Always at least three steps ahead of contemporary popular music, Can was the leading avant-garde rock group of the 70s. From their very beginning, their music didn't conform to any commonly-held notions about rock & roll -- not even those of the counter-cultures. Inspired more by 20th century classical music than Chuck Berry, their closest contemporaries were Frank Zappa or possibly the Velvet Underground. Yet their music was more serious and inaccessible than either of those artists. Instead of recording tight pop songs or satire, Can experimented with noise, synthesizers, non-traditional music, cut-and-paste techniques, and, most importantly, electronic music; each album marked a significant step forward than the previous album, investigating new territories that other rock bands weren't interested in exploring.

Throughout their career, Can's line-up was fluid, featuring several different vocalists over the years; the core band members remained keyboardist Irmin Schmidt, drummer Jaki Leibezeit, guitarist Michael Karoli, and keyboardist Holger Czukay. During the 70s, they were extremely prolific, recording as many as three albums a year at the height of their career. Apart from a surprise UK Top 30 hit in 1976 -- "I Want More" -- they were never much more than a cult band; even critics had a hard time appreciating their music. When the band split in 1978, the band left behind a body of work that has proven surprisingly groundbreaking; echoes of Can's music can be heard in Public Image Limited, the Fall, and Einsturzende Neubauten, among others. As with much aggressive and challenging experimental music, Can's music can be difficult to appreciate, yet their albums offer some of the best experimental rock ever recorded.

~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine



In June 1968, five musicians meet in Irmin Schmidt's Cologne apartment; the germ cell of a band that will make history later on as Can: The classically trained musicians Irmin Schmidt (keyboards), Holger Czukay (bass) and David Johnson (flute), drummer Jaki Liebezeit (a free jazz deserter) and a young beat guitar player, Michael Karoli, together looking for new musical concepts. Their first joint gig, a spectacular collage of rock music and tape samples, takes place as an improvised happening at Schloss NÀrvenich (castle NÀrvenich, near Cologne).This show is documented on the cassette 'Prehistoric Future'. It is at Schloss NÀrvenich where this musicians collective establishes its first studio, operating under the name Inner Space.new member points the way: Black American sculptor Malcolm Mooney, who is visiting Irmin and Hildegard Schmidt, links up with the band, and his intuitive drive leads the musicians toward rock music. The track "Father Cannot Yell" originates from one of these first joint sessions. David Johnson's only involvement is that of a sound technician; he leaves the band by the end of 1968. Malcolm Mooney and Jaki Liebezeit come up with a new name: The Can. The first Can album, 'Monster Movie'(1969), recorded with 2-track technology, was the entry into a by then unique cosmos of sound. Can music, played and recorded spontaneously and driven by repetitive rhythms, broke the formal limits of well-worn concepts. The running time of the early Can classic "Yoo Doo Right" is 20 minutes and 14 seconds. 'Monster Movie', the album 'Soundtracks', featuring Can's film scores from 1969 and 1970, was released. Among those were few tracks with Malcolm Mooney, who'd left the band after one year and returned to the U.S. following a psychological breakdown. The Mooney era is extensively documented on 'Can - Delay 1968' ; featuring then-unreleased material, it was released in 1982.

In May 1970, Japanese singer Kenji "Damo" Suzuki joined Can after having been spotted by Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit in Munich's Leopoldstrasse; a globetrotter making money for his return trip as a street musician, Damo had also been a cast member of the musical 'Hair' . The same evening of his discovery by Czukay and Liebezeit, he performed with Can in Munich at the Blow Up club. The chaotic performance, a pandemonium of feedback and ingenious noise, is one of the most notable shows in Can's history.
1972 brought the second official Can release, the double album 'Tago Mago', which stirred critics especially in England and France. There is a mood of new departures in the 'Tago Mago' sessions, underlaid with all the insanity and skill of a musician's collective that transformed its diverging egos into excitement and energy.

