Mute

Can: Live in Paris 1973 [Digipack / CD]

This album is a dynamic document of late-period CAN. Recorded in March 1977, the core line up of Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit, Michael Karoli and Holger Czukay is augmented by the addition of Rosko Gee (Traffic) on bass. Gee’s recent addition to the line-up meant that Holger Czukay was freed up from bass duties to perform ‘waveform radio and spec. sounds’, manifesting here as otherworldly sounds, samples and what one reviewer of a later show described as “moontalk to a white continental telephone.”

The acclaimed Can live series continues with the release of Live in Aston 1977, available via Mute and Future Days (the new EU label created by Spoon Records). The series was overseen by founding member Irmin Schmidt and producer/engineer René Tinner, who delicately worked on restoring the archival recordings to the best quality for current modern technology.This record captures the band’s 1977 performance in Aston and features Schmidt (keyboard and synths), Jaki Liebezeit (drums), Michael Karoli (guitars), Holger Czukay (wave receiver and spec.sounds), plus Rosko Gee (bass), who appears for the first time in the series. This release features sleeve notes by former Sex Pistol, Glen Matlock, sharing his first-hand experience of witnessing Can's live show.

Can: Live in Cuxhaven 1976 [CD]

Can: Live in Brighton 1975 [Digipack / 2 CD]

Swans return with a double CD edition of ‘Birthing’, the latest album, developed over the course of a yearlong 2023-2024 tour. Refined through relentless improvisation and live performance, as well as newly composed studio pieces, ‘Birthing’ is a testament to Michael Gira’s uncompromising sonic vision. Beginning as skeletal acoustic compositions, the songs were gradually expanded and transformed in the studio with longtime live members and collaborators. 

Emerging out of Dearborn, Michigan, this five-piece deal in pure chaos and catharsis - fiery live shows, razor-sharp intensity, and a sound that’s as incendiary as it is brutally tight. Their name reflects their fixation on identity, desperation, and survival under late capitalism. Attempted Martyr was written in the midst of global and personal turmoil, capturing the zeitgeist of a world unraveling. A loose concept record, it chronicles the rise and fall of a doomed zealot whose pursuit of holy vengeance spirals into a psychotic orgy of violence, greed, and lust. It’s dense, turbulent, and charged with blaring Middle Eastern, African and East Asian influences - all scorched into shape by producer Chris Koltay (The Armed, Mdou Moctar).