Jaki Liebezeit
Jaki Liebezeit was a German drummer, best known for his work with the Krautrock band Can. He was born in Ostrau, Saxony, Germany on May 26, 1938. He began playing drums at the age of 14, and soon became one of the most sought-after drummers in Germany. In 1968, he joined Can, and remained with the band until their breakup in 1979. He later worked with various other bands and artists, including Jah Wobble, Holger Czukay, and Michael Rother. Liebezeit died on January 22, 2017 at the age of 78
Jaki Liebezeit was a German drummer, best known for his work with the Krautrock band Can. He was born in Ostrau, Saxony, Germany on May 26, 1938. He began playing drums at the age of 14, and soon became one of the most sought-after drummers in Germany. In 1968, he joined Can, and remained with the band until their breakup in 1979. He later worked with various other bands and artists, including Jah Wobble, Holger Czukay, and Michael Rother. Liebezeit died on January 22, 2017 at the age of 78
Members: Can
Out Of Reach
All but unknown to most but the most hardcore Can fanatics, 1978's Out of Reach is one of the group's rarest albums. This is due in large part to the fact that bassist Holger Czukay left the band before the recording sessions, and drummer Jaki Liebezeit has a greatly reduced role, leaving most of the rhythm duties to percussionist-come-lately Reebop Kwaku Baah. As on the group's proper swan song, 1977's Saw Delight, new bassist Rosko Gee largely leads the group, and his jazz-inflected playing is…
Saw Delight
1977's Saw Delight is the German progressive group's farewell. Percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah and bassist Rosko Gee from a late-era lineup of Traffic to add a sort of Afro-Cuban jazz feel to their sound. Similarly, Rosko Gee's handling of the bass duties (which he performs superbly throughout, adding an almost Mingus-like rhythmic intensity to even the loosest songs) frees Holger Czukay to add electronics and sound effects to the proceedings. The opening "Don't Say No" recalls the controlled fu…
Flow Motion
The second of Can's three Virgin albums, 1976's Flow Motion, is a divisive record in the group's canon. It was their most commercially successful album (the opening track, "I Want More," was released as a single in the U.K. and actually charted, thanks to its smoothly percolating near-disco groove, which makes it resemble a late-period Roxy Music hit), but many fans dismiss it as the group's feint toward commercial success. That fluke hit aside, the charge doesn't really hold water. There's a ne…
Flut
Jochen Irmler and Jaki Liebzeit met in the town of scheer last july to prepare for an upcoming concert at the slaughterhouse in sigmaringen as well as for a subsequent appearance in the kammerspiele in munich. however, they quickly decided to stop rehearsing and instead record flut - an album that regroups six improvisations between organ and percussion. flut adds another chapter to irmler's collaborations, which aim to explore, whenever possible, the hidden potential that lies dormant in the cl…
Landed
If you got a quid for each time Can were referenced as influencing a given band or artist, we'd have taken the Bank Of England down years ago. Remastered to a clarity that will come as a shock to those who've been suffering the original cd releases, 1975's 'Landed' is notable for marking the return to Can's debut line-up (barring Malcolm Mooney of course), following the love-sick Damo Suzuki's departure. Their 7th full-length release, 'Landed' also saw the band getting their mitts on a 16 track …
Soon over Babaluma
With Suzuki departed, vocal responsibilities were now split between Michael Karoli and Irmin Schmidt. Wisely, neither try to clone Mooney or Suzuki, instead aiming for their own low-key way around things. The guitarist half speaks/half whispers his lines on the opening groover, "Dizzy Dizzy," while on "Come Sta, La Luna" Schmidt uses a higher pitch that is mostly buried in the background. Holger Czukay sounds like he's throwing in some odd movie samples on that particular track, though perhaps i…
Unlimited Edition
Most bands stick out a 'unreleased and bonus bollocks' album when they're bereft of new ideas and need some filthy lucre to keep the country estate fully stocked with coy carp. You get the feeling this was the last thing on Can's mind. Having amassed a serious quantity of recordings between 1969 and '74, 'Unlimited Edition' (now giving a thorough spring-clean for this remastered release) was put out on a 15,000 only run to proceed 'Soon Over Babaluma', portraying a much rougher Can that tended n…
Ege Bamyasi
**Green Vinyl** The group's fourth album, from 1972, originally issued by United Artists. "The follow-up to Tago Mago is only lesser in terms of being shorter; otherwise the Can collective delivers its expected musical recombination act with the usual power and ability. Liebezeit, at once minimalist and utterly funky, provides another base of key beat action for everyone to go off on -- from the buried, lengthy solos by Karoli on 'Pinch' to the rhythm box/keyboard action on 'Spoon'. Liebezeit an…
Monster Movie
