Can, the legendary krautrock weirdos that influenced everyone from LCD Soundsystem to James Murphy solo (probably a few others too), have been riding the reissue train lately, with a deluxe edition of 1971’s Tago Mago out last year and reissues of all their albums in a vinyl box set on the horizon. That’s great and all, but you should really be smacking yourself hard if you haven’t heard all those Can albums already (pre-Landed, at least). Superfans have found much to satiate their need for more Can, with fantastic bootlegs (like Radio Waves and Horrortrip in the Paperhouse), and recent releases of pre-Can material (The Inner Space’s Agilok & Blubbo), but it seemed like the archives would be running dry about now… .. ..ohmanlookingforwardtothenextparagraphherewego!
However, Mute Records has announced that it will release — in the shape of an oversized reel-to-reel tape box — The Lost Tapes, a 3-CD set compiled by Can keyboardsman Irmin Schmidt and Mute head Daniel Miller consisting of unreleased, rediscovered CAN JAMS from 1968-1977, featuring the lineup of Schmidt, Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit, and both Malcolm Mooney and Damo Suzuki on vocals! Thank god it wasn’t material from 1978-1989. The set (along with 28-page booklet) comes out June 18 in Europe and June 19 in the US. Irmin Schmidt explained the origins of this random bounty:
Obviously the tapes weren’t really lost, but were left in the cupboards of the studio archives for so long everybody just forgot about them. Everybody except Hildegard, who watches over Can and its work like the dragon over the gold of the Nibelungen and doesn’t allow forgetting.
And there’s the cold hard facts. Head here to sign up for a mailing list about any new information, and hear an edit of the opening cut “Millionenspiel” below. Yep, it’s as good as you’d hope!
• Can: http://www.spoonrecords.com
• Mute: http://mute.com
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