LIVE IN STUTTGART 1975

Can's concerts were the stuff of legend, but for a long time there were no official live releases. Unlike some of their contemporaries such as Soft Machine, Tangerine Dream or King Crimson, they have issued little in the way of archival material; this is the first full concert to get an official release. It is the start of a planned series of double disc concert recordings from the 1970s, courtesy of a bootlegger who had a good quality cassette recorder, two decent microphones and permission to set up his gear on the mixing desk.

This particular recording comes from 1975. Can had slimmed down to the core quartet of Czukay, Karoli, Liebezeit and Schmidt in 1973, and had released Soon Over Babaluma in 1974 and Landed at around the time of this performance. Can's concerts were completely improvised, although familiar themes from their albums would occasionally emerge; on this occasion a couple of fragments from Soon Over Babaluma can be heard, and the overall feel is generally closer to that album than, say, Tago Mago. The five tracks are numbered rather than named, ranging in length from about 10 to 36 minutes.

And what of the music? At this stage in their career Can had a near telepathic interplay that enabled them to conjure spontaneous compositions out of thin air. Jaki Liebezeit plays some powerhouse grooves that drive the music forward, but his drum patterns constantly evolve rather than settling down to give a backbeat while the others take solos. Michael KarolI weaves intricate patterns all over the fretboard and is often the melodic lead. On closer listening Holger Czukay, whose metronomic 2 note basslines are in perfect sync with the drums, occasionally cuts loose and pushes the band to a harmonic shift. Irmin Schmidt provides washes of sound and some very nimble arpeggios on his keyboards (which I don't think included any synths at this point) but also takes the melodic lead at times. It's very much a collective work by four musical equals who listened to each other, the room and to any music floating in the ether.

The sound quality is very good for a mid 70s bootleg, and credit is due to longtime Can sound engineer Renee Tinner for polishing this up. This is a very promising start to Can's bootleg series, and is strongly recommended.

3.5 stars. This was the first of the live bootleg recordings that CAN released in 2021. And of the three they have released so far I feel this is easily the best one. Irmin Schmidt went through many hours of music that fan Andrew Hall had recorded following the band around for years. Material from dozens of concerts and the music for each show was different because these guys just like to improvise. Sound quality is okay, a little muddy as you would expect given the way it was recorded. All spruced up though in the studio.

This show was recorded live Halloween night in 1975. And like the "Brighton" release that follows we get two discs worth a total of 90 minutes. Here though we have 70 minutes on disc one and 20 minutes on that second disc. The third in the series called "Cuxhaven" is under 30 minutes and has drawn a lot of complaints for being so short.

The third and final track on disc one is 36 minutes long and the highlight for me. The way they get experimental, the way the tempo speeds up for a while is fun. It turns spacey late followed by a driving rhythm. So good! The second track on disc one at 14 minutes is also a favourite, sort of trippy and light early but ending in an intense fashion with some killer drum work. There's two tracks on disc two and the opener is the one I like of them. There's an uplifting vibe here for some reason as the guitar grinds away over top. It does seem like a jumbled mess to end it with the muddy sound not helping.

Maybe I'm being too hard on this for the sound quality and the fact these are improvs. I'm just not that big on improvs let alone 90 minutes worth, but if this sounded like the live albums of today I think I'm going 4 stars. When it comes to Krautrock CAN, AMON DUUL II and AGITATION FREE contributed most to my best of Krautrock list. This is the one I'd check out first if your interested in this live series.