Can - Delay 1968

When Can was formed in 1968 by Stockhausen protégés Holger Czukay (bass), Irmin Schmidt (keyboards), rock guitarist Michael Karoli and former jazz drummer Jaki Liebezeit, they were soon joined by the black American sculptor Malcolm Mooney. This lineup rendered Monster Movie in 1969 as well as parts of Soundtracks and Unlimited Edition, before Mooney left and was replaced with the legendary Damo Suzuki. However, Can (who was also known as Inner Space earlier on) recorded an even earlier session and the plan was to release it as their debut album titled Prepared To Meet Thy PNOOM. However, no record company was interested in releasing it. The session was shelved and only unleashed by the time Can had already disbanded, hence the title, Delay 1968.

The sound is very lo-fi, even for Can who did all of their recordings up to 1974 on the two-track stereo recorder. Captured with minimal miking, this is Can at their rawest. Rawness is evident in the music as well. Compared to the latter Can albums, the sound is heavily influenced by psychedelic rock and rhythm&blues, meaning that this album, along with Monster Movie, is Can at their most rock-oriented. While tracks like "Nineteenth Century Man", "A Man Named Joe" and "Little Star of Bethlehem" align closer with the American acid rock Michael Karoli was influenced by, tracks like "Butterfly" and "Uphill" already indicate the band's interest in repetitive trance-like jams and grooves, influenced heavily by Velvet Underground's brain-searing mantra-rock. Similar direction would be pursued on Monster Movie and subsequent albums would take the repetitive trance-rock direction to an entirely new level. Then there is "Thief", early Can at their most melancholic and emotional, this song was later covered by Radiohead as part of their live repertoire. An interesting early document, but not up to the standard of Can's later classics.