1981 compilation album by Can
Delay 1968 is a compilation album by the German experimental rock band Can released in 1981. It comprises previously unreleased work recorded for Can's rejected debut album, Prepared to Meet Thy Pnoom, recorded with the singer Malcolm Mooney.
Background.
Can offered "Prepared to Meet Thy Phoon" to several record company, but the album wasn't picked up. Parts of "Delay 1968" circulated in bootleg form for several years under the title "Unopened", and included other tracks recorded during the same sessions that would later surface in various forms on other albums.
Can recorded the song "Thief" in the summer of 1969 during their stay in Zurich. The band visited Zurich after receiving an invitation to orchestrate a live score for "Prometheus Bound" play staged in Schauspielhaus Zürich theater, and recorded "Thief" in theater's cellar room "with awful acoustics". Rob Young, Can's biographer, commented that the song "Thief" expressed Can at their "most gravitas-laden" with the subject matter "riffing directly off the scenography of "Prometheus Bound"", referencing "the hanging man", "the Jesus man … cursed to the holy ground" and "trying to fly". "Thief" was used in the comedy thriller "Kuckucksei im Gangsternest", directed by Franz-Josef Spieker and released at the end of the year.
The song "Uphill", sometimes called "Moving Slowly Going Uphill", was live recorded during the open doors event at the Schloss Nörvenich in August 1969. Can were invited to set up a performance in the Schloss' entrance hall, where Malcolm Mooney "became distracted, hypnotised even, by the constant flow of visitors up and down the central staircase", tirelessly repeating the words "Moving Slowly Going Uphill". According to Can legend, he recited the phrase "Upstairs … downstairs … upstairs … downstairs …" over and over, speaking it obsessively "until he became locked into a mania of repetition" and didn't stop when the group took a break.
"Little Star of Bethlehem" is one of the first recordings with inserted overdub parts of the entire band. When German producer Conny Planck listened to the recordings in the early 80s, he got excited saying: "As long as Can playes 'Soul' they are unbeatable".
Reception and legacy.
"The Rolling Stone Album Guide" included a review of "Delay 1968", writing that the album is "so good it's hard to believe it stayed in the can for another 13 years". The most "raucous and insistent record, with Karoli riffing harder than he ever would again, and Mooney's hoarse, off-key cries suiting its avant-garage vibe."
Jason Ankeny of "AllMusic" had a mixed reception, saying "Delay 1968" is "nowhere near as intricate or assured as the group's later work". However, he liked "the visceral energy" of "Uphill" and "Butterfly".
Brian Eno made a remix of "PNOOM" for 1997 Can tribute album "Sacrilege", with substantial use of loops. Eno was disappointed with his effort, saying the loops "destroyed the delicate balance you always kept between the mechanical and the human".
Radiohead covered "Thief" in live performances in the early 2000s.
References.
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