Can – Can

The back cover is so sloppy. Do those who made this have no visual perception at all? ( 2012 US edition)

After 2 attempts I finally received a decent copy. A little noisy but hopefully a cleaning will take care of that. the mastering is goddamn excellent. you do need to crank the volume a bit but it benefits nicely from this. I am happy.

Sounds like a rehaersal space version of CAN somehow. Or maybe like a CAN coverband from somewhere out there. Is this just unfinished or does it really lack of any idea ?

The OS originally stated that this white label version apparently has a slightly different mix on the opening track of side 1. However that claim has yet to be substantiated by any reliable source.

A lot of Can fanatics dismiss this album (and ittedly most later Can is weak compared to the classic Damo-era LPs), but this is a remarkable, forward-thinking space-age disco record. It helps if you dont think of it as a Can record but just some mystery studio group, or throw a track into the middle of a DJ set of rare groovers and watch the crowd react.

Side 2 of mine plays side 2 of Delaney Bonnie & Friends ‘accept no substitute’ album.

This later entry in the Can catalogue has worn quite well. I dug it out to play A Specacle just now as I noticed that the track appears on the second Disco Not Disco compilation on Strut. And it is indeed quite disco-ey. Can had track record with the dancefloor of course with the celebrated I Want More which will rock a club anywhere, anytime.

Tucked inside my copy of the record is a review from the time by NME journo Angus Mackinnon. Wonder what happened to him, he was a good journalist. Perhaps he ended up writing for the monthlies. Anyway - reading the review made me nostalgic for the old days of the NME and the scope and intelligence of the writing at the time. Angus knew what he was talking about. Occasionally I pick up a copy of the free NME nowadays ... oh dear, won't someone put it out of its misery.

This album contains some extremely fluid playing but I'm bound to say it's not up to the quality of the first six Can albums '69 - '75. Holger is missing for one thing (although he is credited with 'editing' and he co-wrote A Spectacle). What the albums lacks is the sheer energy, experimentalism and inspiration of the classic years - but I must say I am enjoying it.

Side one is a really good listen. All Gates Open develops fantastically whilst Safe has the hallmarks of classic Can - plus some excellent treated cybernetic vocals to close. Brilliant. Side two has the aforementioned A Spectacle... disco dynamite ... but sadly the album collapses under the weight of the sheer folly of their cover of Offenbach's Can Can. This awful joke must've seemed irrestible to the chortling German crew - but really it's an abomination that sullies the Can name and should've have been strangled at birth. Really grim track that ruins the vibe of the record. For that I knock it down from a potential four stars to three.