Delay 1968 cover

Delay 1968

Can

Released

Originally entitled Prepare To Meet Thy Pnoom, these recordings apparently didn’t please any record labels, which is hard to believe now. There are bits of the age stuck to them, but on “Thief” and “Butterfly” they sound only like themselves. Liebezeit’s drums are tuned to a frequency far removed from the bashing so popular in England at the time, and Mooney plays chicken with Jaki the whole time, kicking the band into what Czukay called “A RHYTHM.” Michael Karoli’s guitar is way out front and Schmidt’s keyboards are a bit submerged here, though they lift everything when they cut through. “Thief” is as good as anything the band ever did, if simply for giving everyone a very clear iteration of How Jaki Tuned His Drums.

Sasha Frere-Jones

Recommended by

Suggestions
Interventions cover

Interventions

Horse Lords
Debut cover

Debut

Björk
Time Capsule cover

Time Capsule

Chris Bowden
New York 1982 cover

New York 1982

Charlie Morrow, Derek Bailey
Returns cover

Returns

Warm Currency
Lux cover

Lux

Brian Eno
Rastakraut Pasta cover

Rastakraut Pasta

Dieter Moebius, Conny Plank
Hubris cover

Hubris

Oren Ambarchi