At a glance
- Artist
- Can
- Released
- 1971
- Label
- United Artists
- Catalogue number
- UAS 29 211 X
- Format
- 12″ Vinyl
- Country
- Germany
- Tracks
- 7, 1:13:14
In the issue
Its mix of machine-steady drumming, tape editing, and glossolalia vocals made it one of the scene's most extreme records.
A double album and Damo Suzuki's first full studio album with Can, following his tracks on 1970's Soundtracks. Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit had found him busking outside a Munich café and invited him to perform with the band that same night. Jaki Liebezeit's jazz-schooled, machine-steady drumming, loose improvised guitar and keyboards, Holger Czukay's tape editing, and Suzuki's wordless glossolalia vocals made it one of the most extreme records to come out of the scene.
How it was made
Recorded over three months in early 1971 at Can's Inner Space studio in Schloss Nörvenich castle, Tago Mago captured the band at their most adventurous with new vocalist Damo Suzuki, whom they'd discovered busking in Munich. The equipment was primitive: two 2-track tape recorders, egg cartons tacked to the walls for baffling. Sessions ran sixteen hours. Czukay would splice the best sections together afterward, sometimes constructing entire tracks—"Halleluwah" came from pre-recorded drums and bass, reassembled through razor blade and splicing block. Jaki Liebezeit's drums went through three or four microphones, everything mixed straight to stereo. Their manager Hildegard Schmidt pushed for a double album against label resistance. The result ran 100 minutes and became one of experimental rock's most influential statements.
Listen
Find a copy
The original 12″ vinyl: United Artists UAS 29 211 X, 1971.
Track list
12" Vinyl 1
- A1Paperhouse7:28
- A2Mushroom4:03
- A3Oh Yeah7:22
- BHalleluwah18:30
12" Vinyl 2
- CAumgn17:29
- D1Peking O.11:36
- D2Bring Me Coffee or Tea6:46
The label
Released Can's Tago Mago in 1971, the double album that became the scene's defining artistic statement despite the label's initial resistance to its length.
More by Can in the issues
- Ege Bamyasi1972