The Record That Changed My Life: Kim Gordon on Stephen Malkmus – Ege Bamyasi (2013)

People will hate me for this choice, because the record is quite a rarity that came out on Record Store Day 2013, with an edition limited to 3500. On green vinyl by the way. I’m surprised myself at how often I have listened to Stephen Malkmus‘ version of the Can album Ege Bamyasi. It’s the record with the okra pods on its cover.

Malkmus and a few German sidemen have performed the album on the Weekend Festival in Cologne in 2012 and released this recording of it. The band gives an unfettered live performance; they are in a wonderful flow and Stephen sings free of all constraints. It’s always difficult to record such a tribute album, especially when it’s live. Where to begin? Should one just copy the original as perfectly as possible? That’s boring. Should one interpret it in a new way? That can go wrong quickly. Malkmus and his band have found a wonderful way, the golden mean so to say: they follow the tracks of this music. They are guided by the originals to then find an own language, one that still at no moment leaves the high level of sophistication and quality. Malkmus basically operates like the leader of an excellent jazz ensemble.

The recording reminds me of his best albums with Pavement. Maybe I should have named their album Slanted & Enchanted (1992) here because that one is much more easily available. On the other hand, that is an album everybody already has in their shelves, so it is better to point out to something lesser known on this occasion.

by Kim Gordon