LIVE IN KEELE 1977

Live in Keele 1977 documents another gig from the same UK tour as Live in Aston 1977, and it was actually recorded a couple of days earlier. Can's most recent release was Saw Delight, and they were performing as a 5 piece with former Traffic member Rosko Gee on bass, with Holger Czukay on 'waveform receiver and special sounds'. Percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah was absent for the UK dates, but did perform with Can in Europe later that year. Although they probably didn't know it at the time, this was only a couple of months before Can's final concert in Lisbon in May 1977.

The first few minutes of this concert had been previously issued as part of the Can Live 1971-77 collection as Fizz, and Eins jumps in where that release left off. The band had well and truly hit their stride by this point in the proceedings and they explore the theme for 10 minutes before launching into Zwei, which is loosely based on Pinch from Ege Bamyesi (this and Vitamin C were regular fixtures in their setlist at this point, along with more recent material). Drei is a 10 minute instrumental version of Don't Say No from Saw Delight, and is a rather more aggressive take on things. Vier is an improvisation, before proceedings are brought to a close with Funf, a 25 minute hypnotic reading of Animal Waves.

This is the stronger of the two releases from the 1977 tour. It's a soundboard recording, and both Rosko Gee's and Holger Czukay's contributions are much more clearly audible than on Aston 1977. The extended versions of two pieces from Saw Delight are ample proof that Can could still deliver the goods on stage even if their studio albums had become rather hit and miss by this point, although they never recaptured the manic energy of the Damo Suzuki era. They were also leaning more into extended jams than spontaneous compositions at this point - it's hard to define where one approach ends and the other begins, and one isn't necessarily better than the other, but it's fair to say that the Godzillas had been tamed.

It looks like this is the last Can archival live release (for now), and it's not a bad point to finish on. Can's trademark hypnotic grooves are present and correct, and if Rosko Gee's bass is a little busier than Holger Czukay's, he and Jaki Liebezeit gelled into a supple and muscular rhythm section, laying down a solid foundation for Karoli and Schmidt to extemporise over, while Holger Czukay beamed in noises from another dimension. A solid 4 stars.

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