| Tago Mago | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | August 1971 | |||
| Recorded | November 1970–February 1971 | |||
| Studio | Can Studio [de] (Schloss Nörvenich,West Germany) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 73:27 | |||
| Label | United Artists | |||
| Producer | Can | |||
| Can chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Alternative cover | ||||
 Original UK cover and 40th anniversary edition | ||||
Tago Mago is the second studio album by the Germankrautrock bandCan, originally released as adouble LP in August 1971 onUnited Artists Records. It was the band's first full studio album to feature vocalistDamo Suzuki after the departure ofMalcolm Mooney the year prior, though Suzuki had been featured on most tracks on the 1970 compilation albumSoundtracks.[5] It was recorded at theCan Studio [de] in theSchloss Nörvenich, a medieval castle nearCologne.
Tago Mago features long-form experimental tracks blending rockimprovisation,funk rhythms, andmusique concrètetape editing techniques.[6] The album has been described as Can's best and most extreme record in sound and structure.[7] The album has received widespread critical acclaim and is cited as an influence by various artists. Ned Raggett ofAllMusic called it "not merely one of the best krautrock albums of all time, but one of the best albums ever, period."[1]
AfterMalcolm Mooney left Can in December 1969,[8] Can was left without a vocalist.[9] While visitingMunich for a performance in early 1970, bassistHolger Czukay and drummerJaki Liebezeit sawKenji "Damo" Suzukibusking outside a cafe and invited him to perform with them.[10][11][12] Suzuki performed with the band at theBlow Up Club that evening, and subsequently joined the group.[13]
Early in 1968, the band had been invited to stay rent-free at theSchloss Nörvenich, a medieval castle inNörvenich,North Rhine-Westphalia, for one year by art collector Christoph Vohwinkel, who had rented it with the idea of transforming it into an art center.Tago Mago was recorded by Czukay at the castle between November 1970 and February 1971.[14]
During the sessions, Can were visited by English journalistDuncan Fallowell ofThe Spectator. In 1970, he published the first mainstream column about the band.[15]
The recording process took three months to complete.[16] Sessions often lasted up to 16 hours a day,[17] with Czukay editing the band's long jams into structured songs.[18] He used a pair of two-track tape recorders to capture the sessions,[17] which limited the band. The group favored recording in the castle's entrance hall to take advantage of its naturalreverberation. Czukay used only three microphones to capture the sessions, two of them shared between Suzuki and Liebezeit and the third carefully placed in the center of the studio. Because they did not have a mixing board or a separate engineer, the band gathered closer to the microphones, and tried to balance the sounds they played and the sounds of the amplifiers on the fly.[19][17] Czukay said that "if anyone had moved, it would've destroyed the recording.[20] KeyboardistIrmin Schmidt experimented withoscillators in place of typical synthesizers on "Aumgn."[17]
Tago Mago was the first Can album to contain "in-between" recordings, for which Czukay secretly recorded the musicians jamming during pre-production sessions.[12] He also captured in-between recordings of the shouts of a child who mistakenly entered the room during recording, as well as the howling of Christoph Vohwinkel's dog.[17]
According to Czukay, the album was named afterIlla de Tagomago, an islet nearIbiza in theBalearic archipelago, at Liebezeit's suggestion.[21]
Tago Mago is adouble album, with the first LP more conventionally-structured and the second moreexperimental.[22] Roni Sarig, author ofThe Secret History of Rock, called the second LP "as close as [the group] ever got to avant-gardenoise music".[7] The vocals have a subtler presence onTago Mago as a result of the replacement of the dominant presence of Malcolm Mooney, the band's first vocalist, with Damo Suzuki.[23] Czukay described Mooney as a "driving locomotive", stating that the band "had to follow him; couldn't stand behind him". Suzuki, by contrast, "needed a group which was pushing him."[24]
Tago Mago draws inspiration from such sources as jazz musicians such asMiles Davis and fromelectronicavant-garde composers such asKarlheinz Stockhausen, under whom Czukay and Schmidt had studied.[25] The album was also inspired by the work of English occultistAleister Crowley; it is named for Illa de Tagomago, an island that features in the Crowley legend, and the track "Aumgn" is named for Crowley's interpretation of the Hindumantra syllableOm.[3][26] In 2008, Czukay described the album as "an attempt in achieving a mystery musical world from light to darkness and return".[12] The group has referred to the album as their "magic record,"[3] and the music has been described as having an "air of mystery and forbidden secrets."[11]
Rob Young, Can's biographer, noticed a similarity between "Oh Yeah" and the song "Don't Turn the Light on, Leave Me Alone" from the band's 1970compilation album albumSoundtracks.[27] The tracks "Aumgn" and "Peking O", which feature Czukay's tape and radio experiments, have led music critics to callTago Mago the group's "most extreme record in terms of sound and structure".[7] "Peking O" also makes use of anAce Tone Rhythm Ace, an earlydrum machine, combined with acoustic drumming.[28][29] "Aumgn" features chanting Schmidt instead of Suzuki's vocals.[23] The closing track, "Bring Me Coffee or Tea," was described by Raggett as a "fine, fun little coda to a landmark record".[1]
Tago Mago was released as adouble album, released byUnited Artists Records in Germany, in August 1971. The British release, with different artwork, followed in February 1972. Initially, Can planned to edit the sessions down to a single album, leaving out the more experimental material on the second disc. However, their manager, Hildegard Schmidt, liked the material on the second record, saying it "really represented this group", and insisted they should release it on a second LP. Hildegard approached United Artists andLiberty Records, telling the labels they would only allow the release ofTago Mago as a double album.[30]
