backformation acronym "Communism, Anarchism, Nihilism", after an English magazine claimed this was the intended meaning. Early years: 1968–1970 Around September 1968, the band enlisted the creative, highly rhythmic, but unstable and often confrontational American vocalist Malcolm Mooney, a New York-based sculptor, with whom it recorded the material for an album, Prepared to Meet Thy Pnoom. As "Inner Space", and with both Johnson and Mooney present, the band appeared briefly in the 1969 film Kamasutra: Vollendung der Liebe backing singer Margarete Juvan. Unable to find a recording company willing to release the album, the group continued its studio work until it had material for what became its first release, Monster Movie (1969). This album contained new versions of two songs previously recorded for Prepared to Meet Thy Pnoom, "Father Cannot Yell" and "Outside My Door". Other material recorded around the same time was released in 1981 as Delay 1968. Mooney's ranting vocals emphasized the music's sheer strangeness and hypnotic quality, which was influenced particularly by garage rock, psychedelic rock and funk. Repetition was stressed on bass and drums, particularly on the track "Yoo Doo Right", which had been edited down from a six-hour improvisation to take up a mere single side of vinyl. Liebezeit's tight but multifarious drumming was crucial in carrying the music. Mooney made his last recordings with Can in December 1969 before returning to America around the end of the year on a psychiatrist's advice, having been told that getting away from Can's chaotic music would be good for his mental health. The liner notes of the CD reissue of Monster Movie say that he suffered a nervous breakdown ("caught in a Can groove"), shouting "upstairs, downstairs" repeatedly. He was replaced in May 1970 by the more understated Kenji "Damo" Suzuki, a young Japanese traveler Czukay and Liebezeit found busking outside a Munich café. Though he knew only a handful of guitar chords and improvised most of his lyrics (as opposed to committing them to paper), he was asked to perform with the band that night. The band's first record with Suzuki was Soundtracks (1970), a compilation of music made for films that also contained two earlier tracks recorded with Mooney. Suzuki's lyrics were usually in English and sometimes in Japanese (for example, in "Oh Yeah" and "Doko E"). Middle years: 1971–1973 The next few years saw Can release its most acclaimed works. While its earlier recordings tended