Tago Mago is the second studio album by the German krautrock band Can, originally released as a double LP in August 1971 on the United Artists label. It was the band's first full studio album to feature Damo Suzuki after the 1970 departure of previous vocalist Malcolm Mooney, though Suzuki had been featured on most tracks on the compilation album Soundtracks the prior year.^[5] Recorded at Schloss Nörvenich, a medieval castle near Cologne, the album features long-form experimental tracks blending rock and jazz improvisation, funk rhythms, and musique concrète tape editing techniques.^[6]

Tago Mago has been described as Can's best and most extreme record in sound and structure.^[7] The album has received widespread critical acclaim and is cited as an influence by various artists. AllMusic called it "not merely one of the best Krautrock albums of all time, but one of the best albums ever, period."^[1]

After Malcolm Mooney left Can in 1970, the band was left without a vocalist.^[8] Bassist Holger Czukay and drummer Jaki Liebezeit subsequently saw Kenji "Damo" Suzuki busking outside a cafe in Munich,^[9] and invited him to join the band.^[10] Suzuki performed with the band at the Blow Up Club that evening, and subsequently became a full member of the group.^[11]

Tago Mago was recorded by Czukay at Schloss Nörvenich, a medieval castle in Nörvenich, North Rhine-Westphalia, between November 1970 and February 1971. Early in 1968, the band had been invited to stay rent-free at the castle for one year by art collector Christoph Vohwinkel, who had rented the castle with the idea of transforming it into an art center.^[12]

Recording took three months to complete,^[13] with sessions often lasting up to 16 hours a day.^[14] Czukay would edit the band's long, disorganized jams into structured songs.^[15] He used only two two-track tape recorders to capture the sessions.^[14] Because of the limits of two-track recording, the group favored recording in the castle's entrance hall, using its natural reverberation and placing the microphones optimally relative to their instruments.^[16] Czukay took advantage of the reverberation in the hall and limited the band to three microphones, shared between Suzuki and Liebezeit.^[14] Keyboardist Irmin Schmidt experimented with oscillators in place of typical synthesizers on "Aumgn."^[14]

Tago Mago was the first Can album to contain "in-between" recordings, for which Czukay secretly recorded the musicians jamming during pre-production sessions.^[10] He also captured in-between recordings of the shouts of a child who mistakenly entered the room during recording, as well as the howling of Vohwinkel's dog.^[14]

According to Czukay, the album was named after Illa de Tagomago, an islet near Ibiza in the Balearic archipelago, at Liebezeit's suggestion.^[17]

Tago Mago was originally released in Germany in August 1971 by United Artists Records. The British release, with different artwork, followed in February 1972.

Tago Mago saw Can changing to a jazzier and more experimental sound than with previous recordings, with longer instrumental interludes and fewer vocals; this shift was caused by the dramatic difference between Suzuki and the band's more dominant former singer Mooney.^[18] Can took sonic inspiration from sources as diverse as jazz musicians such as Miles Davis and from electronic avant-garde music.^[19] The album was also inspired by the occultist Aleister Crowley, which is reflected through its dark sound and in its title. It is named for Illa de Tagomago, an island that features in the Crowley legend,^[3] and the title of the track "Aumgn" comes from Crowley's interpretation of the Hindu mantra syllable Om.^[20] Czukay describes the album as "an attempt in achieving a mystery musical world from light to darkness and return."^[10] The group has referred to the album as their "magic record,"^[3] and the tracks have been described as having an "air of mystery and forbidden secrets."^[9]

Tago Mago is divided into two LPs, the first of which is more conventional and structured and the second more experimental.^[21] Roni Sarig, author of The Secret History of Rock, called the second LP "as close as [the group] ever got to avant-garde noise music."^[7] Featuring Czukay's tape and radio experiments, the tracks "Aumgn" and "Peking O" have led music critics call Tago Mago the group's "most extreme record in terms of sound and structure."^[7] "Peking O" made use of an Ace Tone Rhythm Ace, an early drum machine, combined with acoustic drumming.^[22] "Aumgn" features keyboardist Irmin Schmidt chanting rather than Suzuki's vocals.^[18] The closing track, "Bring Me Coffee or Tea," was described by Raggett as a "fine, fun little coda to a landmark record."^[1]

The side-long track "Halleluhwah", which closes the first disc, was shortened from 18½ to 3½ minutes for release as the B-side of the non-album single "Turtles Have Short Legs", a novelty song recorded during the Tago Mago sessions and released by Liberty Records in 1971.^[23] A different, 5½-minute edit of "Halleluhwah" would later appear on the compilation Cannibalism in 1978, while "Turtles Have Short Legs" remained out of print until its inclusion on 1992's Cannibalism 2.

More information Aggregate scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	99/100[24]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Drowned in Sound	10/10[25]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[26]
Filter	95%[24]
Pitchfork	9.3/10 (2004)[27] 10/10 (2011; 40th Anniversary Edition)[28]
Record Collector	[29]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	9/10[30]
Stylus	B[31]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[32]
Uncut	[33]

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Tago Mago has been critically acclaimed, and is credited with pioneering various modern musical styles. Raggett called Tago Mago a "rarity of the early '70s, a double album without a wasted note."^[1] Many critics, particularly in the United Kingdom, were eager to praise the album, and by the end of 1971 Can had played their first show in the UK.^[34][35]

Julian Cope wrote in his book Krautrocksampler that Tago Mago "sounds only like itself, like no-one before or after" and described the lyrics as delving "below into the Unconscious."^[13] Dummy called it "a genre-defining work of psychedelic, experimental rock music."^[4] Melody Maker critic Simon Reynolds described the record as "shamanic avant-funk."^[2]

• Damo Suzuki – vocals
• Holger Czukay – bass guitar, engineering, editing
• Michael Karoli – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, violin
• Jaki Liebezeit – drums, double bass, piano
• Irmin Schmidt – Farfisa organ and electric piano,^[51] electronics, vocals (5)