Unlimited Edition

The pick is undeniably Future Days, considered by many to be the group’s finest hour: the last album to feature deranged Japanese vocalist Damo Suzuki, it sees the band working as one, crafting long vistas of blissful ambient sound powered by Jaki Liebzeit’s steady, machine-like drumming. 1974’s Soon Over Babaluma is an underrated Can moment, however: guitarist Michael Karoli switches to violin on "Dizzy Dizzy", even adding a hushed, mantric vocal, while the eleven-minute "Chain Reaction" offers the first taste of Can’s disco-influenced future.

Something of a mixed bag, Unlimited Edition is most interesting as an example of Can’s musical breadth: a compilation spanning five years, it features everything from the cranked Velvets garage of "Mother Upduff" – featuring original vocalist Malcolm Mooney - to "Cutaway", seventeen minutes of dizzying tape-splice experiments. Finally, 1975’s Landed: it’s far from a highlight of Can’s back catalogue, but "Hunters And Collectors" and the raging "Vernal Equinox", featuring some furious Karoli soloing, are not without their charms. --Louis Pattison