Delay 1968 cover

Delay 1968

Can

Released

Originally entitled Prepare To Meet Thy Pnoom, these recordings apparently didn’t please any record labels, which is hard to believe now. There are bits of the age stuck to them, but on “Thief” and “Butterfly” they sound only like themselves. Liebezeit’s drums are tuned to a frequency far removed from the bashing so popular in England at the time, and Mooney plays chicken with Jaki the whole time, kicking the band into what Czukay called “A RHYTHM.” Michael Karoli’s guitar is way out front and Schmidt’s keyboards are a bit submerged here, though they lift everything when they cut through. “Thief” is as good as anything the band ever did, if simply for giving everyone a very clear iteration of How Jaki Tuned His Drums.

Sasha Frere-Jones

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