reviews/arviot/etc:
Monorural Recordings - CD
Kyllä ei kovat rokkibändit Suomesta lopu. Itselleni uusin tuttavuus siltä saralta on Can Can Heads. Rokkibändi, joka soittaa jatsia Helvetistä. On soittanut pitkään, Wikipedia kertoo bändin tehneen ensimmäisen singlensä neljännesvuosisata sitten. Miksi en ole tutustunut siihen aiemmin? Kuuntelin tuolloin kuitenkin kotimaista indieräminää. Hyvä että nyt.
Viime vuonna ilmestyneellä Monorural recrodingsilla Can Can Heads ottaa heti kättelyssä kuulijalta luulot pois varttitunnin kestävällä puolikakofonisella Ei se toimi -kaaoksella. Saksofoni ulvoo tuskaansa rajusti kuin huimimmilla fuusiojazz-kokeiluilla, kitara vääntää ankaraa jytäriffiä à la Stooges, soundit ovat raa’at kuin Sweetheartilla, rumpali takoo kuin alasinta, ja meno on kuin Radiopuhelimilla taiteellisimmillaan. Ensikuuntelulla aloin yhdennentoista minuutin kohdilla olla jo epätoivoinen. Eikö tämä lopu koskaan? Ilmeisesti orkesteri halusi katsoa kenellä kantti kestää, ja pudottaa satunnaiset kuulijat kyydistä ensimmäisen biisin aikana.
Ettei asia jää epäselväksi, niin sanon tässä vaiheessa, että Monorural recordings sisältää aivan helevetin hienoa ja vaikuttavaa, vakuuttavaa musiikkia. Sen biisejä on turha ruveta erittelemään, ne ovat kaikki raakaa, alkukantaista, hypnoottista ja riitasointuista kitararokin ja fuusiojatsin sekoitusta. Kappaleella Mies tulee mies menee homma lipeää hetkeksi humpaksi, mutta se sopii biisin sanomaan.
Can Can Headsin musiikki on rujoa, ja se kaivetaan esiin jostain pimeästä, pelottavasta paikasta. Kansivihkosesta löytyvän kuvan perusteella orkesterin äijät ovat silti tavallisia perusmiehiä, eivät sarvekkaita piruja tai patonki kainalossa kulkevia taiteilijoita.
Can Can Heads on primaaliterapiaa musiikillisessa muodossa. Aina en saa kappaleiden sanoista selvää, mutta sen minkä saan, ovat ne jämäköitä iskulauseita, joiden monitulkintaisuudesta voisi kirjoittaa esseitä. Lauseessa ”luulin, että itkit sen takia mitä minä sanoin, mutta sinulla olikin vain allergia” on sellaista väärinymmärrystä, ilman vastakaikua jäänyttä rakkautta, murhaavaa välinpitämättömyyttä ja avointa halveksuntaa, joka tiivistää perus parisuhteen tuohon yhteen riviin. ”Mies menee ja mies tulee, mies vastaa itse pukeutumisestaan” on hätähuuto kaikenlaista hienostelukulttuuria kohtaan. Kyllä mies voi vielä viisikymppisenä pitää pillifarkkuja, tai jo neljäkymppisenä ulkoiluliivejä. Se on miehen oma asia. Vakavuudestaan huolimatta Can Can Headsin iskulauseet ovat myös humoristisia: ”Sohva nielaisi miehen pääsiäisenä Itä-Helsingissä.”
Jos haluat musiikkisi helppona, leppoisana ja miellyttävänä tapettina, niin pysy Can Can Headsista kaukana. Vaikka Monorural recordings on tunnin pituudessaan liiankin rankka kokemus, on sen mieltä ja korvia puhdistava vaikutus vaivan arvoinen. Kun cd vielä on pakattu komeasti, niin mitään valittamista en tekeleestä löydä. Tosin lienee ihan hirmuinen työ ja rahanmeno, jos ja kun bändin aiempaa tuotantoa innostun metsästämään.
(Rajatapauksia Blog)
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Old Fart´s Neck - DigiEP
Sounding like the aural equivalent of insanity, Can Can Heads create a jagged joyful bundle of noise with “Old Fart’s Neck”. This deserves to be played as loud as possible as Can Can Heads demand to be as confrontational with their sound as they are allowed. Rhythms are messed up beyond belief refusing to adhere to anything that might be misconstrued as tempo. In general they treat sound like buckshot shooting it out in staccato blasts and hoping for the best. An undeniable debt to No Wave is paid throughout the entire collection, regarding from the skronk of James Chance to the loose forms of DNA.
A live edition of “Conflict of Uninterest (live)” begins the collection off on an impassioned note. Elasticity defines the bizarre workings of “All Men Play on TenZenMen” where the stop/start rhythm works in its favor. Pure unbridled madness takes place on the impossible to pin down “Feeding of the 5” where everything feels completely free, even the giddy keyboard that weaves itself in and out of the mix. Showing off their ability to occasionally adhere to a tight groove is the combative, punk surf rock of “Robottipunk”. True joy radiates from whatever “Urea Mocca” could be defined as. Red Transistor’s strange, demented classic of “Not Bite (live)” is given the highest possible treatment, as Can Can Heads embrace the unhinged quality of the original.
Can Can Heads create pure delightful chaos on “Old Fart’s Neck”.
(Beach Sloth)
There is this wild sounding album out and it’s pretty neat. Unlike any other album it comes with titled tracks that contain music. Let me talk you through them:
Conflict of Uninterest (live) is sounding like that fun band that played their brass and drum in a subway and became a viral YouTube sensation. Was it Too Many Zoos? Or is it better not to name drop things like that as it might be a conflict of uninterest. It’s a fun sound with an interesting meltdown of one of the vocal members towards the end of the live performance; did the man eat a very hot chili?
Next up is a track with a title that feels a bit like a statement: All Men Play on TenZenMen. If that is true, it must be a place of interest for anyone in search for a playful one. Audio-wise it does sound playful, although also very short. Think about a quick session of hairy men climbing up a children sized slide and sliding down from it for a couple of times without actually showing a smirk or a smile.
