Can "Tago Mago" 1971*****

Tago Mago is a standard addition to best-albums-ever lists. Understandable, since it's the quintessential Can/Kraut Rock album. American singer Malcolm Mooney had just returned to his homeland and his replacement was another foreigner, Japanese Damo Suzuki, whom the band found playing music on the streets of Munich. His style suited Can's experimentalism. He was more of a whisperer and screamer rather than a conventional singer and his interplay with the other musicians is phenomenal, everyone seemingly in his own little universe yet the band playing as if they share a collective mind. "Paperhouse" starts the album off and for a few seconds it sounds like West Coast psychedelia before any notion of a song is dissolved in chaos. Great improvisational jazzy guitar and drumming, with Suzuki mumbling in the background, shouting and then hiding again. "Mushroom" is a chilly song about Hiroshima that draws a nakedly emotional performance from Suzuki, while the band plays with controlled menace. It sounds like nothing ever heard up to that point, paving the way for future bands from Radiohead to The Fall. "Oh Yeah" is an atmospheric song with a steady motorik rhythm. Once more the guitar work is excellent and Suzuki sings partly in Japanese. I'm willing to bet it's just stream-of-consciousness nonsense but it sounds nevertheless great. "Halleluwah"is an 18,5 minute monster of a track. It starts off with a bluesy intro and soon enters into a funky groove - I'd say about as funky as genetically possible for a bunch of  German guys. There's a long drumming section, various effects and vocals alternating between lazy and loud. All in all, a mindblowing achievement. Following track "Aumgn" is almost its equal in duration but an exercise in tunelessness full of effects, shrieks and barks. Some interesting drumming appears halfway into the song, but otherwise just a curiosity. "Peking O" is another experimental song with frantic and unintelligible vocals. It reminds me of Captain Beefhart in Trout Mask Replica. Like that album, depending on where you stand, it can be considered either genius or nonsense. I'm more of the second opinion, myself.  Finally "Bring Me Coffee or Tea" closes the album with some cool atmospheric pre-chillout pre-new wave music. Overall it's an amazing record. Though by no means an easily accessible one, it's full of original ideas and proved an influential landmark, a mysterious monolith of an album that appeared out of nowhere,  dispensing inspiration and creating evolution without giving any clues to its true nature (cool 2001:Space Odyssey reference, ja?). Some of its dark magic may be explained by the supposed links to occultist and high priest of Satanism Aleister Crowley who is somehow connected to the enigmatically named Isla de Tagomago (just off Ibiza) whence this album's title stems.

***** for Mushroom, Halleluhwah 

**** for Paperhouse, Oh Yeah

*** for Bring Me Coffee or Tea

** for Aumgn, Peking O.