Record label MUTE have announced the release of CAN – The Singles (out 16 June), a unique document in which Can’s singles have been presented together for the first time and which clearly demonstrates the breadth of their influential career, from well-loved tracks like Halleluwah, Vitamin C and I Want More to more obscure singles such as Silent Night and Turtles Have Short Legs.
Helen ran a tribute to CAN in 2015 after the news that Irmin Schmidt – composer, keyboard player (and a founder of CAN) received a knighthood from the French Government for his work in art and culture. Recollecting the impression their music made on first listen she recalled: “I remember buying the band’s 1971 album Tago Mago pretty much ‘on spec’ after reading the (admittedly hyperbolic) sleeve notes which name-checked other bands I liked at the time, but it took only seconds from dropping the stylus onto side one, track one, to realise that the music was like nothing else I’d ever heard.” Read the full article here.
Listen to ‘Shikako Maru Ten’, now available for the first time on digital services.
‘Shikako Maru Ten’ was the B-side to Spoon, a Top 10 hit in Germany in 1972. The singles on this compilation are all in presented in their original 7” version and ‘Shikako Maru Ten’, which never appeared on a studio album, is available here for the first time on vinyl outside its original release.
The Barbican, London recently hosted a very special event to mark Can’s 50th anniversary year: Irmin Schmidt conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, presenting the world premiere of an original orchestral work composed by Schmidt and Gregor Schwellenbach, Can Dialog while a specially curated supergroup brought together by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore featuring Can’s first singer Malcolm Mooney performed a set of Can tracks, including ‘She Brings The Rain’ to ‘Yoo Doo Right’ to ‘Mother Sky’.
Can, founded in 1967 released their debut album Monster Movie (1969) which set them apart from the mainstream, carving out a sound that transcended the boundaries of experimental electronic, jazz and modern classical music. Can’s influence extends from post-punk musicians such as Joy Division and Primal Scream, through avant-garde composers including Bernhard Lang, to Radiohead. Schmidt himself began his musical career as a pupil of Stockhausen and Ligeti, and conducted numerous high-profile orchestras in his native Germany and abroad. Hearing the sounds of Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa in the 60s led to the formation of Can but Schmidt never lost touch with his avant-garde classical upbringing, and it is to Schmidt that Can owed much of its musical eclecticism.
In spring 2018, Faber & Faber are publishing a new book devoted to Can, All Gates Open. The special edition will come in two volumes: one will be the first complete, authorised biography of the band written by Rob Young and the second, Can Kiosk by Irmin Schmidt, is a collage of thoughts, visuals and interviews (interviews collated by Max Dax and Robert Defcon).
CAN – THE SINGLES – TRACKLISTING:
Soul Desert
She Brings The Rain
Spoon
Shikako Maru Ten
Turtles Have Short Legs
Halleluwah (Edit)
Vitamin C
I’m So Green
Mushroom
Moonshake
Future Days (Edit)
Dizzy Dizzy (Edit)
Splash (Edit)
Hunters And Collectors (Edit)
Vernal Equinox (Edit)
I Want More
…And More
Silent Night
Cascade Waltz
Don’t Say No (Edit)
Return
Can Can
Hoolah Hoolah (Edit)
Pre-order now:
Buy: http://smarturl.it/CanTheSinglesBuy
Stream: http://smarturl.it/CanTheSinglesStream