Feeding of the 5 is coming across like a cartoonish bar in which everything is alive and intoxicated. I’m not only taking about customers, waitresses and bartenders; I’m talking about drunk dancing tumbling over furniture! All the instruments shake like they will never be able to walk a straight line. The trumpets go mental like an alcoholic fusion that end with a police blow test to check how much percentage the band had been flowing through their veins. It’s a fine case of tumbling madness.
A fine case of Rambling rock appears in the busy ‘ Robottipunk‘. It is one side like a soundtrack for a happy charley Chaplin and on the other massively screwing the hero with his own stick inside his buttocks.
Loch Ness Eskimos takes a fine moment to hallucination and imagine things. It’s a soundtrack that perfectly fits with the act of hanging around next to a specific lake staring at pieces of wood hoping its Nessie.
Urea Mocca gets the sound roughed up again. To me it comes across like a bear giving you a haircut with barbwire decorations. I know that sounds odd in words but in sound it’s not that far off. One of the guitar screams while the whole thing bangs the head in like a hammering mad person experiencing a tantrum.
Then the last track ‘Not Bite (live) ‘ which sounds a bit more muffled, as if it’s a demo smacked down on a dusty tape; Nice. The track itself is like a car driving with full speed through a tunnel while being chases by a train & at the same time there is one heading towards it. A manly voice that somehow comes across like an illiterate version of Homer Simpson clearly (and rightly so) seems to go through a panic attack, making enough panicky wordless words to feel the excitement of seeing the future of being crushed in a soon to happen train-wreck. Might this the moment that the ‘old farts neck’ breaks?
(KN/Yeah I Know It Sucks)
This EP? – it’s short; less than a quarter of an hour – has all the edge of the rawest rock’n’roll or punk, with a sax-led freedom and skronk that results in a weirdly satisfying hybrid.
The vocals on the jagged, lurching Conflict of Uninterest are more like spoken poetry than sung lyrics, and to the non-Finnish speaker, the language has a cadence that is somehow simultaneously portentous and comic, which suits Can Can Heads down to the ground.
All Men Play on TenZenMen is a short guitar-bass-drums hammer session. Feeding of the 5 starts with an inspired saxophone/guitar collision plus touches of 80s video game keyboard sounds sprinkled over the top; then the second half is a prolonged oscillating feedback drone. Robottipunk is just that: a one-minute instrumental clearly discovered in some kind of late 70s time capsule. Loch Ness Eskimos is echo-y No Wave nonsense of the best kind, hypnotic, circular and ultimately travelling nowhere which, some days, is exactly where you need to be. The revoltingly-named Urea Mocca (on offer this winter at your nearest Starbucks) is an angry blurting noisefest.
Finally, Not Bite at three and a half minutes is by far the longest track and perhaps best encapsulates Can Can Heads’ marriage of pulsing punk rhythm and violently smeared abstract free jazz squawl (with added sax from Sami Pekkola and Taneli Viitahuuhta).
Weird, wonderful, noisy and strange – just don’t ask who the “old fart” is, or why John Wayne seems to be on the cover…
(Dave Foxall/a Jazz Noise)
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Can Can Heads is Ruining the Classics - digiEP
Can Can Heads is a Finnish noise rock band that recently decided to take recognizable hit songs and reinterpret them in a manner less style conscious and reverentially accurate than sloppily aggro and fit to mock in the spirit of fun. Targeted for inspiration are Survivor, Michael Jackson, Van Halen and The MC5, the songs retitled for humor's sake, ("Peel It" for instance instead of "Beat It.")
Released digitally on Valentine's Day, Can Can Heads is Ruining the Classics is available to purchase through Bandcamp along with one of the best album summations I've ever read:
"Planning this 'release' took as long as it took to record them. Recorded in mono with one track tape recorder PA-Pak 07/02/2015.
(Letters of a Tapehead)
If Rocky Balboa ever returns with a new movie, it will probably stick to the ‘eye of the tiger’ theme song to support the euphoric moments. Although it would be superbly funny if someone in the technical team somehow swapped it with ‘Eye of the Tigris’ as it will probably give much more swag to the onscreen actions. Just think about Rocky’s career in shambles, drunk with a broken nose holding on to a bottle of alcohol and this tune playing in the background. It would be one of the more comical scenes that will drive people back to the cinema. YouTube and torrent sites to see and hear the ‘action’.
Talking about movies that are not made yet; a movie about zombies featuring the resurrection of Michael Jackson who goes on a rampage of full on media revenge.. Not sure if it will be an instant blockbuster, but if they play ‘Peel It’ while the zombie version of M.J. peels of the skin of Martin Bashir and tons of random annoying paparazzi people, it will sure be a hell of a cult movie!
Can Can Heads creates these two tracks and also made two more. They brag rightfully at how long it took to make and mix these tunes, but it definitely sound like it’s done on the spot, keeping a fine real rawness to it. Just imagine a beaten up washed up Rocky and zombie Michael’s teeth ripping of the skin of accusers, editors of gossip magazines and perhaps of some children, and you understand that this ‘ripping of the classics’ theme by Can Can Heads is able to turn the established things into drastic new turns. Jump on board and hear it over at the following link...
(Yeah I Know It Sucks/Willem van O)
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CAN CAN HEADS - King Dong Kong - digi ep
Can Can Heads let it all loose on the chaotic that is King Dong Kong. Everything is allowed to fall into disrepair. Rhythms barely hold themselves together. The horn skronk is particularly satisfying. Mixtures of punk, jazz, and noise flow together. Abrasiveness is an absolute must. King Dong Kong refuses to let up either. Energetic to the absolute end the closest Can Can Heads can get to an interlude are the two second intervals of “Gaffe” and “Effag”.
