Can ‎– Tago Mago

According to various Amazon reviews, the live 1972 disc is mastered around 10% too slow, as compared with bootleg albums of the same performance. Disc one of this edition is the standard 2004 remaster, which Can diehards will have anyway. Sounds like this one is worth avoiding.

some copies have german sleeves with a french price sticker on back - records are made in france though.

this disc is a monstrosity, but it's a brilliant monstrosity. nowadays, it's packaged on one cd, but it was initially packaged on two lps. how does one describe can to the non-initiated? at their most basic level, can were a psychedelic blues act. they spent half of their recording time just rocking out and the other half of the time attempting to dement your soul. as such, their records play out as strange orgies full of schizophrenic imagery and delusional ramblings. they are fascinating delves into pure insanity. be careful; they may draw you in.

understanding the layout is key in understanding the record itself. the first three tracks, which made up what was initially the first side of the first lp, are much tamer than the last three quarters of the record is. that's not to say that these tracks are conventional pop songs. they would exist under the broad label of "epic rock", which is consciously indescriptive as part of what makes epic rock epic rock is the fact that it's incomparable to anything else. these tracks integrate multiple parts, soft-loud transitions, prominent lead guitars, a poet/lyricist and aggressive drumming; it's epic rock, but it's very abstract and psychedelic epic rock. taken as a whole, these tracks would make a fine little single or ep. let's even consider them as an isolated ep for the moment and tackle the rest of the record within a completely different context.

the 4th track is the entire second side of the first lp. now, suppose that the act that wrote the first three tracks is some other act, not can, but a pseudocan that exists only in the alter-reality that is invoked by the record itself. after they finished recording the first three tracks, they went out to get drunk at some watering hole somewhere - it's a musician thing - and, while they were there, a band was playing "halleluhwah". did they actually write that or were they just jamming? did they dance? i don't know, i wasn't around. this fourth track clocks in at over eighteen minutes, but the track itself is only ten seconds long, it's just repeated 112 times. there is a short pause near the one third mark and a prog rock crescendo at the end.

then, something happens. what happens? i don't know, i wasn't around. maybe somebody slipped something into the drinks. maybe somebody got shot. maybe they met somebody outside with some kind of magical potion. it's just unclear. what is clear is that the first side of the second lp is something you should definitely not play for somebody that is experimenting with psychedelics for the first time, although it may be an enjoyable trip for the long initiated.

the last side of the record, while split into two tracks, also plays out as though it is a single, confused, messy track. daffy duck makes an uncredited cameo about halfway through the track, apparently in the role of an auctioneer. eventually, the racket subsides and the record ends on a less aggressive note.

in reviewing this record, i listened to it on repeat for several days, usually through headphones. the record as a whole is extremely expansive; from the second side on, it's difficult to break the sound down into parts, let alone into tracks. suzuki is impossible to understand throughout most of the disc, which deprives the disc of any kind of context. while it takes some getting used to, the climax of the record really is aumgn and it really is climactic once you finally get your head around it. the track peking O is a notable weak point as, although the track itself flows quite well, the vocal experiments get irritating fairly quickly.

stay far away from this disc unless you're willing to invest some time into it.

Thoughts upon hearing the CD of Tago Mago on headfones:

'Mushroom.' 'Paperhouse.' Where does this come from? What wild animal memory is being channeled here? Musically these guys were as skilled and sophisticated as anyone you can name, yet their sound expresses something just as primal and primordial as a bunch of Neandertals pounding on the cave walls with sabertooth-tiger bones while a woolly mammoth is bellowing nearby. A storm that nobody can identify. Urgent yet relaxed. It knows it's the real stuff, but it doesn't have to say so. It just IS. So deep in the pocket, it's stepping on all the loose change.

'Halleluwah'-- OH YEAH. Mother (Sky) heartbeat. Rising and falling. Pumping in the blood. Plugged into the earth, tapping into ancient energies that never found a name. Prehistoric funk. Your whole body and your mind want to be twisting like your hips. Grasping it by the instincts. Are the band playing it, or is it playing THEM?

The dog barking-- I forgot about that. A nice touch. My ears hurt now, but it's worth it. Nothing fancy, just the most basic tape effects. It all could have been done in a sweltering Trenchtown studio down the block from Augustus Pablo-- and would the Rastas have dug it? I bet. And just think of what else people might be able to hear in this music while under the influence of a huge spliff...!

I have an earlier Release on Spoon Records, different label an different Back-Cover (with some Text as "Stereo - also playable mono" and listing of other records from Can on Spoon.

Zip-Code of Köln is here 5000, this changed to 5 Numbers in 1993!

I wanted to load up some scans, but it is not possible because they want to delete this!

It's a shame that it's taken 35 years for this truly astonishing LP to get the sort of recognition that it has deserved. At a recent Mojo Awards ceremony Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt said that the album was now selling more than it ever did in the past, helped no doubt by this quite extraordinary remastered release.

Tago Mago is put simply, a freeform adventure into uncharted sonic territory, and put next to some of the more established LPs of the 70's it is essentially a behemoth of an album that leaves them in the shadows, both in textural diversity and the sheer range of emotional weight behind it. This is the point that the band, to all intense purposes, abandoned the anchor of rock and went onto become a truly unique band. If there's any vestiges of traditional forms left, they are extinguished by the time "Oh Yeah" and "Halleluhwah" come into view. The LP is a tricky affair, helped no doubt by the awkwardness of "Peking O" and "Aumgnm", but that shouldn't put potential listeners off.

Just gonna chime in and say this album is indeed ridiculous. All the songs have this hazy, drugged-out, mystical quality to them that I don't think anyone else (including Can themselves) has ever successfully replicated. Friends of mine who dig 70s jammy rock even like the more "normal" tracks on here. In terms of style, it's all over the place, but even the "weird" parts (i.e. the tongue-in-cheek bad acid trip sounds of "Peking O") are still interesting, and the album is frequently mindblowing. One listen to "Oh Yeah" or "Halleluwah" and your brain will try to leap out of its skull. Awesome stuff.

a tue masterpiece - this even freaked me as a teen . "Paperhouse" is just wonderful and i do not understand that it wasn't sampled for some smash hit . i guess i will have to do it (lol) . "mushroom" is excellent as well . side 3's "Halleluwah" is 18 minutes of dancefloor-madnesss ,organs with distortions, synthies and heavy drum machines ( analog of course ) - when this was played in underground clubs in the early seventies the dancefloor went bananas and you couldn't get me off it , no matter what . "Peking O" is just that = too much : sounds like a drug-overload . i never understood this tune . the japanese guy complaining couple minutes before the "music" starts . man this is deep , deeper it won't get . CAN's masterpiece- Mark E. Smith's fave ? Why not - The FALL are indeed an outstanding group - anyone know the SLATES 10" with "Leave The Capitol etc." on Rough Trade ? That is my favourite album from The Fall. but i do not know all 98LP's he released since then ;-)...