Flow Motion

1976's Flow Motion is probably Can's most immediately accessible album, born out by the fact that the opening track, 'I Want More', was the group's sole chart hit in the UK. The album title is uncannily descriptive; this music flows with the sinuous grace of a dancer. The Stockhausen-influenced repetition that marked their earlier records is still evident here, but Holger Czukay's bass has a new limberness and melodic bent, showing a fresh appreciation of the supple rhythms of reggae and other Carribean music. Czukay's bass combines with Michael Karoli's head spinning polyrhythms to create a powerful, intoxicating sound. The lengthy instrumental title track is one of the finest performances of Can's long career, with the sinister 'Smoke' (part of the group's long-running ethnological forgery series of faux world music) and the hypnotic 'And More' nearly its equal.