''Unlimited Edition'' is a

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

by the

krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electron ...

band Can, released by

Harvest Records Harvest Records is a British-American record label belonging to Capitol Music Group, originally created by EMI in 1969. History Harvest Records was created by EMI in 1969 to market progressive rock music, and to compete with Philips' Vertigo ...

in 1976 as a double album. Beforehand,

United Artists Records United Artists Records was an American record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 to issue movie soundtracks. The label expanded into other genres, such as easy listening, jazz, pop, and R&B. History Genres In 1958 ...

released ''Limited Edition'' LP in 1974, which was a limited release of 15,000 copies. ''Unlimited Edition'' is a re-release of ''Limited Edition'', adding tracks 14–19 tracks. The compilations collect unreleased music across the band's history from 1968 to 1975, and feature both of the band's major singers (

Damo Suzuki , known as Damo Suzuki (ダモ鈴木), was a Japanese musician best known as the vocalist for the German Krautrock group Can (band), Can between 1970 and 1973. Born in 1950 in Kobe, Japan, he moved to Europe in the late 1960s where he was spotte ...

and

Malcolm Mooney Malcolm "Desse" Mooney (born 1944) is an American singer, poet, and artist, best known as the original vocalist for German krautrock band Can (band), Can. Biography Early life Malcolm Mooney's father, after serving in the navy, became a jazz pia ...

). The cover photos were taken among the

Elgin Marbles The Elgin Marbles ( ) are a collection of Ancient Greek sculptures from the Parthenon and other structures from the Acropolis of Athens, removed from Ottoman Greece in the early 19th century and shipped to Britain by agents of Thomas Bruce, 7 ...

in the Duveen Gallery of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

Background

The compilation albums were "an interim measure" for Can's record company requiring some commercial activity, before the band could release a studio album.

licensed the ''Limited Edition'' compilation and expanded it to a double LP with a further six unreleased tracks, under the title ''Unlimited Edition''. ''Limited Edition'' was curated by Duncan Fallowell, British journalist and occasional Can collaborator. Can recorded the song "Fall of Another Year" in the summer of 1969 during their stay in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. The band visited Zurich after receiving an invitation to orchestrate a live score for ''Prometheus Bound'' play staged in

Schauspielhaus Zürich The Schauspielhaus Zürich () is one of the most prominent and important theatres in the history of German-speaking theater. It is also known as "Pfauenbühne" (Peacock Stage). The large theatre has 750 seats. The also operates three stages ...

theater, and recorded "Fall of Another Year" in theater's cellar room "with awful acoustics". The other songs recorded in Zurich include "Thief" from 1982 compilation album ''

Delay 1968 ''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''. Background Recorded with the group ...

'' and "She Brings the Rain" from 1970 album ''

Soundtracks A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured ...

''. According to Irmin Schmidt, the song "Cutaway" was assembled into a collage with fragments recorded within a seven-year period. The fragments are "partially copied one after another at different speeds, on top of each other and so on".

Track notes

The abbreviation "E.F.S.", appearing in several of the track titles, refers to ''Ethnological Forgery Series'', a series of songs in which Can "indulged their fascination with non-Western instruments, scales and rhythms". The song "Doko E" is an excerpt from a

free improvisation Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any general rules, instead following the intuition of its performers. The term can refer to both a technique—employed by any musician in any genre—and as a recognizable genre of ...

recorded at a reunion party in Schloss Nörvenich with a small invited audience, dated shortly before the first '' Future Days'' recording sessions. The excerpt is taken from half an hour performance, where " Jaki set up a plodding beat like a donkey bumping along the mountain trails of Provence, as Damo vented his frustrations with his recent stay" in Japan. The lyrics explore Damo's return to his homeland in Japan, which either wasn't his home any longer, or "that he no longer recognised himself in the mirror of his childhood surroundings". "Doko e" means "where to" in Japanese. "Mother Upduff" is a retelling of an

urban legend Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not. These legends can be e ...

involving a family whose grandmother dies while they are on holiday together, and whose corpse—left wrapped up on the roof of the family car—is later stolen along with the car. The recording of tracks "I'm Too Leise" and "LH 702 (Nairobi/München)" are seen in the film ''Can Free Concert 1972'' by Peter Przygodda.

Reception

Dominique Leone of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'', writing a retrospective review for ''Unlimited Edition'', said the album was "one of the most underrated items in the band's catalog", especially praising "Gomorrha", "Ibis", "The Empress and the Ukraine King", "Mother Upduff", "Connection", and "Fall of Another Year". Leone described some of the "Ethnological Forgery Series" compositions as "sometimes bizarre, sometimes funny, wherein Can raid the world's various indigenous music and make stuff that would make both

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich descr ...

and

Boredoms Boredoms () (later known as V∞redoms) is a rock band from Osaka, Japan formed in 1986. The band's sound is often referred to as noise rock, or sometimes Japanoise (Japan's noise music scene), though their more recent records have moved towar ...

proud". Leone compared "Cutaway" to

Faust Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a ...

recordings. In ''

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

'' review, Ned Raggett described ''Unlimited Edition'' as "very much a dog's breakfast—albeit a highly entertaining one", saying the older songs are "manna from heaven for those interested in the band's roots". Reggett praised "a lot of" the tracks that "easily stands up on its own", highlighting "Cutaway", "The Empress and the Ukraine King", "I'm Too Leise", "Mother Upduff", and "Gomorrha". Though Reggett added that "a few tracks are seemingly here to fill space".

Track listing

Note: Tracks 14–19 only included on ''Unlimited Edition''.
All tracks composed by Can

Personnel

* Holger Czukay –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

, tape effects *

Michael Karoli Michael Karoli (29 April 1948 – 17 November 2001) was a German guitarist, violinist, and sound-mixer. He was a founding member of the krautrock band Can. Biography Early life Michael Karoli was born 29 April 1948 in Straubing, Bavaria, t ...

– guitar,

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

shehnai The ''shehnai'' is a type of oboe from the Indian subcontinent. It is made of wood, with a double reed at one end and a metal or wooden flared bell at the other end. It was one of the nine instruments found in the royal court. The shehnai is sim ...

on track 3 * Jaki Liebezeit – drums, percussion, winds on tracks 4, 9, 11, 14, 16 * Irmin Schmidt – keyboards, synthesizer, schizophone on track 10, voice on tracks 8 and 14 *

– vocals on tracks 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 *

– vocals on tracks 10, 12, 14, 15, 16

Production credits

* Composed, written and produced by Can * Recording by Holger Czukay and René Tinner at CAN Studio,

Weilerswist Weilerswist () is a municipality in the Euskirchen (district), district of Euskirchen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Eifel hills, approximately 10 kilometers north of Euskirchen, and 20 kilometers south-west o ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

* Front cover collage – Trevor Key

References

Works cited

External links

*
'Unlimited Edition' at the ProgArchives.com
Accessed 30 April 2008. {{Authority control 1976 compilation albums Can (band) albums Harvest Records compilation albums