| Delay 1968 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Compilation album by | ||||
| Released | 1981 | |||
| Recorded | 1968–1969 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 35:48 | |||
| Label | Spoon Records | |||
| Producer | Can | |||
| Can chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [2] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [3] |
Delay 1968 is a compilation album by the German experimental rock bandCan released in 1981. It comprises previously unreleased work recorded for Can's rejected debut album,Prepared to Meet Thy Pnoom.[4]
Recorded with the group's original lead singerMalcolm Mooney, Can offeredPrepared to Meet Thy Pnoom to several record companies, but the album was not picked up. Parts ofDelay 1968 circulated inbootleg form for several years under the titleUnopened, and included other tracks recorded during the same sessions that would later surface in various forms on other albums.[5][6]
Can recorded the song "Thief" in the summer of 1969 during a stay inZurich. The band visited Zurich after receiving an invitation to perform a live score for the playPrometheus Bound at theSchauspielhaus Zürich, and recorded "Thief" in the theater's cellar "with awful acoustics". Rob Young, Can's biographer, commented that the song finds Can at their "most gravitas-laden" with the subject matter "riffing directly off the scenography ofPrometheus Bound", referencing "the hanging man", "the Jesus man … cursed to the holy ground" and "trying to fly". "Thief" was used in the comedy thrillerKuckucksei im Gangsternest, directed byFranz-Josef Spieker and released at the end of the year.[7] The song was first released onElectric Rock. Idee 2000 sampler album fromLiberty records as around six minutes long edit.[8][better source needed]
The song "Uphill", sometimes called "Moving Slowly Going Uphill", was live recorded during anopen doors event at theSchloss Nörvenich in August 1969. Can were invited to set up a performance in the Schloss' entrance hall, whereMalcolm 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 did not stop when the group took a break.[9]
"Little Star of Bethlehem" is one of the first recordings with inserted overdub parts of the entire band. When German producerConny Plank listened to the recordings in the early 1980s, he got excited saying: "As long as Can playes 'Soul' they are unbeatable".[10]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide included a review ofDelay 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, withKaroli riffing harder than he ever would again, and Mooney's hoarse, off-key cries suiting its avant-garage vibe."[3]
Jason Ankeny ofAllMusic gave the album mixed reception, calling it "nowhere near as intricate or assured as the group's later work". However, he praised "the visceral energy" of "Uphill" and "Butterfly".[1]
Brian Eno made a remix of "PNOOM" for 1997 Can tribute albumSacrilege, with substantial use ofloops. Eno was disappointed with his effort, saying the loops "destroyed the delicate balance you always kept between the mechanical and the human".[11]
Radiohead covered "Thief" in live performances in the early 2000s.[12]
All tracks are written by Czukay, Karoli, Liebezeit, Schmidt, Mooney.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Butterfly" | 8:20 |
| 2. | "Pnoom" | 0:26 |
| 3. | "Nineteen Century Man" | 4:26 |
| 4. | "Thief" | 5:03 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 5. | "Man Named Joe" | 3:54 |
| 6. | "Uphill" | 6:41 |
| 7. | "Little Star of Bethlehem" | 7:09 |
| Total length: | 35:48 | |
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