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.

Can - Tago Mago

One of the strangest and most ambitious releases from the German Kraut-rock scene, Can's Tago Mago was originally released as a double album in 1971. Original first LP (first four tracks on CD) features the most timeless kind of great German psychedelic/Kosmische music ever. "Paperhouse" evolves from a minor key melancholic psych/blues number to a menacing poly-rhythmic workout with some insane Damo Suzuki vocals on top. "Mushroom" takes the quiet-loud aesthetic to a whole new bizarre level, alternating between mellow low key eerieness and loud heaviness (highlighted by Damo's alienated screams) that thankfully doesn't get too obnoxious. This is an example of restrained anger, and Jaki Liebezeit shines on drums too, providing captivating Meters-style groove. Jaki and Damo are the true stars on this album. "Oh Yeah" is pure psychedelic drone heaven that rests on Jaki's fast paced drum pattern and Damo singing backward, then in English and finally Japanese. 18-minute "Halleluhwah" is an epic acidic mantra which is an endless exploration of funk rhythms.

Original LP two is where the things got very very strange, if also a bit self-indulgent. "Augmn" is all about psychedelic effects, bizarre drones, acidic vocal hums and whatnot. Whether you like it or not, this is one of the Can's most abstract pieces, sounds a lot like Stockhausen on acid. "Peking O" gets even quirkier, utilizing eerie organ drones, primitive drum machines, which get faster and faster as the composition progresses, free-jazz piano playing and on top of that, Damo's insane paranoid babblings that might either annoy the hell out of you or just make you laugh your ass off and last but not least, the noisy Zappa-esque ending with deranged feedback effects, clanging percussion work and more screams from Damo. I tend to prefer "Peking O" to "Augmn". "Bring Me Coffee and Tea" returns to the rock-oriented territory as it's yet another pleasant slow lethargic improvisational psych-drone number that builds and builds but never reaches to obnoxiously and extroverted rock climaxes as one may expect, there's some pretty acoustic guitar picking though. A true exercise in subtlety. And that's Tago Mago for you.