crumbsroom wrote:

I haven't. I did see it recently at the record store I used to go to in Toronto during a recent visit, but didn't pay it much mind. Wasn't even entirely sure what it was. So much gets reissued these days, it can be a minefield of total garbage getting the deluxe treatment.

It certainly isn't garbage.  It's an interesting look at the young Lou's songbook circa May 1965, and does include a version of "Heroin".  It was his "poor man's copyright", wherein he recorded the tape and then mailed it back to himself, and had left the package unopen, in case he ever needed to use it in a copyright dispute.  So the tape has never been heard in 55 years.  It isn't quite as fascinating as the tape that was issued on Peel Slowly and See, recorded a couple of months later in 1965 with John Cale.  That had some really mesmerizing versions of "Venus in Furs" and "Heroin", but this release is still very interesting.

The quality and integrity of this new Lou Reed Archive project is being vouched by his widow, Laurie Anderson, and being overseen by people like Don Fleming and Hal Wilner (before the latter's death last year), and the Light in the Attic label is one of the most reknowned archive record label going right now and also provides a certain stamp of quality on any of their releases.

Jinnistan wrote:

crumbsroom wrote:

I haven't. I did see it recently at the record store I used to go to in Toronto during a recent visit, but didn't pay it much mind. Wasn't even entirely sure what it was. So much gets reissued these days, it can be a minefield of total garbage getting the deluxe treatment.

It certainly isn't garbage.  It's an interesting look at the young Lou's songbook circa May 1965, and does include a version of "Heroin".  It was his "poor man's copyright", wherein he recorded the tape and then mailed it back to himself, and had left the package unopen, in case he ever needed to use it in a copyright dispute.  So the tape has never been heard in 55 years.  It isn't quite as fascinating as the tape that was issued on Peel Slowly and See, recorded a couple of months later in 1965 with John Cale.  That had some really mesmerizing versions of "Venus in Furs" and "Heroin", but this release is still very interesting.

The quality and integrity of this new Lou Reed Archive project is being vouched by his widow, Laurie Anderson, and being overseen by people like Don Fleming and Hal Wilner (before the latter's death last year), and the Light in the Attic label is one of the most reknowned archive record label going right now and also provides a certain stamp of quality on any of their releases.

Okay, that's good to hear. I've been in a velvet swirl recently and now I've got this on my radar.

Of course I just came back from a record store with an old Car Seat Headrest album, because I've got to prioritize.

crumbsroom wrote:

I had no idea the Delay was technically Cans first album. I thought it was just some random compilation and never even looked at the back of it to realize it's a bunch of shit I've never heard before.

I guess I never knew it was intended as an album, but it's some of their earliest sessions from 1968.  The only problem with it is that I'm not the biggest fan of Malcolm Mooney, but the band (called The Inner Space at the time) is always interesting.  At this time they were focusing on more soundtrack work, and many of their long jams were made for consideration as incidental music.  Another record, possibly a bootleg (on Tago Mago Records, pressed in France) is called Prehistoric Future, and is one long extended piece.  Another bootleg, Zhengzheng Rikang, is a possible alternative version of their intended first album, includes some of Delay and outtakes of material from their first two albums and a couple unreleased songs.  ("Melting Away" is on Cannibalism Vol. 2)  Keyboardist Irmin Schmidt is credited with some other soundtracks, and I have one, Kamasutra from 1969, that is basically Can with extra Indian accompaniment (credited to Irmin Schmidt and the Inner Space).  Some of the soundtracks aren't available, at least I have yet to find a soundtrack for their Alice in the Cities, for example.  And bassist Holger Czukay had a solo project from 1969, Canaxis 5, that would definitely be interesting for any Can fan.  Unlimited Edition, their mid-70s comp, also has a lot of good recordings from this era, some under the name "E.F.S." (Ethnological Forgery Series), variations on incidental versions of indigenous music.

I don't have any of the original Can albums after Flow Motion, and it took me forever to bother with that one.  (One day, I'll try out Saw Delight.)  But I'm game for anything else up until then, including the unreleased stuff.  However, although it's a goldmine in many ways, The Lost Tapes is very frustrating for being 3CDs of various material, frequently spliced from many different sources, and very little in the way of liner note attribution.

crumbsroom wrote:

Also, these three live releases by them that have come out the last few years. Any take on those?

I'll have to track those down!  I do have a few live recordings, including their Live Can set, although that's a mix of different shows.  It's unfortunate that most of the available circulating shows are from the 75-77 period, rather than what I'd find much more interesting 70-73 period.  Still, I do have some tapes from 72-73.  I have a bootleg vinyl of part of their 1973 show in Cologne, which is a 35 minute version of "Doko E".  A bootleg sometimes called Queueing is a quality sounding show from Paris in 1973, although many bootlegs either credit it to May 12 or December 5.  And there's another Cologne show, from 1972, that you can watch here:




 

crumbsroom wrote:

All good to know. There the type of the band I imagine are worth as much as you can dig up. At least in those glory years up to Flow Motion (that is where I stop, haven't heard anything but maybe one or two tracks from it). They really were close to one of the greatest of all time. And I think it wouldn't be absurd to have the on the short list of being the actual greatest.

Definitely one of the best bands of the 70s, and one of the few rock bands to approach that 70s Miles Davis vibe, the mix of free form funk, psychedelica, sci-fi, into the abyss-ness.  It's like if Pink Floyd hadn't chosen to exclusively stick to dystopian operas and continued in their Ummagumma path through abstract experimentation.

Last edited by Rock (2/08/2023 6:49 pm)

I found a copy of one of the new live Can releases, from Brighton 1975.  It's an audience recording, although given a nice facelift by their Spoon Records crew.  The sound has dimension, but unfortunately the bass and drums are still a little hollow.  Musically, it's great stuff, more free form, and, again, reminescent of the era's (73-75) live Miles Davis performances, with thick slabs of stratospheric jams that occasionaly veer into recognizable themes.  Let's be honest.  Can is always better without a vocalist.



 

"Talking to no one is strange,
Talking to someone is stranger"

-Kevin Boing