Tago Mago
Encyclopedia
Tago Mago is the third studio album by the German experimental rock
Experimental rock
Experimental rock or avant-garde rock is a type of music based on rock which experiments with the basic elements of the genre, or which pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique....

 band Can
Can (band)
Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...

, and was originally released as a double LP in 1971 by United Artists
United Artists Records
United Artists Records was a record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 initially to distribute records of its movie soundtracks, though it soon branched out into recording music of a number of different genres.-History:...

. It was the band's second studio album to feature Kenji "Damo" Suzuki
Damo Suzuki
, universally known as Damo Suzuki , is a singer best known for his membership in the German krautrock group Can.-Biography:As a teenager, Suzuki spent the late 1960s wandering around Europe, often busking....

 after their previous vocalist, Malcolm Mooney
Malcolm Mooney
Malcolm Mooney is an American singer, poet, and artist, probably best known as the original vocalist for German krautrock band Can.-Biography:Mooney began singing in high school, and was a member of an a cappella vocal group known as the Six Fifths...

, quit the band in 1970 after having a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...

.

Tago Mago has been described as Can's most extreme record in terms of sound and structure. The album has received much critical acclaim since its release and has been cited as an influence by various artists.

Recording and production

After Malcolm Mooney
Malcolm Mooney
Malcolm Mooney is an American singer, poet, and artist, probably best known as the original vocalist for German krautrock band Can.-Biography:Mooney began singing in high school, and was a member of an a cappella vocal group known as the Six Fifths...

 left Can in 1970 following a nervous breakdown, the remaining members were left without a vocalist. Bassist Holger Czukay
Holger Czukay
Holger Czukay is a German musician, probably best known as a co-founder of the krautrock group Can. Described by critic Jason Ankeny as "successfully bridg[ing] the gap between pop and the avant-garde," Czukay is also notable for creating early important examples of ambient music, for exploring...

 happened to meet Kenji "Damo" Suzuki
Damo Suzuki
, universally known as Damo Suzuki , is a singer best known for his membership in the German krautrock group Can.-Biography:As a teenager, Suzuki spent the late 1960s wandering around Europe, often busking....

 when the latter was busking
Busking
Street performance or busking is the practice of performing in public places, for gratuities, which are generally in the form of money and edibles...

 outside a cafe in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

. He introduced himself as a member of an experimental rock band and invited Suzuki to join them. That evening, Suzuki performed with the band at the Blow Up club and subsequently became a member of Can.

Tago Mago was recorded in 1971 by Czukay in Schloss Nörvenich, a castle near Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

. The band was allowed to stay there for a year without paying any rent by the owner, an art collector named Mr. Vohwinkel. This was the first of Can's albums to be made from not only regularly recorded music, but combined "in-between-recordings", where Czukay secretly recorded the musicians jamming while waiting for various technical problems to be resolved. Czukay would edit these long, disorganized jams into structured songs. According to Czukay, the album was named after Isla de Tagomago
Isla de Tagomago
The Isla de Tagomago is a private island off the east coast of Ibiza belonging to Spain.The etymology is likely tagomago 'rock magician' in reference to Mago Barca, Carthaginian general Hannibal's brother. In the Muslim era was known as Taj Umayu....

, an island off the east coast of Ibiza
Ibiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...

. Recording was completed in three months.

It was originally released as a double LP in 1971 by United Artists
United Artists Records
United Artists Records was a record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 initially to distribute records of its movie soundtracks, though it soon branched out into recording music of a number of different genres.-History:...

. In September 2004, the album, along with the majority of Can's discography
Can discography
This is a discography of the krautrock band Can.-Studio albums:*Monster Movie *Soundtracks *Tago Mago *Ege Bamyasi *Future Days *Soon Over Babaluma *Landed *Flow Motion...

, was remaster
Remaster
Remaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...

ed and released as a hybrid SACD
Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD is a high-resolution, read-only optical disc for audio storage. Sony and Philips Electronics jointly developed the technology, and publicized it in 1999. It is designated as the Scarlet Book standard. Sony and Philips previously collaborated to define the Compact Disc standard...

. The rerelease includes a booklet with commentary on the album by Bobby Gillespie
Bobby Gillespie
Robert Bernard Andrew "Bobby" Gillespie is a Scottish musician. He is the lead singer and founding member of the alternative rock band, Primal Scream. He was also the drummer for The Jesus and Mary Chain in the mid-1980s.- Early life :Born and raised in the south side district of Mount Florida in...

 of Primal Scream
Primal Scream
Primal Scream are a Scottish alternative rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie and now based in London. The current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes , Martin Duffy , and Darrin Mooney...

 and David Stubbs
David Stubbs
David Stubbs is a British journalist. He was born on 13 September 1962 in London, but grew up in Leeds. As a student at Oxford University he was a close friend of Simon Reynolds; together they worked on an influential fanzine called Monitor before joining Melody Maker in 1986...

, as well as previously unreleased photos of the band.