In December 1971, Can founded the Inner Space Studio in a former movie theater in Weilerswist (close to Cologne), where from then on all Can albums were produced. Since 1978 the studio, now called Can Studio, has been looked after by ex-Can soundman Rene Tinner. Can's performance at the Cologne Sporthalle on February 3, 1972 featured vaudeville artists, among others, and prominent cameramen were on location. Martin Schafer, Robbie Muller and Egon Mann captured the event on tape for Peter Przygodda's film 'Can Free Concert' 'Ege Bamyasi' , released in October 1972, featured the first and biggest chart success for the band in Germany: "Spoon," the title track for the crime thriller 'Das Messer'. The album also included the music of another TV crime thriller, "Vitamin C," from the Samuel Fuller-directed episode "Tote Taube in der Beethovenstrasse." On this song Can explored interaction with an electronic rhythm machine, an early version of a drum computer; they had first used this device on "Peking O" from 'Tago Mago'. British "Melody Maker" wrote: "Can are without doubt the most talented and most consistent experimental rock band in Europe, England included." French magazine 'Rock & Folk' portrayed Can's music as "one of the most impressive musical experiments offered by contemporary bands." 'Future Days' (1973) was the last Can album with Damo Suzuki, who'd left the band as suddenly as he'd joined them, to become a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Can's music changed; first Michael Karoli took over the vocal duties, followed by short interludes of various singers, among them Tim Hardin.

The longest concert in Can's history took place in Berlin in 1974, lasting from 8 p.m. until 8:30 a.m. the next morning. With the recording of 'Soon Over Babaluma' that same year, Can's era of recording straight onto one track was over. But it also was the birth of something new, unmistakably revealed on "Quantum Physics," the first Can ambient track. 'Landed'(1975) was the first Can LP to be produced using multitrack technology. Their work on this album led "Melody Maker" to call them "the most advanced rock unit on the planet."
The double album 'Unlimited Edition'(1976) featured an extended version of an album that had quickly sold out as 'Limited Edition' two years earlier and which gave fans the opportunity to explore unreleased session material. Among those tracks were the legendary recordings from the "Ethnological Forgery Series" (EFS), colorful fooling around with foreign music cultures, from Far East sounds to Dixieland.

Can's 'Flow Motion' (1976), featuring the disco hit single "I Want More," was musically versatile. The British paper "Sounds" wrote: "Can produces musical magic and magical music."
In 1977 the group presented itself as a new musical outfit. Famous rhythm duo Rosko Gee (bass) and Reebop Kwaku Baah (percussion) had left Traffic and joined Can. Holger Czukay had retired as a bass player; on 'Saw Delight' he was in charge of "special sounds" and wave receiver. His new instrument was the "WeltempfÀŠnger," or shortwave radio; while his idea to create new impulses for the musical process via radio signals didn't fit within the new Can structure, it became the basis for his first solo album, 'Movies' (1979). 'Out of Reach'(1978) was recorded without Holger Czukay, who'd left the band in May, 1977 during the last Can tour. The final Can show, in Lisbon at the end of May, was a superb departure in front of 10,000 raging fans. The double album 'Cannibalism' (1978) wasn't just a "Best of Can" compilation, it also was a guide into the future of the Can myth.

A new British avant-garde of musicians had been deeply inspired by Can. Speaking for many, Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks) is quoted on the 'Cannibalism' cover: "I never would have played guitar if not for Marc Bolan and Michael Karoli of Can." At the end of 1978 the band released 'Can' , edited by Holger Czukay. In the following years the individual members focused on solo projects. Michael Karoli built a studio in France, close to Nice. It was there at his Outer Space Studio where in November eight years later the original 'Monster Movie' line-up got together again with their first vocalist, Malcolm Mooney, and recorded 'Rite Time', which was released in 1988. In 1991 the band assembled again at the Can's Studio with the same line-up minus Holger to record the track "Last Night Sleep" for Wim Wenders's film "Until the End of the World"
Another chapter in the Can history was to follow. In May 1997, the remix CD 'Sacrilege' demonstrated that Can's music was always an expression of an ever-developing process, and never final. For this tribute to a band that has inspired the vanguard of musicians for three decadesnow, several prominent representatives of the techno, dance and ambient scene reworked 15 classic Can tracks for the '90s, from "Yoo Doo Right" to " . . . and more."