TAGO MAGO

I am deeply sad of seeing how underrated this true masterpiece is in ProgArchives; if you go right now to this website's TOP 100 you're not going to find "Tago Mago", not even if you use the filter of only albums from the seventies, but, to be fair, not only "Tago Mago" but the entire Can and Krautrock discography, in general, is absolutely underrated, what a shame.

I do believe this is a remarkable album: after Malcolm Mooney left the group and Damo Suzuki took the role of the definitive singer of the band, he definitely put a very unique touch to the style of the group. While the musicians (Jaki Liebezeit, Irmin Schmidt, Holger Czukay, and Michael Karoli) worked on creating the most acid and experimental musical passages, Suzuki provided the group with a very relaxed but still firm way of singing.

The album starts with "Paperhouse": a seven-minute very relaxed track (at first) that works as a great opening, at around minute three, the rhythm starts to go faster and stronger, only to make a drastic change when the second piece starts. "Mushroom" is probably the slower piece on the album, the music relaxes itself a bit after the end of "Paperhouse", Michael Karoli's guitar is hypnotic on this track. "Oh yeah" is a very fast piece based on rhythmic drumming, Damo Suzuki brings originality to the piece with his native Japanese lyrics.

The B-side is the first of three long acid pieces: "Halleluhwah", which is a very funky piece with unstoppable drums, similar to their first long epic "Yoo Doo Right" but with a much more moved rhythm. The C-side of the record includes only "Aumgn", the longest track on the album, this piece includes very folky acoustic arrangements with percussions at the beginning, similar to some Amon Düül II pieces, then it changes to an absolute mantric piece full of the incessant Aumgn mantra repeating itself until reaching a very obscure ambient closed with very aggressive drums at the end.

On the last side of the LP, there are two pieces: "Peking O" and "Bring me coffee or tea". "Peking O" is pure psychedelic madness, not at all similar to anything else I've heard. The album reaches its climax with this extremely chaotic piece. "Bring me coffee or tea" is a very relaxing way to close such an energic album: it is a track mostly based on acoustic guitar and quiet percussions.

This album has it all that is needed to be considered a full masterpiece of Progressive Rock music: excellent drumming, guitar solos, strong bass lines, and lots and lots of unprecedented experimentation.

SONG RATING: Paperhouse, 5 Mushroom, 5 Oh yeah, 5 Halleluhwah, 5 Aumgn, 5 Peking O, 5 Bring me coffee or tea, 5

AVERAGE: 5

PERCENTAGE: 100

ALBUM RATING: 5 stars

I ranked this album #21 on my TOP 100 favorite Progressive Rock albums of all time.

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