Music

Julian Cope
Julian Cope
Julian Cope is a British rock musician, author, antiquary, musicologist, poet and cultural commentator...

 wrote in Krautrocksampler
Krautrocksampler
Krautrocksampler: One Head's Guide to the Great Kosmische Musik - 1968 Onwards, written by musicologist and former The Teardrop Explodes singer, Julian Cope, is a book describing the underground music scene in Germany from 1968 through the 1970s. The book was first published in the United Kingdom...

that Tago Mago "sounds only like itself, like no-one before or after", and described the lyrics as delving "below into the Unconscious". Tago Mago finds Can changing to a jazzier and more experimental sound than previous recordings, with longer instrumental interludes and less vocals; this shift was caused by the dramatic difference between Suzuki and the band's more dominant ex-singer Mooney. On the album, Can took sonic inspiration from sources as diverse as jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 musicians such as Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

 and from electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 avant-garde music
Avant-garde music
Avant-garde music is a term used to characterize music which is thought to be ahead of its time, i.e. containing innovative elements or fusing different genres....

. The album was also inspired by the occultist Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...

, which is reflected through the dark sound of the album as well as being named after Isla de Tagomago
Isla de Tagomago
The Isla de Tagomago is a private island off the east coast of Ibiza belonging to Spain.The etymology is likely tagomago 'rock magician' in reference to Mago Barca, Carthaginian general Hannibal's brother. In the Muslim era was known as Taj Umayu....

, an island which features in the Crowley legend. Czukay reflects that the album was "an attempt in achieving a mystery musical world from light to darkness and return". The group has referred to the album as their "magic record". The tracks have been described as having an "air of mystery and forbidden secrets". Tago Mago is divided into two LPs, the first of which is more conventional and structured and the second more experimental and free-form.

"Paperhouse", the opening track, is one of the shorter songs on the album. Allmusic critic Ned Raggett
Ned Raggett
Ned Raggett is a library assistant, freelance writer and music journalist. His work has been published in Allmusic, the OC Weekly, Plan B, Metal Edge and The Quietus, while pieces have also appeared in Dream, Arthur, as well as Stylus, The Broken Face, Fake Jazz, Freaky Trigger, Careless Talk...

 depicted the song as "beginning with a low-key chime and beat, before amping up into a rumbling roll in the midsection, then calming down again before one last blast." "Mushroom" is the following track, which Leone noted as having a darker sound than the previous song. As Piero Scaruffi
Piero Scaruffi
Piero Scaruffi received a degree in Mathematics in 1982 from University of Turin, where he did work on the General Theory of Relativity. For a number of years he was the head of the Artificial Intelligence Center at Olivetti, based in Cupertino, California. He has been a visiting scholar at...

 wrote, "Suzuki's psychodrama
Psychodrama
Psychodrama is a method of psychotherapy in which clients utilize spontaneous dramatization, role playing and dramatic self-presentation to investigate and gain insight into their lives. Developed by Jacob L. Moreno, M.D. psychodrama includes elements of theater, often conducted on a stage where...

 in Mushroom is set in a rarefied atmosphere of skitting drums, booming bass and atonal guitar." "Oh Yeah" and "Halleluhwah" contain the elements that have been referred to as Can's "trademark" sound: "Damo Suzuki's vocals, which shift from soft mumbles to aggressive outbursts without warning; Jaki Liebezeit's mantric drumming; Holger Czukay's production manipulations (e.g. the backwards vocals and opening sound effects on 'Oh Yeah')." Both "Oh Yeah" and "Halleluhwah" use repetitive grooves.

The second LP features Can's more avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 efforts, with Roni Sarig, author of The Secret History of Rock calling it "as close as it ever got to avant-garde noise music
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...

." Featuring Holger Czukay’s tape and radio experiments, the tracks "Aumgn" and "Peking O" have led music critics to write that Tago Mago is Can's "most extreme record in terms of sound and structure." "Aumgn" features keyboardist Irmin Schmidt
Irmin Schmidt
Irmin Schmidt is a German keyboard player and composer, probably best known as a founding member of the band Can.-Biography:...

 chanting rather than Suzuki's vocals. The closing track, "Bring Me Coffee or Tea", was described by Raggett as a "coda to a landmark record." Piero Scaruffi depicted it as "basically a delirious hare-krishna chant for loose rock quintet
Quintet
A quintet is a group containing five members.It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single unit....

, [pretending] to link the album to the contemporary fad of Eastern-tinged psychedelia."

Reception and influence

Tago Mago has been critically well-received and is credited with pioneering various modern musical styles. Raggett called Tago Mago a "rarity of the early '70s, a double album without a wasted note." In the book Kraftwerk: Man, Machine and Music, Pascal Bussy described the double LP as "hugely influential". The album is listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a musical reference book edited by Robert Dimery, first published in 2005. The most recent edition consists of a list of albums released between 1955 and 2010, part of a series from Quintessence Editions Ltd...

in which it stated, "Even after 30 years Tago Mago sounds refreshingly contemporary and gloriously extreme." Many critics, particularly in the UK, were eager to praise the album, and by the end of 1971 Can played their first show in the UK.

