We travel back in time to the distant year of 1971.
We are in a phase of rock history where everything still seemed possible. That Germany could be the vanguard of rock. That one of the best exponents of what would later be called Krautrock had a singer (singer?) who was a Japanese man named Suzuki picked up from the streets of Cologne. That madness and rationality could peacefully coexist side by side on the same record. That the music could be so visionary and forward-thinking to still be relevant more than thirty years later (relevant? Or perhaps so irrelevant as to be out of fashion, beyond trends and therefore imperishable).
Thus emerges Tago Mago, a double vinyl composed of only seven tracks (tracks also in the sense of signs, testimonies):
1. The still sweet and dreamy rock of "Paperhouse";
2. The obsessive beat and screams of "Mushroom";
3. The slow and majestic progress of "Oh Yeah," the true masterpiece of the album;
4. The funky-hypnotic rhythm of "Halleluhwah": 18 minutes of variations on a single rhythmic theme, almost primitive/primordial;
5. The absolute delirium of "Aumgn," a very long experimental piece made of effects, noises, and echoes;
6. The brilliant insights and tone shifts of "Peking O," the ideal soundtrack for an asylum;
7. The return to relative calm with "Bring Me Coffee Or Tea."
However, Tago Mago is a work that goes beyond its particular episodes. It is 360-degree exploration, experimentalism in the positive sense. Insatiable in its movement towards new horizons, in crossing boundaries.
For this reason, it also requires a certain patience and attention from the listener who must be ready to forgive some excesses, especially typical of the second part of the album.
The listener will be rewarded by the (re)discovery of a classic.
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Other reviews
By Neu!_Cannas
Seven tracks seven to redefine music.
Halleluwah transforms an excellent album into a masterpiece, one of the highest peaks of rock.
By manliuzzo
"Tago Mago possesses these characteristics. It’s a spontaneous album, but not naive at all. It’s technical, but not cold."
"‘Halleluhwah’ is a psychedelic funk piece, incomparable to any other, a musical delirium of unique genius, simple yet complex."
By insolito
A thousand extinguished stars in 'Halleluhwah', supernova of modern music along with the version of 'Echoes' by Antonello Venditti.
How to understand a deliberately 'brick' record if one doesn’t have a hard head? By taking a bunch of LSD maybe?
By caesar666
Can become the pioneers and the indispensable point of reference of cultured and avant-garde European rock.
'Tago Mago' is the absolute best Can album and a milestone of inestimable value.
By Caspasian
"Tago Mago is an indispensable unity."
They all suddenly started shouting in unison, and then they felt good, were happy.