Rite Time

RITE TIME finds Can's original lineup--including first vocalist Malcolm Mooney-- reconvening nearly 20 years after its stunning 1968 debut, MONSTER MOVIE. With the decade-long legacy of Can's unparalleled accomplishments (and another decade of oft-worthy solo activities) under their collective belts, the musicians have little to prove here. Unlike many cash-in reunion efforts, RITE TIME is a thoroughly entertaining coda for an extraordinary musical career. plus...

Recorded in sun-drenched Nice during December of 1986, the one-off RITE TIME captures an ageless band at play. Without so much as a blink, the regrouped Can leaps right back into the loose-limbed polymorphic groove-working magic of such monumental albums as SOON OVER BABALUMA. While time may have taken the edge off the restless intensity that informed the earlier TAGO MAGO and EGE BAMYASI, Can still sounds vital. Jaki Liebezeit remains an incomparable drummer; multi-instrumentalists Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt have honed their instrumental and electronic signatures to perfection; Michael Karoli's dazzling guitar work still packs a psychedelic/pyrotechnic punch. Collectively, they've never sounded merrier. The album's big surprise is the return of absentee Mooney, his once-hoary croak mellowed to an endearingly melodic rasp and given to boisterous scat acrobatics ("The Withoutlaw Man", "Movin' Right Along").

Q (11/94, p.136)
- 4 Stars (out of 5)
- "...this re-formation proved to be just the right thing to do...full of Can's trademark edginess and claustrophobia..."