REVIEW: Stephen Malkmus and Friends—Can’s Ege Bamyasi (2013)

Rare Record Store Day release sees the Pavement front man take on Can's 1972 classic.

This is one of those blink-and-miss-it Record Store Day releases that required you to queue up for hours in the early hours of 20 April 2013. I had no idea it existed until I chanced upon it browsing Discogs one day. I dare say many (if not most) Pavement/Malkmus fans are unaware of it.

Now this is the kind of release that RSD used to be about, back in its earlier days. The kind of exclusive one-time-only release that was worth getting out of bed for—if only to thwart the flippers.

Here, Stephen Malkmus and various members of Von Spar take on the totemic Ege Bamyasi—arguably Can’s best album, or certainly one of them. It’s all pretty faithful and done in the right spirit.

Is it essential? Only if you’re determined to have all of Malkmus’ albums on vinyl. No-one would claim it tops the original or anything like that, but it’s still great to hear him put his unique spin on a truly awesome piece of music.

As you’d expect, it’s pretty pricey now, and unlikely ever to be repressed, so if you fancy it, you many cry a little at the idea of dumping £100/$135 on it. Only 500 made it over in Europe, but the USA benefited to the tune of 3000, so maybe import the green one—as I did. Or just enjoy the music—they helpfully popped it up on streaming platforms.