Sounding like they had been jamming for a while “Don of Donetsk” comes with full force. Poor saxophones sound badly tortured as does every other instrument. Guitars bleat their hearts out and drums blast their way through. With a different approach “Square with a Little Bit Rectangle” explores a minimal groove at first. The extremely tactile feel of the sound works wonders in helping them achieve their ends. Buildup in the song is hard to fully decipher yet it is there. For the song’s main purpose seems to be a constant increase of tension, a tension that finds its refuses on “Slow Kill Monotony”. Repetitive to its core “Slow Kill Monotony” lets the cyclical nature of the work collect pieces of dirt from its instruments. By far the collection’s highlight it works itself into a full out frenzy in the song’s latter half.
King Dong Kong is the sound of twisted sheets of metal trying their best to survive in a hostile environment.
(Beach Sloth)
Finnish ensemble CAN CAN HEADS has been an ongoing and obscure feature of their native rock scene in Finland for more than 20 years, with a long list of releases on cassette, CD-R, vinyl LP and just about any format you can get at over the years through a plethora of different labels. “King Dong Kong” was released by US label Silber Records towards the end of 2014 as a part of their ongoing 5-in-5 conceptual range of EPs, where the concept is to create a 5 minute long EP with a total of 5 compositions.
Can Can Heads have chosen to take on this task by creating three tracks, and separating them with two very brief fillers. The main tracks consist of a hammering guitar and saxophone creation, opening wildly and going towards silence, in a kind of proto-punk meets Hawkwind and a truckload of acid kind of way, the second has more of a Victorian era industrial rock feel about it – listen to it and you’ll understand – a fitting sound snippet for a steampunk movie in my book. They conclude this EP with another proto-punk oriented affair, again invoking associations towards early 70’s Hawkwind at their most intense, again with a feel that a lot more acid may have been at hand than Hawkwind ever managed to indulge in.
The 5 minutes of music here is rough, lo-fi and fairly intense, and appears to be escapades that should appeal to those equally fond of primal punk made on a DIY approach and early 70’s Hawkwind. I would guess that being in a state of expanded consciousness perhaps might make the total experience more worthwhile as well.
My rating: 68/100 (House Of Prog/Olav Martin Bjørnsen)
Shronk maters end the year in style with new EP
Can Can Heads have had a great year. Not only have they released one of the most original and exciting albums of the year, with March’s Butter Life (their first album since 1999’s debut Headcracking Lifestyles), but they have now released a five track EP King Dong Kong. What’s striking about the EP is that in five minutes, these five tracks do more than most full length releases.
King Dong Kong is full of Can Can Heads’ distinctive shronk sound. The EP opens with a cacophony guitar and trumpet. It feels like there is an error and it’s started mid song, probably it has, but it’s on purpose. This carries on for just under a minute. The EP’s first track is Square with a Little Bit Rectangle. This track has a repetitive guitar riff and drum beat. Over that has been layed, what sounds like, an accordion and someone sawing wood. It works well and the guitar and drums help to build tension, and the other instruments stop it from getting boring and irritating. Last but not least is Slow Kill Monotany. This is the heaviest track on the album. There is real aggression and vigour on display here. There are chugging riffs, hard drums, backwards vocals and general unease. The track is a slow building menacing affair that builds and builds until it’s reaches maelstrom proportions, then abruptly stops.
Despite its length, there is a lot to engage with here. This is the kind of EP you will either play a couple of times and ponder it’s meaning, or just play on loop until someone tells you to turn it off.
(This Year in Music)
The Finnish no-wave jazz quintet of Can Can Heads were enlisted to take part in Silber’s 5 in 5 project, and “Square with a Little Bit of Rectangle,” the first single off King Dong Kong is one of the more unusual things I’ve heard in some time — comprised of skittering guitar, accordion, saxophones and forceful percussion the song manages to be incredibly funky while sounding like an old, sputtering car before quickly coming to an abrupt conclusion.
(William Ruben Helms, The Joy of Violent Movement)
Now were we the types of reviewers to hold grudges we’d have passed up on the can can heads selection like a shot not least because we spent and lavished so much time, care and affection on their album ‘butter life’ that we rather hoped the blighters might send a copy as compensation – sorry scratch that – reward. Good job we here then are made of sterner stuff and have knives at the ready to sharpen poison pens in revenge. Of course we joke. Can Can Heads are for those previously unfamiliar a collective hailing from Finland who do no wave skronk the type of which might even have those dudes over at foolproof projects exchanging envious glances, previous encounters have impressed so much that we’ve been heard on occasion to liken the experience to that encountered when we had the joy of inside of a butcher shop doing bad things on our hi-fi – this 5 track set ‘king dong kong’ be its name is no exception – a rapid fire skewed and obtuse assault to the senses, barking, deranged and just totally out of it. Opening ‘don of donetsk’ has its hand tightly gripped around your throat before you’ve scarcely had a chance to get comfortable coming on as it does like a rabid James Chance with a particularly fiercely freaked Contortions at his side. ‘Gaffe’ is so brief its over before its begun whilst ‘square with a little bit rectangle’ squares up a little less manic preferring instead to mooch around to a kind of Residents styled Dadaist motif before the fracturing ‘slow kill monotony’ is about you up close and personal draped in pure alienated psychosis hulking behind it some seriously blanked out play with your headspace no wave disfiguring.
(Mark Barton, The Sunday Experience)
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CAN CAN HEADS - BUTTER LIFE LP:
Finnish art rock ensemble Can Can Heads have been catching wreck since the early 90s, taking up the noisy, oddly-timed gauntlet thrown down by art-minded Punks like The Ex, Minutemen and Avant-Rock pioneer Captain Beefheart. The reissue of their 2014 album Butter Life finds the veteran band continuing to delve deeply into this aesthetic, each song a deft fusion of Punk and Noise elements, each coming in short gusts of fury.
