“Opener Eins is a controlled ‘chuggernaut’, Karoli setting the pace with typically inspired guitar wizardry…” – Uncut 8/10*
Can Live in Aston 1977, the latest in an ongoing series of Can album releases focusing on the band’s live performances, is out now on vinyl, CD and digitally via Mute and Future Days.
Live in Aston 1977 is a whole new lens through which we can view a unique band with seemingly inexhaustible energy for live performance. The recording came at a difficult period for Can; their recently released eighth studio album, Saw Delight, had been badly received and although posterity has been kinder, the reviews on release were savage. It might be expected that the live performances from this time would reflect some of the criticisms of the album, that they were slowing down, perhaps even feeling a little jaded, but it cements the notion that Can live, at any period, was mercurial.
Within the Can Live series, this is the first to feature bassist Rosko Gee (Traffic) who had recently joined Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit, Michael Karoli, and Holger Czukay (who, relieved of bass duties is credited with “waveform radio and spec. sounds” on the album), and would perform with them until the band’s split in 1979.
Listen to ‘Aston 77 Vier’:
Recordings from the series have been uncovered and pieced together from recordings within the Spoon Records vaults and those sent in by helpful fans, and brought into the 21st century by founding member Irmin Schmidt and producer / engineer René Tinner who have compiled and edited all the albums in this series.
Founded in the late ‘60s and disbanded just over a decade later, Can’s unprecedented and bold marriage of hypnotic grooves and avant-garde instrumental textures has made them one of the most important and innovative bands of all time, and these albums reveal a totally different perspective to the group. You may hear familiar themes, riffs and motifs popping up and rippling through these jams, but they are often fleetingly recognised faces in a swirling crowd. At other points, you will hear music that didn’t make it onto the official album canon. In these recordings Can go to even more extreme ranges than with their studio work: from mellow, ambient drift-rock to the white-dwarf sonic-meltdown moments they used to nickname ‘Godzillas’. And even as they adapt and chase the rhythm from minute to minute, you can hear the extraordinary musical telepathy its members shared.
The new release follows Can Live in Paris 1973, the first of the series to feature the late Damo Suzuki [“a vivid tribute to one of rock’s best improvisational groups” – Financial Times]; Can Live in Brighton 1975 [“Pure dynamite… keep them coming” – MOJO]; Can Live in Stuttgart 1975, [Uncut’s Reissue of the Year, #2 in MOJO’s Reissues of the Year, #7 in The Wire’s Archive Reissues of the Year plus more], and Can Live in Cuxhaven 1976, which again featured heavily in the Reissues of the Year.
Can Live in Aston 1977 is out now on double vinyl, 2 x CD and digitally via Mute / Future Days (the new EU label created by Spoon Records) and will be followed later this year by Can Live in Keele 1977.
CAN LIVE IN ASTON 1977
- Aston 77 Eins (13:46)
- Aston 77 Zwei (08:39)
- Aston 77 Drei (16:28)
- Aston 77 Vier (07:57)