The side-long track "Halleluhwah", which closes the first disc, was shortened from 18½ to 3½ minutes for release as the B-side of the non-album single "Turtles Have Short Legs", a novelty song recorded during theTago Mago sessions and released by Liberty Records in 1971.[31] A different, 5½-minute edit of "Halleluhwah" would later appear on the compilationCannibalism in 1978,[32] while "Turtles Have Short Legs" remained out of print until its inclusion onCannibalism 2 in 1992.[31]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 99/100[33] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [1] |
| Drowned in Sound | 10/10[34] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  [35] |
| The Great Rock Discography | 8/10[36] |
| Pitchfork | 9.3/10 (2004)[37] 10/10 (2011; 40th Anniversary Edition)[38] |
| Record Collector | [39] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [40] |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 9/10[41] |
| Stylus Magazine | B[42] |
| Uncut | [43] |
Tago Mago has been critically acclaimed, and is credited with pioneering various modern musical styles. Raggett calledTago Mago a "rarity of the early '70s, a double album without a wasted note."[1] Many critics, particularly in the United Kingdom, were eager to praise the album, and by the end of 1971 Can had played their first show in the country.[44][45]
Julian Cope wrote inKrautrocksampler thatTago Mago "sounds only like itself, like no-one before or after" and described the lyrics as delving "below into theUnconscious."[16]Dummy called it "a genre-defining work of psychedelic,experimental rock music."[4]Melody Maker criticSimon Reynolds described it as "shamanicavant-funk."[2]
In a mixed review,Michael Watts ofMelody Maker praisedTago Mago for its "strange, alien quality" as contrasted with the "placidity and unadventurousness" ofPink Floyd's recentMeddle, while lamenting the lack of "any deep sense of the spirit of rock and roll in the music. It's music of the head, and not the heart."[46][47]
Various artists have citedTago Mago as an influence on their work.John Lydon of theSex Pistols andPublic Image Ltd. called it "stunning" in his autobiographyRotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs.[48]Bobby Gillespie ofthe Jesus and Mary Chain andPrimal Scream said of the album: "The music was like nothing I'd ever heard before, not American, not rock & roll but mysterious and European."[49]Mark Hollis ofTalk Talk calledTago Mago "an extremely important album" and an inspiration for Talk Talk's 1991 albumLaughing Stock.[50]Marc Bolan ofT. Rex listed Suzuki's freeform lyricism as an inspiration.[51] JournalistNick Kent likened the music ofSiouxsie and the Banshees on their debut albumThe Scream to the "ingenuity ofTago Mago",[52] and the band's bassistSteven Severin has expressed admiration for the album.[53]Jonny Greenwood andThom Yorke ofRadiohead have both cited the album as an early influence.[54]
Several artists havecovered songs fromTago Mago or recorded songs based on those from the album.The Flaming Lips' song "Take Meta Mars", from their 1990 albumIn a Priest Driven Ambulance, began as an attempt to cover "Mushroom"; however, as the band members had only heard "Mushroom" once and did not possess a copy of it, "Take Meta Mars" is only similar-sounding and not a proper cover.[55] The Jesus and Mary Chain have covered "Mushroom" live inNuremberg in 1986, which was first released on the double-7"-single version of "April Skies" and[56] and was later reissued on the CD version ofBarbed Wire Kisses.[57]The Fall recorded "I Am Damo Suzuki", based on theTago Mago track "Oh Yeah", for their 1985 albumThis Nation's Saving Grace.[58] Remixes of "Oh Yeah" and "Halleluhwah" by various artists are included on the 1997 Can remix albumSacrilege.[59][60]
Tago Mago is listed in the 2005 book1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, which states: "Even after 30 yearsTago Mago sounds refreshingly contemporary and gloriously extreme."[61]
In February 1972,Sounds magazine published the readers' poll on German music, where Can was voted second-best group;Tago Mago second-best album; Damo Suzuki second-best vocalist; Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt has been placed at seventh and fifteenth places in the "Musician of the Year" category, with Holger also taking fourth-best instrumentalist. The song "Halleluwah" reached the fourth placement as a "track of the year", behindKraftwerk's "Ruckzuck",Tangerine Dream's "Alpha Centauri", andEt Cetera's "Raga".[62]
| Publication/Source | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pitchfork | "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s" | 2004 | 29[63] |
| NME | "NME's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" | 2013 | 409[64] |
| "Some of the Greatest Double LPs Ever Issued" | 1991 | 21[65] | |
| Mojo | "The 100 Records That Changed the World" | 2007 | 62[66] |
| The Guardian | "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die" | 2007 | -[67] |
| Tom Moon | "1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die" | 2008 | -[68] |
All tracks are written by Can (Holger Czukay,Michael Karoli,Jaki Liebezeit,Irmin Schmidt andDamo Suzuki).
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Paperhouse" | 7:28 |
| 2. | "Mushroom" | 4:03 |
| 3. | "Oh Yeah" | 7:23 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 4. | "Halleluhwah" | 18:32 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 5. | "Aumgn" | 17:37 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 6. | "Peking O" | 11:37 |
| 7. | "Bring Me Coffee or Tea" | 6:47 |
| Total length: | 73:27 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 8. | "Mushroom" (Live 1972) | 8:42 |
| 9. | "Spoon" (Live 1972) | 29:55 |
| 10. | "Halleluhwah" (Live 1972) | 9:12 |
| Total length: | 47:49 | |
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