Tago Mago (Remastered) [Hybrid SACD] - Can

...Stone Age".

Tago Mago was the 2nd Can Album to feature Suzuki on vocals, I often confuse the name with Tango Mango, but Tago Mago it is. I kinda like the dual nature of my interpretation of the album title. The name Tago Mago comes from a large rock formation off the coast of Ibiza that figures in the legend of Aleister Crowley, Tango Mango on the other hands suggests some strange kind of free form jazz, both fit the album perfectly.
...people because of its reputation Tago Mago is their first foray into Can's wonderful world of improvisation and sound editing, I myself would not recommend this for the first timer, for the initiated it is an essential purchase.

This remastered edition also comes with a booklet with extra photos and information as well a piece on the band by Bobby Gillespie, and it is also compatible with Super Audio CD players. So you can have much ... more

Can were formed in 1968 in Cologne (Köln) as "Inner Space", comprising of Holger Czukay (Bass), Irmin Schmidt (Keyboards), both of whom were music teachers who had studied under Karlheinz Stockhausen, Michael Karoli (Guitar) who was a pupil of Czukay, and Jaki Liebezeit (Drums), along with David Johnson (reeds, winds, electronics and tape manipulation). In the autumn of 1968 they were joined by American vocalist Malcolm Mooney whose ranting contrasted the start minimalism of the music. Johnson left shortly after the arrival of Mooney, who would leave in 1969 apparently for mental health reasons.

Malcolm Mooney was then replaced by Damo Suzuki; a Japanese traveler found busking outside a café. Suzuki's presence was less confrontational than Mooney's, his multi-lingual often incomprehensible vocal style added a certain element to the music; he claimed to sing in "the language of the Stone Age".

Tago Mago was the 2nd Can Album to feature Suzuki on vocals, I often confuse the name with Tango Mango, but Tago Mago it is. I kinda like the dual nature of my interpretation of the album title. The name Tago Mago comes from a large rock formation off the coast of Ibiza that figures in the legend of Aleister Crowley, Tango Mango on the other hands suggests some strange kind of free form jazz, both fit the album perfectly.

The album starts up with Paperhouse which on first impressions sounds like Barrett era Pink Floyd. Indeed some journalists claim Pink Floyd to be an influence on Can's sound but since they were contemporaries I doubt the validity of the accusation. Back to the song it is light and almost ethereal as jangly psychedelic guitars are backed by primitive yet complex drumming and strange psychedelic noises. It is trance like and hypnotic and fits Suzuki's vocals well as the song builds up. There is a more complex outbreak of laidback tribal drumming which builds up the hypnotic atmosphere through repeated musical themes. You can hear how influential the band is here, and you could draw comparison to Queens of The Stone Age's stranger and out of it material. This is followed by more weirdness with "Mushroom" which is dominated by Liebezeit's cyclical drum patterns and Suzuki's mantras varying from softly sung and spoken passages to strange barking like things. Karoli's guitar weaves spindly textures around it, along with Schmidt's keyboards whilst Holger bass subtly underpins the song.

The classic piece Oh Yeah comes in as a tour de force again with subtle cyclical tribal drum patterns, shimmering keyboards and a backwards vocal with backwards cymbals. The song starts off quietly and builds in tension volume and overall hypnotic power; this is experimental music at its best. The guitar kicks in sounding like it is playing broken notes and once again you hear their influence on a generation of electronic artists especially the likes of Mogwai, Primal Scream, and even quite possibly The Happy Mondays. The song build in a freeform jazz rock number but thanks to superb drumming it keeps its place in time and space.

Halleluhwah shows off Can at their best which is free form improvisation and utilisation of rhythm edits and is simply way ahead of it's time. It starts off as a laid back jam and you can see where Shaun Ryder of The Happy Mondays quite possibly got a lot of his ideas for his unique vocal sound here. The looping of the rhythm track is exceptional creating a hypnotic feel to the song whilst the other instruments improvise round it, creating a unique almost indescribable sound. Holger once claimed that drum machines had to be invented to keep up with Jaki Liebezeit and here we see the reason why this is truly groundbreaking stuff. At nearly 19 minutes long it is not easy to digest but well worth it.

The same can be said for "Aumgn" which kicks off in a disorientating space rock fashion with instruments traveling between the speakers creating an evocative soundscape. It is disorientation to the hungover ears that I have today even after years of listening to this album. The song has sections of pure Musique concrète as industrial and natural sounds are edited together and at nearly 18 minutes long it is almost too much, but still wonderful and innovative. Definitely not music to listen to whilst writing and not music to be listened to in company either. In fact by the end of the song you are wishing that they used the word edit literally, as five minutes shorted would have been ideal.

"Peking O" continues on a space rock vibe with spacey sounds and lightly chanting melodic vocals set the tone of the piece. The song gradually becomes more unhinges and disorientating as it progresses until you start to hear what approaches normal music gradually kicks in. Though as this is Can what is normal is actually a twisted discordant bossanova type of affair, with tons of improvisation improvisation. The vocals are as ever melodic and completely incomprehensible mantras of some sort that fit the music perfectly. The weirdness meter goes off the scale here wonderfully so, but this is only something that I can listen to when I am in the right mood for it.

The album comes to a close with "Bring me Coffee or Tea" which could almost pass for normality but does not……….

This is considered by many to be Can's greatest album, I disagree the Future Days album from 1973 as it is far better both sonically and musically. For a lot of people because of its reputation Tago Mago is their first foray into Can's wonderful world of improvisation and sound editing, I myself would not recommend this for the first timer, for the initiated it is an essential purchase.

This remastered edition also comes with a booklet with extra photos and information as well a piece on the band by Bobby Gillespie, and it is also compatible with Super Audio CD players. So you can have much more of a sonic experience if you have one.
 

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