From the outset, Butter Life opens as a violent, explosive listen. “Alive with Fiery Breath” taps the kind of ecstatic, bat shit energy of New York’s infamous No Wave bands. Mashing together Hardcore Punk with a chaotic splattering of improvised sax, “Alive…” opens the proceedings with an appropriately irrational outburst. Much of the music on Butter Life is challenging and experimental, the guitars are gnarly and distorted and the band almost never plays in a strict 4/4 time. Despite the harsh and seemingly inaccessible character of the music, there is much here that is catchy, fun and bursting with personality. The track “Anti-Locomotive” turns 90s mall rock and pop-punk on its head, infusing its catching bass guitar hook with tricky time changing sections. The resulting sound is not unlike imagining what MxPx or The Offspring would sound like if they’d grown up taking rhythmic notes from the British Prog Rockers, GONG. The charmingly nonsensical “Breakadiscodance” recalls the manic energy of Hardcore, Black Flag and Albert Ayler thrown together in a blender.
Much of Can Can Heads’ take on heavy guitar rock melds improvised experimentation with a decidedly quirky, almost mocking exploration of conventional rock tropes. “Too Numb to Step” is a droning, jumbled take on the bluesy 60’s guitar rock of Steppenwolf, Blue Cheer. Anchored by Janne Mäki-Turja’s propulsive drumming and wailing through a wall of fuzzy distortion, the sound feels like a grainy copy of Easy Rider being projected from some acid-fried alternate universe. “The Pee Party” takes its eerie, heavy swagger directly from the Tommy Iommi school of smoky riff rock. Throughout Butter Life, the strength lies in the band’s creative use of
traditional rock n’ roll instrumentation and its ability to mashup seemingly irreconcilable strains of popular and experimental forms. Whenever vocals do appear, they are fleeting and often obscured. Despite this, the album is packed with interesting, challenging ideas interspersed with moments of knowing levity, a sly wink behind the indignant middle finger.
(JazzRightNow/John Morrison, April 5, 2017)
Discordant, jagged with a sense of rhythm Can Can Heads manage to make their odd short pieces stick in the mind. No Wave is a fairly good description for what’s going on, as they appear to take a lot from old style noise fests and more recent skronk-based bands (most notably the Flying Luttenbachers). Unlike the Luttenbachers there is less emphasis on outright volume. At times the music appears to be restrained. Can Can Heads does incorporate elements of melody, these appear to be mere afterthoughts.
Humor is a major attraction of the collection. Part of this is because of the incredibly busy fast tempo arrangements. Certainly this is the case with the opener “Alive with Fiery Breath”. The grooves they manage to get out of such noise is particularly excellent such as the case with “Anti-Locomotive” which at times recalls early Deerhoof. On “Unarmed Opponents” the discord is reminiscent of Captain Beefheart’s anti jams. Playfulness defines the bizarrely named “Piece Movement/Moose Pavement”. Shorter songs in general support the looser grooves such as “Guilty Bystander” which confounds listener expectations. Nimbleness comes into effect with the relatively taut “Iron Man Overboard”. One of the greatest short pieces is the maniac energy of “The Hour of (Your) Annihilation”.
By far the highlight of the collection is the ambitious “The Great Depression”. Sprawling out for over seven minutes (when the rest of the collection clocks in at under three minutes) it explores basically everything. With such an approach it overwhelms the listener which is really the point of the album as a whole. Butter Life chooses to overwhelm the listener with rapid fire rhythms and textures forcing the listener to simply surrender.
(Beach Sloth)
A return to the review stack for this twenty year running, instro-jass-punx combo out of Finland. Rhythmic and sometimes brutal thugskronk from the land that Raja built, “Butter Life” is a Boredoms style deterioration/amalgamation that distills five decades of music into one foul odor. Moments like the opener “Alive With Fiery Breath” seem to dollop Branca, Chatham, The Contortions and a fistful of other No Wavers on top, agitating the froth. Movements (not songs) tend to curb themselves around the minute mark, leaving listeners without a tolerance for Ipecac or Zorn style madness flinging into a tizzy. Shit like “Unarmed Opponent” is just begging for Beefheart to start babbling about all things bulbous and tapered. “Too Numb” is No Balls whoring themselves out to score Max Fleischer ‘toons. Wacked sax burners like “Piece Movement” make for a queasy listening, aiming at the ears of those certain folks who like to partake in the heavy yet outer-out sounds. Released between three different labels and limited to 300 copies. Not sure who’s holding in the US, but it seems like Forced Exposure or Aquarius is a safe bet. (Terminal Boredom/RSF)
The album starts with ‘Alive with fiery breath’, an instant impression of gooses, ducks and other water birds that are having a wild chattering conversation about something important like ‘who owns the lake’ seems to go completely out of control by these feathery participants. It’s a illustrious fight in the pecking order and the Can Can Heads seem to have brought in some drum kits that the ducks, gooses and other water birds use to beat each-other with to hopefully get some sense in their skulls.
In ‘Anti-locomotive’ we can first hear the Can Can Heads performing as if they are a locomotive. It misses the ‘choo ‘choo’ sound to make it realer than real, but if you can dismiss that; it’s a pretty locomotive that has some problems with sliding over the rails.
‘black milk angel’ is like listening to funky bees that have a little party to celebrate the new expansion of honey. In the end they become drunk or just mysteriously fall down out of the sky. It might Trigger many new social media pages full of outrage and calls to protect the bees.
In the ‘Hurrying kids to Hell’ the Can Can Heads express the hectic mornings of a parents life with kids that needs by social norm to be brought to the brainwash center that is ‘school’. The parents scream and shout, pack the children their lunch-boxes & say ‘don’t get along with strangers’ as the hectic hellish morning moment ruins every Monday to Friday.
‘Unarmed opponents’ is like listening to a spastic fight of instruments being played by these Can Can Heads as if they can slip out any moment some ‘toxic fumes’ coming out of their instrumental buttocks: they hold them tightly squeezed although the instruments can’t be stopped twirking about. In this poisoned fight there are no winners.
‘Than it’s time for ‘Breakdiscodance’ that is like a nervous breakdown after eating extreme hot and spicy food. You like it but end up with an ass on fire.
