Monster Movie (Can album)

In 1968, Can had recorded an album entitled Prepared to Meet Thy PNOOM, which no record company agreed to release; these recordings were eventually released in 1981 as Delay 1968. Monster Movie was the group's subsequent attempt at a more commercial record. The album is credited to "The Can", a name suggested by vocalist Malcolm Mooney and adopted by democratic vote. Previously the band had been known as "Inner Space", which later became the name of their recording studio. Some copies of the LP bore the subtitle "Made in a castle with better equipment", referring to Schloss Nörvenich, the 14th-century castle in Nörvenich, North Rhine-Westphalia, where the band recorded from 1968–69. Monster Movie was mastered at Studio for Electronic Music (WDR) in Cologne by Can's engineer Holger Czukay, the former student of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Artwork The image on the cover is a retrace of Galactus, as originally depicted by Jack Kirby (inked by Vince Colletta) in Marvel's Thor #134 - page 3, released in 1966. The original sleeve art, produced by Music Factory and designed by artist Helge Bauch, features a large orange circle against a white background containing a printmaking drawing. The head of the Music Factory, Karlheinz Freynik, described the drawing as "mystical from Greek myths that fits to the music". Rob Young, Can's biographer, saw a naked old man on the drawing "peering into what looks like the flaming portal of hell. He is surrounded by demons and a goat-headed man gnawing on a limb". == Composition ==

Monster Movie brings together elements of psychedelic rock, blues, free jazz, world music and other styles, the influence of the Velvet Underground being particularly obvious on the opening track "Father Cannot Yell". The use of improvisation, experimentation, tape editing and layering of sounds set a standard for Can's subsequent albums in the early 1970s, which helped form the style labeled "krautrock" by the British music press. The 20-minute closing track "Yoo Doo Right" was edited down from 6 hours of improvisation. The lyrics of "Mary, Mary So Contrary" are based on the English nursery rhyme "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary". Monster Movie was the last Can album on which Malcolm Mooney performed all of the vocals until Rite Time, recorded in late 1986 and issued in 1989. ==Release and reception==

Monster Movie initially came out in late August 1969 on a small German label "Music Factory". Kalle Freynik, the head of the label, as a part of his contract with the band had a goal to "promote the product as good as the label can, and when there's any reaction the label will try to get it on a major label". The initial pressing was five hundred copies, distributed by Freynik "in carefully selected head shops and underground shops to boost the band's reputation by word of mouth". The first pressing quickly sold out, and Freynik approached Liberty Records/United Artists signing a distribution deal for Monster Movie. Liberty's issue released in May 1970 with an updated cover. Richard Williams, writing for Melody Maker, identified the Velvet Underground influence on the album's shorter tracks, but admitted "they have a lot of themselves to offer, mainly in the field of electronics, which they use with sparing brilliance, and the interplay between the Morse-code organ and the machine-gun drums on "You Do Right" is extremely startling". Williams praised Malcolm's performance—"wailing and screaming fits perfectly where a less reticent singer would obtrude. In fact they use another of the Velvets' favourite tricks, putting the voice beneath the instruments so that it tantalises the listener unbearably." == Track listing ==

;Can • Irmin Schmidt – keyboards • Jaki Liebezeit – drums • Holger Czukay – bass guitar • Michael Karoli – electric guitar • Malcolm Mooney – vocals, harmonica == References ==