Tago Mago | Loppylugs

Submitted by Glyn Lewis on 16 February 2013 - 10:27pm

Cover:

Artist:

Can

album-ID:

a_67

Nationality:

Germany

Year:

1 971

Release-year:

0000

Num-of-tracks:

Track-listing:

Paperhouse*Mushroom*Oh Yeah*Halleluwah*Aumgn*Peking O*Bring Me a Coffee or Tea

Length-in-mins:

Nominator:

Bean

meeting-ID:

m_26

Now-num:

Spotify-URL:

5KIASVyWmkpRByhUoCAMyN

Grooveshark-URL:

Tago+Mago+2004+Remaster/6366406

Short-title:

tagoMago

nominator-ID:

u_1

Meeting-date:

Tuesday, 16 February 2010

MusicBrainz-URL:

13d08c0e-14e2-30b2-9ad7-5f501761a8ea

Wikipedia-URL:

Tago_Mago

Spotify-link-type:

album

Metacritic-URL:

tago-mago-40th-anniversary-edition/can

Discogs-URL:

Can-Tago-Mago/master/11512

Allmusic-URL:

tago-mago-mw0000200721

BBC-URL:

jhnv

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guest-list data

108

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117

reviewers-IDs data

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88

reviewed by

Matthew Baker

The drums! The drums!

1-2-3-4

5

Like the velvets, Can are a band I got into as a teenager. At the time they seemed very exotic as I knew nothing about them and they sounded so strange. Today I know a lot about them, but they still seem exotic to me. Having a studio in a schloss? Influenced by Stockhausen and voodoo drumming? Improvising all their music? Full marks from me for all that. The first four / five tracks are fairly amazing, ranging from Can's gentle side (Paperhouse) to their propulsive best (Oh Yeah), with enough detials to keep you interested along the way. This is a long album with a bit of 'mucking about' towards the end which makes it a challenge to get through in one listen, but Bring me Coffee or Tea closes the album nicely. You can tell it was made in the 70s, but it's not dated. I think it holds up against any 'band' music that's been made since. A very good album by a very influential, yet still widely unknown band.
88

reviewed by

Glyn Lewis

Oh yeah

1-2-3-4-6

This is an album at the opposite end of the accessibility spectrum to the Lisa Hannigan one. A substantial, challenging, sprawling album with a refreshing dose of angularity. This is great stuff.

As Bean mentions, the work of drummer Jaki Liebezeit is key - I think there is great percussive work that holds all the craziness together, most notably on Peking O, which also contains a fantastic vocal performance from Damo Suzuki (this is mad vocal frothing of the highest order). There is a fresh, funky feel to the drumming too, that stops the album from ever becoming a studied or dry avant garde experiment.

My goodness this is great stuff. It's music you can be sure a lot of people wouldn't understand or like, it's not for the faint hearted. It's a long album, originally on double vinyl, but it never drags for a moment.
80

reviewed by

Richard Norbury

Not an easy listen by any means, but an awful lot going on. You can see where a lot of later bands get their primary influence from. Certain Hapy Mondays songs are so derivitive, definately sueable.
70

reviewed by

Neil Hornsey

I still think Tago Mago is the band name

2-3

Incredibly complex album which needs more than a month to get to grips with. After many listens I can see the genius shining through, and it will require many more plays before I can fine tune my review and score into something meaningful.

It's been hard work but completely worthwhile, great music.