Are we there yet? After 25 years of critical reappraisal and at least 15 years of indie and post-rock bands flaunting their influence, has Can finally gotten their just desserts? I don't think so. Not just yet. Can still seem just a little bit ahead of the curve. They really were "post-rock," as opposed to just futuristic. Can's music anticipated both the musical trend toward decontextualization via electronics, post-production, and editing, and the cultural trend toward collective experience an…
Soundtracks
Soundtracks is a compilation album, first released in 1970, consisting of tracks written for film. The album marks the departure of the band's original vocalist Malcolm Mooney, who sings on two tracks, to be replaced by new member Damo Suzuki. "She Brings the Rain", originally appearing in the 1969 film Bottom – Ein großer, graublauer Vogel by Thomas Schamoni, was later featured in Wim Wenders' 1994 film Lisbon Story, the 2000 Oskar Roehler film Die Unberührbare and Tran Anh Hung's film Norwegia…
Tago Mago
Black vinyl edition You couldn't do much better than beginning with 1971's Tago Mago, freshly reissued in vinyl format. It's a colossus of an album, the product of a band that was thinking huge, pushing itself to its limits, and devoted to breaking open its own understanding of what rock music could be. The core of Can was four German musicians from wildly different backgrounds-- when they initially came together in 1968, two of them had studied with composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, one had play…
Live at Aston University, Birmingham
Extremely rare recording of Can performing live at Aston University in Birmingham, on March 4, 1977 and featuring the new addition of Rebop Kwaku Baah (the Ghanian percussionist well-known for his work with Traffic, Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, etc.) and Roscoe Gee (a Jamaican bassist who had also recorded with Traffic). Holger Czukay, now freed from bass duties, began experimenting with an array of electronic sounds, which he also began adding to the mix in part to counterbalance Can's …
A Double Promo Album By CAN
Vocalist Damo Suzuki’s departure from CAN in 1973 had forced the band to re-evaluate their sound. Now with Michael Karoli and Irmin Schmidt sharing vocal duties, the band had also begun drawing on influences from disco and glam. While still remaining staunchly outside the mainstream, they undoubtedly became more accessible to a wider audience, and soon had a huge fan base in the UK. In fact, just a few months after playing the live show found on this double LP (recorded in Lyon in January …
The Lost Tapes
Limited Vinyl Box Set, includes 5 x 180GM vinyl LP's, 28 page 12" booklet and a 24" poster - includes 30 previously unreleased tracks* "The Lost Tapes was curated by Irmin Schmidt and Daniel Miller, compiled by Irmin Schmidt and Jono Podmore, and edited by Jono Podmore. When the legendary Can studio in Weilerswist was sold to the German Rock N Pop Museum, they bought everything, including the army mattresses that covered the walls for sound protection, and relocated it to Gronau. Whils…
Future Days Live
This album is made up of one long jam session recorded live-in-studio at Inner Space in Cologne during the 1973 Future Days sessions. More ambient than their previous efforts, Future Days was also singer Damo Suzuki's final album with Can. Members of Can had first encountered the self-defined '20th century nomad,' Kenji 'Damo' Suzuki, a few years earlier on the streets of Cologne. It was shortly after original Can vocalist Malcolm Mooney had left the band and they were left without a singer…
Delay
Probably the rawest krautrock release. Malcolm Mooney's singing is trance inducing yet soulful, keeping the songs together when everyone else seems to freak out. Nineteen Century Man an it's over the top distortion, combined with the 'Inner Space' mantra, and it's half a minute jazz impromptu prelude Pnoom, push the listener into bliss every time.
Future Days
An uneasy truce had been thrashed out by the warring factions of Can by the time they came to record 'Future Days' in 1972, yet it is the underlying musical tension that makes this album such a thrilling part of their cannon... With Damo Suzuki's ethereal vocals continuously juxtaposed by Michael Karoli's fraught guitars and Holger Czulkay's invasive bass, the remastered versions of 'Spray' and 'Bel Air' are numbly visceral in that trademark Can way, convincing you that the full spectrum of cont…
Soon Over Babaluna
With Suzuki departed, vocal responsibilities were now split between Michael Karoli and Irmin Schmidt. Wisely, neither try to clone Mooney or Suzuki, instead aiming for their own low-key way around things. The guitarist half speaks/half whispers his lines on the opening groover, "Dizzy Dizzy," while on "Come Sta, La Luna" Schmidt uses a higher pitch that is mostly buried in the background. Holger Czukay sounds like he's throwing in some odd movie samples on that particular track, though perhaps i…
dvd
he Can saga continues with the 35th anniversary of the founding of the group, which will be marked by the release of the Can DVD. Containing access to everything you could ever want to know about Can with rare insights into the personalities and methodology of the groundbreaking and legendary German band, the 2 x DVD and 1 x CD set features: Can Documentary, Can Free Concert, Can Notes, Can solo recordings, New 5.1 mixes of classic Can tracks and many extra features. The classic Can Documentary …