of each (and I'm a Can fan!) and B is another example of a good minute's worth of musical material stretched out well beyond the breaking point.

The closest I've come to abstaining, but at the moment, B is offending me less.

Not a good match, though, particularly to be in the final.

[fange]

Fascinating match. A is quite indulgent solo Czukay, but still enjoyable once in a while. Not something i dig out often though. B is noise rock, heavy on the stooges/vu/industrial/metal influences, but still sounds very enjoyable to my ears. A brave pick too, coz the audience for this stuff here is extremely small. I like it though.


B

[morgan]

I think it's very kind and considerate of the organisers to put these two pieces of shite together.

Abstain.

[~ / % ? *]

Both are classic headheritage stuff, and may qualify as 'Ludin's hippest moment even well past their moment

A

for now

[DarknessFish]

This is a slightly left-field entry into the continuing easy-listening/exotica cup. I still say the greatest Can album is Phew's debut, it seems the band needed external input to focus their creativity. And creativity is in really in short supply here. The Iranian vocals are occasionally absolutely beautiful, and I would've loved some of that to be entered in this competition, it's just a shame they've been randomly hacked over the top of The Birdie Song. Absolute shit this, isn't it? Proper dregs, no artistic ambition, no idea, just wretched.

Not sure why skope's invoked my name, I didn't think I was particularly associated with stoner rock, I own hardly any of this kinda stuff, and most of what I do, I don't particularly like. Like that Ben Chasny Comets thing I mentioned earlier. It's a welcome change of pace and sound though, and it does cut up a hell of a chunky groove when it gets going. Almost Spacemen 3-ish, just chunkier. The slow bits are a bit beer belly and lighters aloft, but luckily they don't stick with that too long, they go back to the Hall of the Mountain Grill tribal riffing, which is the right call. Good pick.

B

[Mr. FOLLARD]

The Czukay thing isn't actually much different from late Can. There are things on Slow Motion, for example, that mine the same seam. Their 'Ethnological Forgery Series' (EFS), much of which featured on Unlimited Edition, is almost identical. It's not very good.

B has some good bits and some bad bits, is way too long, but wins this fairly easily.

[Deleted]

I'm a bit staggered by the responses to this tie.
A's like a rich travelogue with some lovely lilting notes from the guitar, inventive samples and some eccentric sounds thrown in. Yes it takes some odd detours, but this is music made with real love.
As for B..pass the paracetomal.

A

[fearlessfreap]

B -- A doesn't sound enough like classic era Can -- too lightweight.

[DayoRemix]

A doesn't work and B is too freaking long for what it is..At least the chaos of latter would be ok if chopped down a bit..Vote B

[rayge]

Cards on table. I never liked Can. Don't hate them, exactly, just turbo-charged indifference. And adding Middle-Eastern wailing just makes it worse. The guitar perked things up when it came in - for a while, anyway, then it got silly again. One and a half minutes in and I'm already wishing it would stop. Fuck it, I got halfway through, that's enough.

This is more like it. In the interests of full disclosure, I sort of knew the band's bassist, H, when I lived in Bristol. My mate Barney (a former captain of England Schoolboys at football) worked in a record store at the Bus Station in the centre of town on the early 2000s, and so did H. Anyways, I kind of loved the whole (Stooges/VU racket/stoner rock) aesthetic, punny titles and mock-psychedelic artwork and all, as well as their don't-give-up-the-day-job philosophy, and in the end they turned out to be the most prolific and by Dog by far the best group ever to come out of Brizzle, playing real instruments really loud and making a lot of splendid noise with more variation than some voters have given them credit for. This may not be the best of them, probably isn't, but tbh the picker could have chosen anything from the 27 (count em!) albums they made over the last quarter century (they're still playing this stuff, middle aged and not deaf yet) and it would have stomped all over the caterwauling drivel that is A.


B

[sloopjohnc]

B

[Sneelock]

wadda buncha old ladies!!! these are both great!!!
as much as I like the Heads track (never heard it before - thank you masked man!)...
A is an old and trusted friend. I've had it cheering me up on comps and mix tapes at times when I really needed some cheering up. I think it's absolutely splendid and volunteer to arm wrestle anyone who says different.

note: I am a weakling and you will win easily but, if you have an ounce of decency, you will feel really terrible.