LIVE IN STUTTGART 1975

3.5 stars. This was the first of the live bootleg recordings that CAN released in 2021. And of the three they have released so far I feel this is easily the best one. Irmin Schmidt went through many hours of music that fan Andrew Hall had recorded following the band around for years. Material from dozens of concerts and the music for each show was different because these guys just like to improvise. Sound quality is okay, a little muddy as you would expect given the way it was recorded. All spruced up though in the studio.

This show was recorded live Halloween night in 1975. And like the "Brighton" release that follows we get two discs worth a total of 90 minutes. Here though we have 70 minutes on disc one and 20 minutes on that second disc. The third in the series called "Cuxhaven" is under 30 minutes and has drawn a lot of complaints for being so short.

The third and final track on disc one is 36 minutes long and the highlight for me. The way they get experimental, the way the tempo speeds up for a while is fun. It turns spacey late followed by a driving rhythm. So good! The second track on disc one at 14 minutes is also a favourite, sort of trippy and light early but ending in an intense fashion with some killer drum work. There's two tracks on disc two and the opener is the one I like of them. There's an uplifting vibe here for some reason as the guitar grinds away over top. It does seem like a jumbled mess to end it with the muddy sound not helping.

Maybe I'm being too hard on this for the sound quality and the fact these are improvs. I'm just not that big on improvs let alone 90 minutes worth, but if this sounded like the live albums of today I think I'm going 4 stars. When it comes to Krautrock CAN, AMON DUUL II and AGITATION FREE contributed most to my best of Krautrock list. This is the one I'd check out first if your interested in this live series.