A review by stewart
All Gates Open: The Story of Can by Rob Young, Irmin Schmidt

4.0

A book of two halves, and not entirely successful. The first half, a biography of Can by British music writer Rob Young, does a great job of putting the band and their music in both historical and artistic context. The second half, Can Kiosk by Irmin Schmidt, has some fascinating parts, mostly the salon-style conversations on various topics by Irmin, friends and famous fans. But the section from his notebooks was self-indulgent and only intermittently interesting, and there were a few other bits that I frankly just didn't get at all. But I feel more grounded in the story of a band I've long loved but really knew very little about.