Album title: Tago Mago
Artist: Can
Nationality: German
Label: United Artists
Chronology: Second
Grade: A
Tracklisting: Paperhouse/ Mushroom/ Oh Yeah/ Hallejuwah/ Aumgn/ Peking O/ Bring Me Coffee or Tea
Comments: We came across Can’s
Monster Music way back in 1969 (I actually forgot about it and had to go back to add it during the 1970 part, that’s how important Can are seen as) and here they are two years later, with a double album that is cited as perhaps the most influential album ever, not only on prog rock but on rock itself. Must be worth a listen. Like a lot of Krautrock albums, several of the tracks are in double-digits, with one at seventeen minutes and one at eighteen, and there are only seven in all, but they make up a total running time of well over an hour.
We kick off on “Paperhouse”, with a sort of bluesy/folk feeling to it, slow and kind of swinging rhythm, goes into one of those extended jams, bringing in a nice lazy blues feel, then “Mushroom” is a lot shorter with a kind of sterile vocal, guitars that must have given Mark Ribot ideas, then the vocal explodes in a kind of Peter Hammill way. Not much in it though. Loud thunder and then falling rain brings in “Oh Yeah” with a boppy beat and some nice guitar work again, piano and very infectious drumming. “Halleujwah” is the longest track (just) at eighteen and a half minutes, trundling along on a powerful drumbeat with a sort of chanting vocal, almost two separate songs as in the fifth minute it fades out and comes back on rippling piano after about half a minute, the melody similar but at the same time different.
The weirdly-named “Aumgn” starts with a sort of staggered piano line and feedback in a kind of suspense/horror music theme, very echoing, turns very spacey and experimental. This is the other really long track, running for one minute less than the preceding one. Lot of strange vocal/choral effects, sounds and so on. Lots of tribal drumming and rising wails on something or other - I would say synth but probably too early? “Peking O” has a sort of eastern flavour when it starts on sonorous organ and then susurrating percussion, but this is the least musical and most experimental of the tracks, at least so far, with discordant piano, rapid-fire, nonsensical speech of some sort, hammering percussion, and nothing I can make sense of.
“Being Me Coffee or Tea” has… you know what? I’ve lost interest now. This is almost impossible to describe or review, so let’s just leave it at that. Influential it may have been, but this album has bored and confused the hell out of me.
Favourite track(s): You’re joking, right?
Least favourite track(s): Everything
Overall impression: I found this a hard slog. Not my thing at all. Respect it for what it is, but I never want to listen to this again.
Personal Rating: 1.0
Legacy Rating: 5.0
Final Rating: 3.0