Krautrock! Can’s Liebezeit Reissued

Visionary percussionist has pair of early solo recordings newly available.

By Fred Mills

Longtime fans of seminal Krautrock outfit Can know the story: by 1979 the German visionaries were running out of steam, having issued the relatively lackluster albums Out Of Reach (1977) and Can (1978) - neither of which featured, significantly, founding member Holger Czukay. At this point the group went on hiatus (an official breakup was never announced) and the various members engaged themselves with sundry solo projects prior to a short-lived '86 reunion. (In the years since Can has operated in a somewhat free-style manner, the musicians recording and performing together in various incarnations and even communing to oversee the reissue of the group's back catalog, although guitarist Michael Karoli's death in 2001 ensured that the Can name would never be formally utilized again.)

Drummer Jaki Liebezeit (pictured with Can, above, on the far right) was out of the gate early with his solo work, unveiling his Phantom Band project in 1980. A collaboration with fellow German musicians Helmut Zerlett from Dunkelziffer and Dominik von Senger from Dunkelziffer/Damo Suzuki Band (among others), they quickly recorded a pair of relatively under the radar albums, 1980's Phantom Band and 1981's Freedom of Speech. Long out of print, the two records have now been reissued by the Hamburg-based Bureau B label, which specializes in electronic and avant garde titles.

According to the label, Phantom Band "mixes Can-style monotonic polyrhythms with afrobeat, funk, jazz, disco, reggae, and dub," and in addition to the three principals includes guests Rosko Gee (Traffic, plus the latter-day Can), Olek Gelba and Can's Czukay. Meanwhile, the second album "is a somewhat darker avant-garde rock manifesto, interspersed with individual dub or reggae pieces"; it also features spoken word performer Sheldon Ancel handling mic duties. "What both have in common are Jaki Liebezeit's inimitable monotone polyrhythmic drumming and the Phantom Band's predilection for hypnotic (Jamaican) grooves."

The remastered albums also feature interviews with Liebezeit, Zerlett and von Senger and will be available on both CD and vinyl.