CAN: the lost tapes

The lost recordings of Can, which were never truly lost, can be heard, in part, on Youtube.

The story goes like this. When Can's studio was sold to the German Rock & Pop Museum, all its contents, including the mattresses tacked to the walls to soundproof the space, were dismantled and relocated to Gronau (2007).

The contents included several tapes (about 30 hours) recorded between 1968 and 1977, never released and only briefly labeled (the labels, moreover, were now almost illegible). No one knew what was on them until Irmin Schmidt, the band's former keyboardist, took it upon himself to sort it out.

Finally, on June 18th, Spoon Record, which is also the band's official website, will officially release a selection of all this material in a 3-CD box set. Ten tracks of this collection are already available for listening on the aforementioned website.

The material is typical of this band, which I've always liked because it was capable of polluting rock while retaining a few essential stylistic elements and distorting many others. The fact that two members (Czukay and Schmidt) had been students of Stockhausen helped.

In these recordings, the lineup is classic: Holger Czukay on bass, Michael Karoli on guitars, Jaki Liebezeit on drums, and Irmin Schmidt on keyboards, with the two singers who have alternated over the years, Malcolm Mooney and Damo Suzuki.

Among the songs, some are clearly early versions of songs later released, somewhat differently and with other titles (Swan Song, here titled A Swan is Born), others are live performances (Mushroom), and others are completely unreleased, but all retain the typical Can imprint.

Please note: this should be a 29 song playlist if youtube lets me do it
Yes, it is. Click the three lines icon in the top right corner to see the entire list

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