‘Too numb to step’ is another nice track by these Can Can Heads. It’s a bit like a locomotive of funk with rusty screws that even though they claim to be too numb; is a easy step-able track to showcase your drunk footwork on. Al Bundy would be proud.
‘Piece movement/Moose pavement’ is like a mad marriage of manic menaced dancing. Something that works well with a funny walk and popping swinging hips and a breakup from insanity before even ever exchanging the wedding rings.
A better fitting title than ‘The annoying & the greedy’ is probably not possible for the track of this name. But the thing is that this theme makes it look cool to be annoying and greedy. It’s the track for ruthless bankers with nerdy side trades that need their own ‘theme’ just to become a little bit more like Luke Skywalker’s father when he walked in the room. Its less dramatic and probably more punk; but still a form of instant ego-enrichment.
‘The pee party’ is like this mysterious bathroom music that you can hear in toilet locations inside hotels, restaurants and upper-class shopping centers but than with Can Can Heads in the cubicles playing their thing on top of it. Pissing never sounded so enriched with the right soundtrack playing.
‘In the middle of inheriting’ is a very short tune that smells of excitement and looking forward (and quite possibly imaginative spending) to getting something that formerly belonged to someone else and had now successfully passed away.
The next tune is ‘Guilty bystander’ which sounds like a little fight and a goose with a big mouth standing around it and only heating the Heath up by using a big mouth.
‘Iron man overboard’ is nice and bombastic and perhaps a bit crunchy. The locomotive is in full speed now and reliefs itself from a cloudy puff of steam as it rolls down the hill. No need to hit the break as the thing will hit the right asylum build on top of the railroad down below.
‘To kill all the echoes’ is perhaps the closest at being a violent track. Everything is rambling. It’s a burst that goes by in a instant.
‘The hour of (your) annihilation’ is like going to a gospel church with the Can Can Heads telling us that the end is near in a expression of anger, sentiment and destiny. It’s the first track featuring clear vocals and it’s almost like a holy experience.
‘Than it’s time for this lengthy track The great depression’. It’s one of those tracks that you need to sit down for, give yourself a glass of booze and think ‘what a wonderful world it is that we live in’. The Can Can Heads rumble and do their best to kill their instruments in a suicidal attempt and it’s advised to stay calm in order not to give into the feeling of jumping from a balcony because the music made you ‘fly’. Pretty heavy material as you can hear some of the gooses being in pain as the music tortures their tiny holes that are presumable their bird-ears.
‘The shape of filth to come’ is more wild expression and features more vocals. It is compared to the Great Depression pretty light and dada style. It is gone before you can flush the toilet.
Lucky ‘Spastomatiko’ takes over which is like listening to the Can Can Heads doing what they do best; using their spastic movements to create a music that goes from a rusty dual featuring a duck into a rolling well-oiled train.
‘Salmonella river (Päntäzumba remix by JS666) is the last track on the album and is compared to the 18 tracks a odd duck. A remix of a Salmonella River’ that is probably done with the help of a computer as it sounds so squeaky clean and tight. It’s like listening to a deejay after seeing a wicked performance of these Can Can Heads.
So Can Can Heads? Yes, most definitely! And would they make a chance to win the honor to be Weirdest band of the month over at Weirdest Band in the World? Sure they do! They don’t even need to result in violence to get rid of the other contesters, although they might want to check their backs for angry water-birds and rusty oiled-up locomotives.
(Yeah I Know It Sucks, KN)
Having been described as Albert Ayler meets The Ramones, picking through the music of Can Can Heads is a task you'd be advised to attempt with no distractions. Annoyingly persistent yet exquisite with it, the music here is as spiky as fish bones and moves with a twitchy, unregulated gait.
If you were desperate for direct comparisons, think of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band having an argument through improvised jazz truncations, the main crux of the matter being 'what are we playing next?'
At times there's little to no sense made but each instrument unravels its own narrative as the short, but packed songs creep into view. Percussion here is delivered as a backdrop to the dalliances of the bass, sax and disconnected, incidental vocals. Having done this since 1993, Can Can Heads are locked into a gnarled, set groove that's best realised on bursts of complex collaboration like on the jerky but brief Breakdiscodance.
Elsewhere the playing can seem dual-purpose, crazy and out of all reason, but then somehow making sense. If you enjoy the batshit craziness of The Cardiacs or the sun baked eccentricity of Beefheart's more wild moments, this is the head trip for you.
It loses it's way slightly on the lengthy and screechy feedback exploration The Great Depression which drowns itself in noise, but the electronica-fused remix of Salmonella River shows a different side to the Jazz-informed coin. Nuts, but we like nuts.
(Mike/Ninehertz)
Voi elämä. Välttyäkseen siltä, että albuminsa menisi heti listaykköseksi, no wave -bändi Can Can Heads heittää mukaan sen verran free jazzin kirskuntaa, että Cheek-fanit pelästyvät, tekevät housuihinsa ja jättävät levyn ostamatta. Välillä toki plimputellaan ihan kohtuullisen seesteisissä ja rentouttavissa tunnelmissa, mutta jo seuraavassa piisissä rikotaankin kuulijan mielenrauha demonimaisilla ja riipivillä äänillä. Toisinaan Can Can Heads löytää kompromissin ja jammailee maireana menemään uhan ja pelon tunteiden silti samalla leijuessa yläpuolella painavana usvana. Vaikka liikkumisvaraa onkin, samalla Butter Life on yllättävän yhtenäinen kokonaisuus. Ikään kuin vasta nyt tajuaisin, että CCH tietää sittenkin aina, mitä kannattaa olla ottamatta mukaan. Tai ainakin on tiennyt sen tälle LP:lle piisejä valitessaan. Ja varaahan on valita, kun bändi on jo vuodesta 1993 saakka harjoittanut äänien tuottamista. Kiihkeä, mehiläisparvimainen Breakdiscodance nousee piikkinä esiin a-puolella ja on jopa soinut päässäni jokusen kerran.
