Mute and Spoon Records have announced the third in a series of Can live albums, Can Live in Cuxhaven 1976. This is the latest in the acclaimed series which began in 2021 with Can Live in Stuttgart 1975 and presents a shorter, more concise performance by Can over four sections. The Can Live series has taken the best of Can’s bootlegged recordings - many of which were recorded by Andrew Hall, who sadly died in April 2021 - and, overseen by founding member Irmin Schmidt and producer / engineer René Tinner, have fed them through the wringer of 21st century technology to bring you these vital historical documents in the best quality versions possible. Can Live in Cuxhaven 1976’s sleeve notes were written by the French author Pascal Bussy, whose books include The Can Story (co-authored with Andy Hall, 1989) and Kraftwerk: Man, Machine, and Music (1993). Talking about Can live, Bussy states, “Until the end, Can gigs were not only logical extensions of their studio work, they were definitely a work in itself. And we are so fortunate to still have a lot to discover.” This new album follows Can Live in Brighton 1975 [“Pure dynamite… keep them coming” – MOJO] and Can Live in Stuttgart 1975, which was voted Uncut’s Reissue of the Year, placed #2 in MOJO’s Reissues of the Year and #7 in The Wire’s Archive Reissues of the Year. The album also featured in the year end round ups from Record Collector, Electronic Sound, Treble, Aquarium Drunkard and more. Founded in the late ‘60s and disbanded just over a decade later, Can’s unprecedented and bold marriage of hypnotic grooves and avant-garde instrumental textures has made them one of the most important and innovative bands of all time, and these albums reveal a totally different perspective to the group. You may hear familiar themes, riffs and motifs popping up and rippling through these jams, but they are often fleetingly recognised faces in a swirling crowd. At other points, you will hear music that didn’t make it onto the official album canon. In these recordings Can go to even more extreme ranges than with their studio work: from mellow, ambient drift-rock to the white-dwarf sonic-meltdown moments they used to nickname ‘Godzillas’.
1. Cuxhaven 76 Eins
2. Cuxhaven 76 Zwei
3. Cuxhaven 76 Drei
4. Cuxhaven 76 Vier