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Tago Mago
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Tago Mago is the second studio album by the German experimental rock band Can, and was originally released as a double LP in 1971 by United Artists. It was the band's first studio album to feature Kenji "Damo" Suzuki after their previous vocalist, Malcolm Mooney, quit the band in 1970 after having a nervous breakdown. The album was remastered and released as a SACD in September 2004, and included commentary from former Melody Maker journalist David Stubbs and Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream.
Tago Mago has been described as Can's most extreme record in terms of sound and structure.
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Encyclopedia
Tago Mago is the second studio album by the German experimental rock band Can, and was originally released as a double LP in 1971 by United Artists. It was the band's first studio album to feature Kenji "Damo" Suzuki after their previous vocalist, Malcolm Mooney, quit the band in 1970 after having a nervous breakdown. The album was remastered and released as a SACD in September 2004, and included commentary from former Melody Maker journalist David Stubbs and Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream.
Tago Mago has been described as Can's most extreme record in terms of sound and structure. The album has received much critical acclaim since its release and has been cited as an influence by various artists.
Recording and production
After Malcolm Mooney left Can in 1970 following a nervous breakdown, the remaining members were left without a vocalist. Bassist Holger Czukay happened to meet Kenji "Damo" Suzuki busking outside a cafe in Munich. He introduced himself as a member of an experimental rock band and invited Suzuki to join them. That evening, Suzuki performed with the band at the Blow Up club and subsequently became a member of Can.
Tago Mago was recorded in 1971 by Czukay in a castle near Cologne called Schloss Nörvenich. The band were allowed to stay there for a year without paying any rent by the owner, an art collector named Mr. Vohwinkel. This was the first of Can's albums to be made from not only regularly recorded music, but combined "in-between-recordings", where Czukay secretly recorded the musicians jamming while waiting for various technical problems to be resolved. Czukay would edit these long, disorganized jams into structured songs. Recording was completed in three months.
It was originally released as a double LP in 1971 by United Artists. In September 2004, the album, along with the majority of Can's discography, was remastered and released as a hybrid SACD. The rerelease includes a booklet with commentary on the album by Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream and David Stubbs, as well as previously unreleased photos of the band.
Music
Julian Cope wrote in Krautrocksampler that Tago Mago "sounds only like itself, like no-one before or after", and described the lyrics as delving "below into the Unconscious". Tago Mago finds Can changing to a jazzier and more experimental sound than previous recordings, with longer instrumental interludes and less vocals; this shift was caused by the dramatic difference between Suzuki and the band's more dominant ex-singer Mooney. On the album, Can took sonic inspiration from sources as diverse as jazz musicians such as Miles Davis and from electronic avant-garde music. The album was also inspired by the occultist Aleister Crowley, which is reflected through the dark sound of the album as well as being named after Isla de Tagomago, an island which features in the Crowley legend. Czukay reflects that the album was "an attempt in achieving a mystery musical world from light to darkness and return". The group has referred to the album as their "magic record". The tracks have been described as having an "air of mystery and forbidden secrets". Tago Mago is divided into two LPs, the first of which is more conventional and structured and the second more experimental and free-form.
"Paperhouse", the opening track, is one of the shorter songs on the album. Allmusic critic Ned Raggett depicted the song as "beginning with a low-key chime and beat, before amping up into a rumbling roll in the midsection, then calming down again before one last blast," and Dominique Leone, writing for Pitchfork Media, commented on the "gray, faintly ominous" mood of the piece. "Mushroom" is the following track, which Leone noted as having a darker sound than the previous song. As Piero Scaruffi wrote, "Suzuki's psychodrama in Mushroom is set in a rarefied atmosphere of skitting drums, booming bass and atonal guitar." "Oh Yeah" and "Halleluhwah" contain the elements that have been referred to as Can's "trademark" sound: "Damo Suzuki's vocals, which shift from soft mumbles to aggressive outbursts without warning; Jaki Liebezeit's mantric drumming; Holger Czukay's production manipulations (e.g. the backwards vocals and opening sound effects on 'Oh Yeah')." Both "Oh Yeah" and "Halleluhwah" emphasize repetitive grooves.
The second LP features Can's more avant-garde efforts, with Roni Sarig, author of The Secret History of Rock calling it "as close as it ever got to avant-garde noise music." Featuring Holger Czukay’s tape and radio experiments, the tracks "Aumgn" and "Peking O" have led music critics to write that Tago Mago is Can's "most extreme record in terms of sound and structure." "Aumgn" features keyboardist Irmin Schmidt chanting rather than Suzuki's vocals. The closing track, "Bring Me Coffee or Tea", is a much shorter track than the ones before it ("Mushroom" being the only exception) and was described by Raggett as a "coda to a landmark record." Piero Scaruffi depicted it as "basically a delirious hare-krishna chant for loose rock quintet, [pretending] to link the album to the contemporary fad of Eastern-tinged psychedelia."
Reception and influence
Tago Mago has been critically well-received and is credited with pioneering various modern musical styles. Raggett called Tago Mago a "rarity of the early '70s, a double album without a wasted note." In the book Kraftwerk: Man, Machine and Music, Pascal Bussy described the double LP as "hugely influential". The album is listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die in which it stated, "Even after 30 years Tago Mago sounds refreshingly contemporary and gloriously extreme." Many critics, particularly in the UK, were eager to praise the album, and by the end of 1971 Can played their first show in the UK.
Various artists have cited Tago Mago as an influence on their work. John Lydon of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd. called it "stunning" in his biography, Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs. Bobby Gillespie of Jesus and Mary Chain and Primal Scream said "The music was like nothing I'd ever heard before, not American, not rock & roll but mysterious and European." Mark Hollis of Talk Talk called Tago Mago "an extremely important album". Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke of Radiohead cited it as an early influence.
There have been attempts by several artists to play cover versions of songs from Tago Mago. The Flaming Lips album In a Priest Driven Ambulance contains a song called "Take Meta Mars", which was an attempt at covering the song "Mushroom". However, the band members had only heard the song once and didn't have a copy of it at the time, so the song is only similar-sounding and not a proper cover. The Jesus and Mary Chain have covered the song more faithfully to the original; it was performed live and included on the CD version of Barbed Wire Kisses. Remix versions of several Tago Mago tracks by various artists are included on the album Sacrilege.
Track listing
All songs written by Karoli, Czukay, Liebezeit, Schmidt and Suzuki.
Side one
- "Paperhouse" – 7:29
- "Mushroom" – 4:08
- "Oh Yeah" – 7:22
Side two
- "Halleluhwah" – 18:32
Side three
- "Aumgn" – 17:22
Side four
- "Peking O" – 11:35
- "Bring Me Coffee or Tea" – 6:47
Personnel
Production
- U. Eichberger – original artwork & design
- Andreas Torkler – design (2004 rerelease)
Footnotes
External links
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