LIVE IN ASTON 1977

Live in Aston is the first of a pair of releases that capture Can circa Saw Delight playing at universities in the English midlands. On these dates the core quartet was joined by Rosko Gee on bass (Rebop Kwaku Baah wasn't with them for the UK tour), with Holger Czukay in a proto sampling role on short wave receivers and special sounds. This particular release would have more or less fitted onto one side of a C90, and appears to be the first half of the gig.

Eins is a strong opener, just under 14 minutes of the trademark open ended musical exploration that Can did so well. It may not have the manic intensity of the free form freak outs that can be heard on earlier concert recordings, but Schmidt and Karoli weave fascinating patterns over an ever evolving groove laid down by Gee and Liebezeit and it demonstrates that Can could still conjure beguiling music out of thin air. Zwei is based on Vitamin C from Ege Bamyesi, beginning with Irmin Schmidt's keyboard arpeggio and exploring the theme from there. We stay with Ege Bamyesi for Drei, which uses Pinch as its jumping off point and which is where they really cut loose and let fly. It's also where Holger Czukay's contributions are most audible. Vier is a heavily deconstructed Dizzy Dizzy and brings proceedings to a satisfying conclusion.

Although they were touring Saw Delight at the time, this release leans heavily into Ege Bamyesi and Soon Over Babaluma in terms of both musical themes and overall feel. Rosko Gee's bass is busier than Holger Czukay's and both he and Czukay are relatively low in the mix most of the time. It's an interesting document of a frequently overlooked and under appreciated phase of Can's career, but is a solid rather than inspired addition to the archive live recordings.

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