Fab Phang chugger. Barrington kills it; grooving dub.
Roots anthem, produced by Tubby for Bunny Lee.
Originally out in 1982 on the London label Arts & Crafts, heralding a stint in the city for the great singer, and opening a collaboration with producer Stafford ‘Mafia Tone’ Douglas. All self-penned songs, over Roots Radics rhythms.
Ace Ken Khouri productions for Federal, from 1964-5; beautifully repackaged.
‘*****’, The Times, Independent On Sunday, Daily Telegraph, What’s On, Evening Standard, The Independent. ‘Marvellous pop — catchy, fun, young, effortless’, The Times; ‘one of the delights of the age’, Songlines.
Jennifer Lucy Allan: ‘The heads know — forums and published books alike agree — that 76-77 is the best of the Can live years (Keele included). A couple of the tracks from this show have been included on fan-made ‘best of’ live bootlegs over the years. And wow, are they right.’
Peter Margasak, describing this album in The Wire: ‘The meticulous environments and rhythmic trenches Can had been building from the very start always cast a hypnotic spell, but when they had the freedom to inhabit the material without limitations they achieved the sort of transcendental brilliance that the greatest improvisations can deliver. We may recognise fleeting glimpses of studio tracks here and there, but they’re merely stepping off points for extended trips that convey much greater profundity, propulsion and ecstasy.’