TAGO MAGO

The one thing that we know about this album, was that CAN was at their prime, after having 2 of their folks study with Karlheinz Stockhausen, one other member had played jazz, and the other ... well ... I think we know him as a guitar nut and all the terms that fit.

Holger has specially stated that TAGO MAGO was put together from about 20 hours of tapes and the putting together was not specifically designed at all, but that some things stood out. There is something here, that is valuable and important for study ... and it is that the early "krautrock" days mode of continuous improvisation with no end in sight, or rhyme or reason, was not enough and the 20 hours must have felt like that, and the thought is that some of the moments in these improvisations, of which the two long cuts show Damo and the band in a very well tuned thing, but at that point ... it may have been that the folks decided that they could take some moments from the improvisations and improve, or extend on it, and the rest of the album is probably the result.

What you get is something that is very different and unusual, and you get to see Damo go nuts and crazy and simply help make this album the amazing trip that it is.

I'm not sure that many folks really understand the ability and use of "improvisation" in music, and any other arts, and if there was somewhere where they really went after it, it would have been the Germans, and it can be seen in various areas, not just rock music. Theater had its own, with someone like Peter Handke, and then you could see the same thing in acting with Klaus Kinski ... and many rock fans can not make the connections between the similarities of the work, and I'm positive that in the end, even Klaus Kinski realized that his own improvisations (madness to an incredible extent) had to somehow help define the characterizations of what he was doing, but they were not going to be what Werner Herzog wanted ... they were going to be what came out and took place ... the main reason for it that Werner simply could not turn the camera off when he stepped into that arena ... and it was all the time! Now you can imagine how a rock band can do this ... although many of them have a tendency to think that an improvisation is for the sole benefit of finding a rhythm, or a bit or piece that they can extend. The one thing that theater helps with here, is that these can also be taken to improve the ability of the members to work together and better. And this is visible here, even if the thought is that Holger simply cut things up as he felt like it, when I think it was obvious that he had a mind for the organization of music and composing, but what he was hearing was changing the tone and style of "the westernization of music" ... and he proceeded as he felt, to put together what probably is considered the ultimate "krautrock" album, although my thoughts are that this is not the only one, but a show of things that can be done, and they show, CLEARLY, how much improvisation had helped them and the band. Remember that they picked up Damo Suzuki from the streets where he was busking for a couple of coins anywhere he could. The improvisations, in there, are often a repetition of some things the person has done, but Holger must have seen something different, and it was important for CAN for the next several years, when sadly, Damo had not quite changed, or improved with his work, which I think, to him, meant end up singing things in a more conventional mode, which I imagine that he was not interested in, and the improvisations and free form were more to his liking.

In this album, AUMGN, and HELLELUHWAH come off as the really large improvisations that kinda stand up on their own. They are vastly different, which allows you an idea of what the band found and what they had to work with, but something clicked in these. The first LP (original was 2 LP's) also had PAPERHOUSE, OH YEAH. Compared to the two improvisations these were more conventional. The 2nd LP had BRING ME COFFEE OR TEA, MUSHROOM, PEKING O, and the other improvisation.

The one thing to remember here is what learning could have come from two of these members having come from music school ... one from the street, one guitar kid and one from a jazz medium. And how these folks ended up together and made something so special and valuable, that in many ways is a nice explanation of the intent and desire for something new at the time, when it came to music, within the German circles, at least in the areas of West Germany (at least 4 or 5 of them make up what is known as "krautrock"), since at the time East Germany was still the other side funnily represented by the band Guru Guru as "schlager" in one of their songs telling our generation who is our God of music, and it ain't "schlager".

Very enjoyable album, but can only be appreciated by folks with a good idea of the musical history of rock, jazz and classical ... and not knowing or realizing what a Stockhausen did in Classical music, will end up taking this album completely out of context and make it very difficult to appreciate. Very little in this album is conventional or radio friendly, and this is something that top of the pops folks will not appreciate a whole lot.

The best of the "progressive" folks, never worried about the top this or that, even though a couple of bands had monster hits, and mostly because they were so incredible and different, that they could not be ignored. CAN is a band that deserves to now be ignored and they influenced more folks than we can imagine, and one should look at one very American band doing MOTHER SKY right after the guitar kid (Michael Karoli) passed away ... a piece that came earlier and was a part of a film, where you didn't see the band, but they were playing this in the club and it was loud and clear. It was a shame that all the American rock bands could only imagine this piece as just another monster solo ... when it wasn't. Very few American bands went beyond the "solo" and took something like this to heart, just to give you an idea of the vast difference.

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