12. CanSoon Over Babaluma
I’ve chosen this again just due to circumstances, coming across it in 1974, and I liked a lot of the electric violin stuff that Michael Karoli was doing. I don’t remember hearing any electric violin on Can before this. Some of the vocals on, say, things like ‘Dizzy Dizzy’ were quite influential on the way that Stephen Mallinder did vocals, very whispery. It’s difficult to explain, but when this came out I would have been 17 or 18 and when you get stuff at that age it becomes part of the soundtrack to your life. If you were of a fragile mental state this could do strange things to your head. Michael Karoli is one of my favourite guitar players. I saw them play live twice as well, and they were something else again in the live situation. The first time was probably the lineup from Soon Over Babaluma but the second time I think you had Rebop and Rosco Gee in there as well. These grooves, where you’d hear little snatches from the albums but not necessarily in any particular order. I think that was always very influential on Cabaret Voltaire, the open-endedness for the live shows.
