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. It is their tenth official studio album, discounting compilations such as Unlimited Edition.

Background and recording
Founding bassist and producer Holger Czukay left the band before the recording sessions for Out of Reach. As a partial result of Czukay's departure, bassist Rosko Gee and percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah are said to dominate the group's sound on this album. Drummer Jaki Liebezeit was losing interest in the band at the time, leaving most of the percussion duties to Baah. Keyboardist Irmin Schmidt refused to play on "Give Me No 'Roses'", so Gee and Baah played the keyboards on that track. However, the album's guitar solos from Michael Karoli are a link to the older Can sound.

Music
Rosko Gee performs vocals on "Pauper's Daughter and I" (quoting the "Jack and Jill" nursery rhyme) and "Give Me No 'Roses'", and wrote these two tracks. The five other songs ("Serpentine", "November", "Seven Days Awake", "Like INOBE GOD" and "One More Day") are instrumental. A simpler version of "November" was called "Mighty Girl" in the 1975 session for BBC's John Peel Show.

Release
Out of Reach has variously been reissued as a double CD with Can's 1979 release Can (also known as Inner Space after the band's recording studio) and on its own in several single CD versions, e.g. on MagMid (TKO Magnum Music) in the United Kingdom, but was more difficult to find than other Can albums. Being the only Can album that features no input from Holger Czukay (its followup Can had some editing by Czukay), 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. 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.

It was finally officially re-issued by Spoon Records, in CD, vinyl and digital formats, on 18 August 2014.

Reception

Allmusics retrospective review of Out of Reach praised Gee's bass playing for creating a jazz sound, but also referred to "Pauper's Daughter and I" (which they erroneously referred to as "The Pauper's Daughter") and "Like Inobe God" as Can's two worst recordings. In an overview of Can's career, journalist Andy Gill opined that Gee and Baah "seemed to impose too strict a sense of rhythm on Can's once free-flowing music, which was diluted with insipid reggae riffs." He called Out of Reach "a poor record".

Track listing
All songs written by Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit, Irmin Schmidt, Rosko Gee, and Reebop Kwaku Baah, except where noted.

Side one
Serpentine - 4:03
Pauper's Daughter and I (Gee) - 5:57
November - 7:37

Side two
Seven Days Awake - 5:12
Give Me No 'Roses (Gee) - 5:21
Like Inobe God - 5:51
One More Day - 1:37
Total length - 35:19

Personnel

Musicians
According to the liner notes:
Can
Jaki Liebezeit - drums
Michael Karoli - guitars, violins on "Roses"
Irmin Schmidt - keyboards
Rosko Gee - bass, vocal on "Roses" and "Pauper's Daughter and I", Fender piano on "Roses", flangbass on "Seven Days Awake" and "Serpentine"
Rebop Kwaku Baah - percussion, Polymoog on "Roses", vocoals on "Like Inobe God"

Other personnel
René Tinner - recording engineer
Conny Plank - mixing
Hildegard Schmidt - manager
A. Backhausen - photography, cover design

Notes

Citations

1978 albums
Can (band) albums
Harvest Records albums