Various artists have cited Tago Mago as an influence on their work. John Lydon
John Lydon
John Joseph Lydon , also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s...

 of the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...

 and Public Image Ltd.
Public Image Ltd.
Public Image Ltd are an English post-punk band formed by vocalist John Lydon , guitarist Keith Levene and bassist Jah Wobble, with frequent subsequent personnel changes. Lydon is the sole constant member of the band....

 called it "stunning" in his biography, Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs. Bobby Gillespie
Bobby Gillespie
Robert Bernard Andrew "Bobby" Gillespie is a Scottish musician. He is the lead singer and founding member of the alternative rock band, Primal Scream. He was also the drummer for The Jesus and Mary Chain in the mid-1980s.- Early life :Born and raised in the south side district of Mount Florida in...

 of Jesus and Mary Chain and Primal Scream
Primal Scream
Primal Scream are a Scottish alternative rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie and now based in London. The current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes , Martin Duffy , and Darrin Mooney...

 said "The music was like nothing I'd ever heard before, not American, not rock & roll but mysterious and European." Mark Hollis of Talk Talk
Talk Talk
Talk Talk were an English musical group, active from 1981 to 1991. The group had a string of international hit singles including "Today", "Talk Talk", "It's My Life", "Such a Shame", "Dum Dum Girl", "Life's What You Make It" and "Living in Another World"....

 called Tago Mago "an extremely important album". Jonny Greenwood
Jonny Greenwood
Jonathan Richard Guy "Jonny" Greenwood is an English musician and composer, best known as a member of the English rock band Radiohead. Greenwood is a multi-instrumentalist, but serves mainly as lead guitarist and keyboard player. In addition to guitar and keyboard, he plays viola, harmonica,...

 and Thom Yorke
Thom Yorke
Thomas "Thom" Edward Yorke is an English musician who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter for Radiohead. He mainly plays guitar and piano, but he has also played drums and bass guitar...

 of Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...

 cited it as an early influence.

There have been attempts by several artists to play cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

s of songs from Tago Mago. The Flaming Lips album In a Priest Driven Ambulance
In a Priest Driven Ambulance
In a Priest Driven Ambulance is the fourth album by The Flaming Lips, released in 1990 . It is a concept album primarily focused on frontman Wayne Coyne's fascination with religion. It is generally considered among critics to be one of the best early period Flaming Lips albums...

contains a song called "Take Meta Mars", which was an attempt at covering the song "Mushroom". However, the band members had only heard the song once and didn't have a copy of it at the time, so the song is only similar-sounding and not a proper cover. The Jesus and Mary Chain have covered the song more faithfully to the original; it was performed live and included on the CD version of Barbed Wire Kisses
Barbed Wire Kisses
Barbed Wire Kisses is a compilation of singles, b-sides and rare tracks by Scottish alternative rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain. Throughout the 1980s the band was known for their prodigious output in these formats, often in limited editions which quickly went out of print...

. British band The Fall recorded a song indebted to the Tago Mago track "Oh Yeah" entitled "I Am Damo Suzuki," named after the Can singer, on their seminal 1985 LP This Nation's Saving Grace
This Nation's Saving Grace
This Nation's Saving Grace is a 1985 LP by The Fall. It reached number 54 in the UK charts. The album is frequently cited as one of the group's strongest and most consistent...

.

Remix versions of several Tago Mago tracks by various artists are included on the album Sacrilege
Sacrilege (album)
Sacrilege is a double remix album by the band Can, released in 1997. It features remixes of many of the band's most well-known songs from the 1960s and 70s, remixed by contemporary recording artists.-Track listing:# "PNOOM" – 0:56...

.

Track listing

Personnel

  • Damo Suzuki
    Damo Suzuki
    , universally known as Damo Suzuki , is a singer best known for his membership in the German krautrock group Can.-Biography:As a teenager, Suzuki spent the late 1960s wandering around Europe, often busking....

     – vocals
  • Holger Czukay
    Holger Czukay
    Holger Czukay is a German musician, probably best known as a co-founder of the krautrock group Can. Described by critic Jason Ankeny as "successfully bridg[ing] the gap between pop and the avant-garde," Czukay is also notable for creating early important examples of ambient music, for exploring...

     – bass
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

    , engineering, editing
  • Michael Karoli
    Michael Karoli
    Michael Karoli was a German guitarist, violinist and composer. He was a founding member of the influential krautrock band Can....

     – guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

    , violin
    Violin
    The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

  • Jaki Liebezeit
    Jaki Liebezeit
    Jaki Liebezeit is a drummer probably best known as a founding member of Can who has been called "one of the few drummers to convincingly meld the funky and the cerebral"....

     – drum
    Drum
    The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

    s, double bass
    Double bass
    The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

    , piano
    Piano
    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

  • Irmin Schmidt
    Irmin Schmidt
    Irmin Schmidt is a German keyboard player and composer, probably best known as a founding member of the band Can.-Biography:...

     – keyboard
    Keyboard instrument
    A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

    s, vocals on "Aumgn"

Production

  • U. Eichberger – original artwork & design
  • Andreas Torkler – design (2004 rerelease)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK