CAN - The Lost Tapes (3CD)

A successor/sequel in many ways to 1976's Unlimited Edition, The Lost Tapes exhumes thirty more tracks from the archives, from live excerpts to 'ethnological forgeries' and such revelatory works-in-progress as "Dead Pigeon Suite" and "A Swan Is Born," respective early takes of Ege Bamyasi's "Vitamin C" and "Sing Swan Song."

"Can released 12 albums, and a number of outtakes have dribbled forth since. But for the krautrock aficionado, the tease that 100 tapes of unreleased material was sitting around was almost unbearable: akin to knowing the Holy Grail was sat in a cupboard in Cologne. Finally, Can keyboardist Irmin Schmidt and band associate Jono Podmore have dug in, and the results are pretty stunning: three CDs drawing on film soundtrack work, live material, experimental segments and sprawling jams that show the workings of later Can favourites." - NME

"Drive was Can's trademark, powered not just by [Malcolm] Mooney's aggression but by Michael Karoli's tattoo-needle guitar style and (especially) the drumming of Jaki Liebezeit, in which the delicacy and invention of jazz was applied to a series of rigidly mechanised beats, a kind of percussive hypnosis driving the others forward without fear. In time, as Mooney was replaced by the ethereal Damo Suzuki, the drive became more of a glide, the sound spun out until it was almost translucent, but the band retained its eerie power: heavy when featherlight, direct when delirious." - The Quietus

"At its root, this collection is a testament to the groove. Jaki Liebezeit says: 'The idea to keep the rhythm was forbidden in times of free jazz. There was no groove. But in Can, the rhythms were always defined. I had a lot of critics in the beginning because they said I am repeating all the time, it is monotonous and I have no ideas. If you change your standpoint all the time, no one will understand you. So I keep a standpoint and go on. I must obey the rhythm.'" - musicOHM