Jos et pidä torvisoittimista etkä epätavanomaisesta soittotyylistä, suosittelen pitäytymistä edelleen Tommi Läntisen tai Doomin kuuntelussa. Tämä on jotakin muuta. Jos ei CCH nyt tämän levyn myötä ala saada enemmän ansaitsemaansa tunnustusta, niin ei kai sitten milloinkaan. Silmiinpistävän hieno kansitaide, muuten. hahmot.net/karkiamistika.
(AH/Toinen Vaihtoehto #251)
A few months back, Finland’s Can Can Heads delivered a wonderful little musical curiosity in the form of their second full-length effort Butter Life. The group has actually been around since 1993 and has pretty much been doing whatever the fuck they want the entire time - very noisy, spastic, no-wavey rock for the most part. That’s what you get here on Butter Life, too, but the band’s material is so brisk, it always feels fresh. So, if you’re a fan of noise rock or are big into Finland’s experimental music scene (and with music like this, how could you not be?), then give this LP a shot. Happy listening!
(NeedleDrop)
Eräältä pohjoissatakuntalaiselta kaupungilta nimensä ottanut yhtye pääsi aikoinaan BBC:n radiotoimittaja John Peelin (1939–2004) ohjelmaan.
Vuonna 1993 Kauhajoella perustetun yhtyeen äänitykset ovat aitoon punktyyliin päätyneet enimmäkseen erilaisille kokoelmakaseteille ja seiskatuumaisille. Siksi Butter Life on vasta toinen studioalbumi.
Vuosina 1997–2014 äänitettyjä kappaleita kuunnellessa ymmärtää, miksi Peel innostui yhtyeestä. Saksofonisti Janne Martinkaupilla vahvistettu hc-punkyhtye paiskaa freejazzia, pikafunkia tai silkkaa noisea äärimmäisellä groovella.
Äänekkäitä marginaaliyhtyeitä uhkaa usein liiallisen dogmaattisuuden ja totisuuden vaara, mutta ”Kan Kan Päät” eivät junnaa paikallaan. Esimerkiksi reilun minuutin mittainen Breakdiscodance-rutistus on huima.
Ja kaikki tämä kätkettynä ulkoisesti ihanan valheellisesti hipahtavan vinyylilevyn sisään.
(Jukkapekka Varjonen/Satakunnan Kansa)
Something else that’s come along and barged its way into the track listing queue mainly for the fact that its totally off its chops is the second album from Finnish loons Can Can Heads. This lot hailing from Bothnia describe themselves as a ‘no wave / skronk’ combo doing ‘Ramones meets Albert Ayler’ groove. And with that we were tempted to leave it be mainly for the fact that they’d pretty much described themselves in a nutshell. But curiosity is a fickle and mischievous mistress, whispering in our ear, urging us to put in our tuppence worth. Now this lot number 5 in the ranks, they been around since 1993 apparently with ’butter life’ being their second album to date following 1999’s debuting ’headcracking lifestyles’ set. Work shy fops was our first thought quickly followed by where the hell is my copy of that killer ’inside ov a butchers shop’ CD from many years ago (prime example here being the fractured psych outpouring on ‘piece movement / moose pavement’) but I kid you not this is the most mental, deranged and controlled chaos we’ve had – I was going to say pleasure – but that’s stretching the description – experience is more appropriate albeit as though wired up to the household mains and shock treated out of apathy. Where do we begin, easier to give you an idea of reference markers – this heat, henry cow or more specifically the members of henry cow when they all went their separate ways to tinker on various solo and collaborative projects, volcano the bear, the fall (which if your scratching your head puzzled as you read this whilst listening to said fried stew may we direct you forthwith and speedily to ’too numb to step’), pretty much everything put out by the adored foolproof projects imprint (‘guilty bystander’ being the chief culprit – the latest from those FP dudes incidentally appearing shortly here) and APATT – and even that long list of art gouged aural absurdists doesn‘t fully cover it. The set – incidentally titled ‘butter life’ – is being put out by a tri-party gathering of labels – karkia mistika, verdura and bottom of the page by way of whom it arrives as a strictly limited 300 only wax bastard – a copy of which I want as I’m sure you will to. 19 tracks shoehorned herein, pretty much every note a blistered anti pop statement that fuses, twists and mutates vaguely familiar musical disciplines (post punk briefly appears on the chilling discordance of ‘the pee party’ whilst those preferring matters a little more shambling will insanely adore the Stump-ed like ‘in the middle of inheriting‘ – and while we are here how about spazzed out hardcore with ‘the hour of your annihilation‘ proving to be very Atari Teenage Riot) and mischievously spews them out in what might be best described as a sonic car crash so that you get on one hand you get the stabbing feral art pop agit pop of ‘anti locomotive’ going toe to toe with the frazzled and fried no jazz squall of the Ayler-ised cranium pummelling ‘breakdiscodance’ which in truth admirers of hey colossus might do well to check by and tune into. Matters draw to a close with what I suppose passes as the albums centrepiece – clocking in at a stonking 5 minutes plus – epic territories for these sub two minute artisans I can tell you – a kind of deathless disco Dadaist dub work out that has 23 Skidoo all over it albeit as though backed by the classic ‘slates’ era Fall players sneaking in a little extra curricula activities behind their leaders back while Smithy shuffles outside for a quick fag. Annoyingly annoying. Perfect.
(Mark Losing Today)
Can Can Heads’ Butter Life reminds me of a trifecta of experiences throughout my life.
The first one is when I first bought The Butthole Surfers’ Psychic, Powerless…Another Man’s Sac on vinyl. I caught a first glimpse of the Butthole Surfers in a Hit Parader (out of all places) and a 100 new and great bands countdown or something like that. The name was so intriguing I could not resist in owning something from them. When I heard them I felt an equal combination of shocked and excited. It was like an archaeologist stumbling on a new kind of dinosaur; the one who loves a lot of distortion, noise, and loves potty humor.
The second is James Chance. The guy was like Marlon Brando with a saxophone. I remember hearing about his live show and he would be wailing through these punk songs and with it randomly punching people while never missing a beat. Now that’s talent.
The third is when I came into correspondence with Dave from Ohio. Many may know who Dave is when I mention bands like Krapper Keeper. The quick jaunts of noise confined within a very lo-fi spectrum made the songs so far out there that you could not help but relish in its novelty.
Butter Life is none of these and a combination of all three at the same time. They are noisey with quick step song times that rely on a saxophone for the charm. I can only call this album avante garde to say the least. And with its lo-fi production, it’s not the songs that will lure you in, it’s the experience. That was enough to keep me listening to more.
I recommend stretching your mind a little and let the Can Can Heads consume you.
(Selective Memory Mag)
The Finnish noise rock veterans Can Can Heads have been around since 1993, which makes them old enough to drink beer. And with age they bring the experience needed to play the kind of garage-ridden, lo-fi infested angular noise rock with the help of a skewed, skronky saxophone, Flying Luttenbachers-style. It’s often toxic and super-distorted, but sometimes it gets floating and exposes some strangely psychedelic energy bulbing from underneath the amphetaminic noise rock. Somebody on Bandcamp has written about this album: "The world would be a better place if everyone owned this LP. A "Trout Mask Replica" for the iPhone generation. Favorite track: Breakdiscodance." I agree with the first part. For the second part, it lacks the proper vocals. Anyway, deliciously damaged shit-rock for y’all.
(Weed Temple)
Another new feature where I will try my best to find a new band that I’ve never heard before and place them at the top. Odds are I’ll bitch out and pick some other band that I’ve heard beforehand, but more often than not, I’ll put a band I’ve never heard before, that have impressed me, at the top.
This week, we have the incredible odd-strumental rockers, Can Can Heads.
Can Can Heads and their album Butter Life, released on the bum end of last month have made it to my band o’ the week, simply because their stuff is strange as dicks! This long, 19 track album will control all the peculiar things in your life as it alternates from strange to stranger in strum of a single chord.
Every song is a short, punchy attack on everything you believed to be simple and right with music.
Very much reminiscent of when I first saw Kong, live. They challenged me with unshaven crotches and ball-sack lights.
I wish that was just some drunken allusion, but it’s not.
You can pick up this mental in the face EP for relative cheaps from their Bandcamp and enjoy never feeling the same way about music ever again. Just click the bandcamp page above!
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Back when I had my first Band O’ The Week feature, these gents were the first to be featured with their album Butter Life. The new video, Too Numb To Step, is from that album and is, well, you probably just saw it; minimal.
It does showcase one of the less erratic songs on Butter Life, even if it is still off the wall, and that’s a great move on their behalf. But you know, the craziness is part of the charm of these guys.
Charm in the same way that you’re charmed by the drunk regular at the pub. Still! A drunken mumble of a song that lashes out at all. Keep your distance, but listen well.
(Music Gleaner)
Can Can Heads is a long running experimental punk group from Kauhajoki, Finland that has been around for more than twenty years. Their latest full lenght features eighteen short and convulsive tunes. This five-piece traverses a wide sonic range - from the weird punk groove of The Minutemen to the loseness of free-jazz and the discordant noise of no wave - often within the same song. Most songs are pure instrumental pieces, some are underlayed with incomprehensible spoken vocals. Can Can Heads write elaborately constructed arrangements that are driven by pounding bass lines and manic saxophone freak outs. "Butter Life" is filled with diverse, almost hypnotic soundscapes made with a raw and destructive style. The record's open minded approach is reminiscent of 80s SST releases. Can Can Heads understand punk as an attitude and not as a copy of current trends and hypes.
(Ride A Dove)
It took this group a long while to get a sophomore full-length together — their first came out in 1999 — but it was definitely worth the wait. Can Can Heads are an experimental, off-the-wall group that dabbles in free jazz, No Wave and, generally, all things noisy. Weird is an understatement: every track on Butter Life, out this month, employs a random, junkyard-style framework. Despite that, Can Can Heads aren’t cacophonous. They’re fascinatingly strange, a multi-faceted specimen deserving of examination beneath a musical microscope
(MTViggy)
BACK UP
KUSISESSIONS VOL. 2:
Can Can Heads are a group from Finland that have been around for just shy of 20 years. Their discography is so lengthy it needs an interpreter. The three tracks they lay down on this 7” are metallic and abrasive noise jazz. The guitars and sax screech while the thin sounding drums blast away. Vocals seem like an after thought but they turn up now and then. “Salmonella River” is the stand out and plays like a surf song that was ripped to shreds and blasted to pieces by a thrashy punk band. The whole endeavor is very lo-fi noise, clashing punk with the jazz avant garde all mixing together to form an enjoyable little 7”.
(Rad Vinyl Records)
RIDICULOUS skronkin’ rock from this Finnish band, who’ve been at it for about two decades. They got to slug it out with all the Bad Vugum and Trash Can bands like Circle and Deep Turtle when those records were being imported into the States back in the ‘90s, so some listeners with good memories will remember the name. By “session” it means recorded in the studio of the Kissankusi label (Vol. 1 was a Kyklooppien Sukupuutto 7”, which any of you could just send to me, you know … no big deal …), and while this one sounds pretty raw and trebly, the force at which these guys swing is not lost on me, or perhaps you. Maybe you can look past the saxophone jammin’ – to be sure, I don’t really care either way, but some of you are … sensitive to jazz – but it’s a big part of two of the three tracks here. “Short Face Man” is a short, grunting little prog instrumental with horns behaving badly. “Hot Albert Meat” is a sustained torrent of distorted guitar riffing and cymbal ride underneath soulful, Ayler-esque sax serenading, and later, some operatic male vocals. It’s bookended by Luttenbachers-style jazz violence. “Salmonella River” plays against type as a surfy little pop number with keyboards. Put down that NY Post and apply yourself. 314 copies, each with a Michael Jackson sticker.
(Doug Mosurock/Still Single)
Hailing from Finland Can Can Heads have been together for 19 years, so it´s a damn shame that their “Kusisessions vol 2” is the first thing I have heard by them, as I have no idea if it is representative of their sound through all those years. I hope it is though, as the three tracks of spasmodic avant-punk energy, got me grinning like a cheshire cat, the crunchy guitar and wailing sax hitting the spot and making me leap up and down in the kitchen...
(Ptolemaic Terrascope)
Crack n’ bash art skronk (with horns!) that frantically chugs along in a No Wave pound that only stops occasionally to leave some Residents-esque residue behind. Has a more playful Notekillers vibe over all. More SF than NYC? Side one at least…The flip is getting pretty ZE. It even heads towards metal turf with the instrumental at the end. Dead Neanderthals should look ‘em up! Rumor has it these Finnish weirdoes have been around for damn near 20 years. Never heard of em, but their art/surf/wave/clap-trap stylings move me in a way unexpected this eve. Jolly good, pep-peps!
(RSF/Terminal Boredom)
Kaverini heitti kerran ”kännäreistä” puhuttaessa ilmaan kysymyksen: ”Miltäköhän tämä bändi kuulostaisi kunnolla äänitettynä ja tuotettuna?”. Tuskinpa ketään Can Can Headsin ääniestetiikasta haltioitunutta kiinnostaisi kuulla oikeassa elämässä realisoidun vastauksen tuohon kysymyksen, mutta se herättää silti mielenkiintoisia ajatuksia. Kuinka suuri osa yhtyeen viehätyksestä perustuu sen tavaramerkiksi muodostuneeseen, rämisevään lo-fi-soundiin? Veisikö ”oikea tuotanto” todellakin sielun musiikista?
Ajatuskoe sikseen. Can Can Headsin uusin seiskatuumainen on osa kitaristi Raine Liimakan pyörittämän Kissankusi Recordsin Kusisessions-sarjaa, jonka Kyklooppien sukupuutto aloitti vähemmän onnistuneesti. Onneksi tällä kertaa soundit eivät ole niin suttuisen särmättömät, vaan tuttuun Can Can Heads -tyyliin ärhäkän diskanttiset mutta silti hyvinkin napakat. Oikeastaanhan kaikki yhtyeen biisit ovat periaatteessa yhtä Kusisessionsia, koska juuri kyseisessä Kissankusi-studiossa yhtye on aikaisemmatkin tuotoksensa purkittanut.
EP:n sisältämät kolme kappaletta ovat parasta mitä olen kuullut Can Can Headsiltä pitkään aikaan ja menisin jopa niin pitkälle, että sanoisin a-puolen kakkosraita Salmonella Riverin olevan parasta mitä yhtye on saanut aikaan. Koskettimilla maustettu, nerokkaan yksinkertainen renkutus hyökkää suoraan hermoon ollen samaan aikaan tarttuva, riemukas ja svengaava. Toiseksi paras on b-puolen omiva 1999 Hot Blower Meatina julkaissun kappaleen uusintaversiointi Hot Alberta Meat, jonka raivoisan kaoottiseen keskiöön astuu Janne Martinkaupin melodisuudellaan ja melankolisuudellaan yllättävä saksofonisoolo. Loppupuolella voi myös kuulla epämääräisen shamanistista hoilotusta. Levyn aloittava spastisempi no wave -tuuttaus Short Face Man on esittäjälleen tyypillisempi tapaus, eikä siten sisällä muiden raitojen tapaan jalat alta vievää yllätysmomenttia. Se ei tarkoita, etteikö se silti olisi pirun kova biisi.
File under: vuoden parhaat seiskat.
5/5
(Tom Sundberg/Noise.fi)
Can Can Heads – “Short Face Man” MP3/download
I still don’t know what to think of this track. Does it need vocals? Hell, does it need to exist?
Yes; YES, I fear, for sometimes it takes tunes like this to knock one out of a rut the size of Lisa Lampanelli’s … well, you get the idea.
Can Can Heads certainly cut to the messy meat of the post-punk matter. It’s like Devo dumbed down to obscene levels and fed through a cleaned-up Okie Dokie song (I love Okie Dok) and sped up thrice-fold. Something like that, right!? I almost feel like I need to lose a little bit of my lunch every time Can Can lunge into their “Short Face Man” routine. Dizzying.
If I remember correctly Cool World (have a release out on one of the Tonstartssbandht family labels; Black Cheeks, I think) slap punk down to size in similar fashion, but other than that examples of good instrumental punk are few and far betwizzle. Most definitely a good thing — I can’t imagine a world where 12 bands sound like this — and yet I can turn my ears away. It’s like “Murderers” with a kickin’ beat, or a Swell Maps cut bled of all vox. I’d mention The Stooges too but why? It’s implied …
(Gumshoegrove.com)
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YLEISTÄ / GENERAL:
Yhtyeen jazz and roll ei ole improvisoitua, vaikka äkkinäinen niin ehkä luulisi: Can Can Heads esittää oikeita biisejä oikeiden soittajien soittamana. Sen musiikki on joillekin liian kimuranttia, minulle ei.
(Sue/Jokke)
...yläkerran lavalla aloittelisi piakkoin Can Can Heads. Harvakseltaan keikkaileva yhtye on ollut koossa jo 90-luvun alkupuolelta lähtien, mutta pysytellyt silti tiukasti suuren yleisön tietoisuuden ulkopuolella. Tämä on äärimmäisen harmillista, koska yhtyeen esiintyminen Höstfesteillä oli todellinen kokemus, jonka jälkeen jäi jopa vähän tyhjä olo. Täydellinen keikka. Täydellistä musiikkia. Voin samantien lopettaa omat soittoharrastukseni, sillä Can Can Heads on ns. hoitanut homman kotiin. Solisti Mikko Lehtosen ulosanti sekä yleinen liikehdintä on arvaamatonta seurattavaa, eikä yhtyettä muutenkaan täysin ennustettavaksi voi sanoa. Käykää katsomassa, jos noiserock kiinnostaa ja joskus vain tilaisuus eteen sattuu. Huhhuh.
(Jyväskylän Ylioppilaslehti)
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