Tracklist:
1. Paperhouse
2. Mushroom
3. Oh Yeah
4. Halleluhwah
5. Aumgn
6. Peking O
7. Bring Me Coffee or Tea
When I first started listening to “Tago Mago”, a few people advised me against it. It seems there are many theories in circulation about why you shouldn’t listen to it. It can lower your libido, make you paranoid or, even worse – every night of the remainder of your short life, you might be visited by Jimbo, the Easter weasel that sings serenades about radioactive cotton swabs whilst sneezing vanilla-scented peanuts. So you can either heed these warnings, or just go on listening anyway (I’ve listened to this album several times, and none of the above happened to me, so you should be all right, too). You probably won’t regret it, if you don’t mind the occasional mindf***, that is (I meant to write ‘mindscrew’, but damn, is the F key close to the S key! – plus I really like asterisks).
Now, if you haven’t heard of the band “Can” yet, feel free to head over to last.fm, Wikipedia, Youtube or whatever and get a sample of their music. I’m just going to give you a brief introduction to the band – they were probably one of the finest krautrock acts to emerge from Germany, if not from the whole world. They were krautrock pioneers back in the late 60′s and the 70′s and their music has influenced many avant-garde, punk – and even ambient artists. Edgy, yet cosmic, minimalist, yet complex, their music is like a cross between Syd Barret’s psychedelic experimentation, Velvet Underground’s artsy guitar noise and Brian Eno’s flamboyant, but minimalist approach to music. Think “Piper at the Gates of Dawn”, only louder, faster, and more spaced-out.
Of all Can albums, “Tago Mago” is probably the one that has stood the test of time best, and one of their more widely-known performances. It starts off with ‘Paperhouse’, the first part of which (to me at least), bears a slight resemblance to some of the work of Hendrix and perhaps even The Doors. This vague familiarity evaporates soon though, when the band break into a psychedelic solo, filled with hypnotic, droning instrumental and vocal bits. Then, almost unexpectedly, ‘Mushroom’ starts – a song with such an infectious groove that it will keep repeating in your mind long after you’ve finished listening to it. With distinguishable yet somewhat opaque lyrics, one might interpret it as describing the world seen through the eyes of a child born at Hiroshima on the day the atom bomb fell. “When I saw mushroom head, I was born, I was dead.” ‘Oh Yeah’ is a trippy song with backwards vocals at the beginning. I tend to like the second half of the track more, as it is slightly more exciting than the first part. ‘Halleluhwah’ is trippy, groovy and quite repetitious – but nothing groundbreaking, in any case. ‘Aumgn’ and ‘Peking O’ are freak-out moments that don’t treat your ears too kindly. ‘Bring me Coffee or Tea’ is a fairly melodic psychedelic improvisation (somewhat similar to Pink Floyd’s “Careful With That Axe Eugene”) that builds up gradually and is more like the first four songs of the album than the previous two tracks.
Overall, I would say “Tago Mago” is a must-listen for anyone who likes progressive rock, avant-garde and experimental music. However, it takes more than one play to get used to it. And I suppose I could say that one should listen to it in moderation (all jokes from the introduction to this review aside). I am only giving it a rating of 8 because I’m not very fond of some of the sonic experimentation on the album (especially on tracks 5 and 6). In any case, listen to it and make up your own mind!
Standout tracks: Paperhouse, Mushroom, Oh Yeah
Rating: 8
Levantul
