Tago Mago, CAN's third album, from 1971, is top-notch Krautrock, the first to officially feature Damo Suzuki on vocals after Malcolm Mooney's departure in 1970. It's a CAN masterpiece, their most extreme work.
It is also a representative album of "musique concrète," based on pre-existing sounds and their manipulation for compositional purposes, the first "school" of electronic music, for "listening to sound in all its aspects: attack, duration, envelope, density of sound mass, progression, timbre, frequency, amplitude, etc."
CAN is an acronym for "Communism, Anarchism, Nihilism," which is why it is always capitalized.
It is a masterpiece of pioneering psychedelic and experimental rock, a fusion of funk, avant-garde, and electronica. It is an at times shocking album that laid the foundations for modern experimental music and stands as a masterpiece of krautrock, a challenging blend expressed through unconventional musical structures.
The album is pervaded by a hallucinatory atmosphere, with a style sometimes described as "shamanic avant-funk," featuring great avant-garde improvisations. Many of the atmospheres are created by powerful grooves. Hypnotic and chaotic experimental moments.
Some notes on the tracks
- "Paperhouse," a seminal track with a hypnotic and primal atmosphere.
- "Mushroom" has a driving and repetitive rhythm, with Jaki Liebezeit's immense drums taking center stage.
- "Oh Yeah," characterized by frenetic rhythms, overwhelming, at times shocking and disturbing.
- "Halleluhwah," a beautiful 18-minute pico track, the album's masterpiece in my opinion, with a hypnotic and insistent groove, marvelous.
- "Aumgn," characterized by noises and tinkling, surreal and divisive.
- "Peking O," an experimental track with massive percussion and a tense atmosphere.
- "Bring Me Coffee or Tea," a disturbing and emotional track with a melancholic atmosphere and powerful instrumentals.
CAN's music is total and free, hallucinatory and chaotic, and this album is the physical representation of it, an absolute must-listen, a must-have for your collection.
Tracklist
1. Paperhouse (7:29)
2. Mushroom (4:08)
3. Oh Yeah (7:22)
4. Halleluhwah (18:32)
5. Aumgn (17:22)
6. Peking O (11:35)
7. Bring Me Coffee or Tea (6:47)
Duration 73:15
LineUp
- Damo Suzuki - vocals
- Michael Karoli - guitar, violin
- Irmin Schmidt - organ, electric piano, vocals (5)
- Holger Czukay - bass
- Jaki Liebezeit - drums, double bass, piano
Note: All links to the musicians' works are in the TAGS under the article title or on the "Artists" page
