Tago Mago - CAN*

Paperhouse/Mushroom/Oh Yeah/Halleluwah/Aumgn/Peking O/Bring Me Coffee Or Tea

Tago Mago was another ‘experimental’ album from the German avant-garde band Can, this time stretching the agony over a double LP. Ignore the pretentious psychobabble, there is little genuine music to be discerned here.

“At times during these seven virtually uncategorisable, creatively unhinged tracks, you feel as if you’re listening to someone trying to reconstruct a dream they had of what music is like, and not quite managing it.” “Experimental? So being experimental is to play random notes on your instrument? If so it was extremely experimental when I began learning to play the guitar.”

“Can's second studio album sees the band go down a deeper, more experimental and darker sound. Tago Mago is without a doubt one of the oddest albums you will ever hear. Though Can don’t stray too far from their earlier records in some tracks, songs like Halleluwah, Peking O and Aumgn see the band at their darkest and most frightening. This alone makes for this album to be one of their most memorable and without a doubt a must listen for all music fans.”

“Admittedly the song-writing isn't great, but to criticize that would be to miss the point slightly. The fact is, they had no pretence to being songwriters, concentrating instead on rhythm, texture and electronics and so re-inventing their instruments.” “The repetition is the point, it can lose itself in improvisation, but that is the point. It's an amazing trip if you're willing to let yourself get into it. No, the draw isn't that it's 'far out' or 'crazy experimental'. These could be some ways of describing the album, but it is all of these things in the best possible way.”

“A lot of people can't get past the tracks Aumgn and Peking O but if you can grow to respect something like The Beatles Revolution No. 9 there's nothing here you won't be able to handle. The tribal rhythms that end Aumgn are astonishing, and Peking O is full of breaks, beats, clever ideas that would be ripped off ad infinitum in techno music and trance.”

“It is the ultimate freak-out album. It just keeps getting weirder and weirder. At one point they even switch to something that sounds like techno, which didn’t exist even exist back then.”