Can Live 1973-1977

Exclusive with this issue of Uncut!

TECHNOLOGY has brought its fair share of good and bad, but one achievement we can certainly chalk up as a positive is the appearance of Can’s series of live albums. Keyboardist Irmin Schmidt has long been in possession of a series of audience recordings from the ’70s, when the Cologne group were operating at their peak, but the quality was always too poor for commercial release.

“There are now possibilities to improve it in the mastering,” he gleefully told Uncut in 2020. “Documentation of our live appearances is missing from our releases, so I’m quite happy that this gap will be filled.”

Indeed, we’re positively delighted to present to you this incredible sampler of the band’s live series so far. The five epic tracks are drawn from 2021’s Live In Stuttgart 1975 and Live In Brighton 1975, as well as 2022’s Live In Cuxhaven 1976 and this year’s Live In Paris 1973, the first to feature their totemic vocalist Damo Suzuki. The final piece here is a sneak preview of the upcoming release in the series, Live In Aston 1977.

A thrilling 71 minutes of synapsefrazzling head music, Live 1973-1977 was compiled in collaboration with Schmidt, now the classic lineup’s only surviving member. Demonstrating his pride in the group’s work – and his, you might say, imperfectionist nature – he had some strict rules: the tracks were to appear in chronological order of release, and no cross-fading or trickery was allowed. We hope you’ll agree that the results, in all their Stockhausen-esque jump-cut glory, are stunning: direct inspiration, illicitly captured on magnetic tape and now brought back to life, its magic intact.