0134. Can
Tago Mago
Finally! Some krautrock! And well, as might be expected this is something else entirely. Incidentally this is also the only album this far containing portions of lyrics in Japanese.
Flirting with the occult (the album's named after an island Crowley frequented), jazz, avant-garde and irregular rock this isn't an easy listening (might be if you were on some serious downers, though). Cause like Throbbing Gristle they sound more like they've de-composed the music rather than composed it, with tracks stretching out into infinity (well, into ten or twenty minutes at least) and containing a multitude of tempo, rhythm and melodic changes as well as large portions of what sounds like purely improvised gibberish (both musically and lyrically), which in the case of Peking O gets a bit too silly after a couple of minutes.
Halleluwah, on the other hand, fills a single side of this double album with more traditional and structured music revolving round a driving (and funky!) drum beat. More traditional does not, however, mean "standard".
Albums like these deserves less potent singles to act as gateway music, but I can't think of a single song on Tago Mago that could fit the description. Well, possibly Mushroom, it's at least short enough at a mere four minutes.
