"TAGO MAGO" POLL

"Halleluhwah," in a landslide.

Then I'll be an outsider and vote for Paperhouse.

Mushroom

Oh Yeah

paperhouse - first can song i ever heard, and still my favorite. it just sounds like really really otherworldly

"Halleluhwah" is fucking undeniable. Exhilarating.

Paperhouse wins. Mushroom, Oh Yeah, Halleluhwah joint runners up. Second side sucks donkey balls.

Paperhouse.

Oh Yeah, the first Can song I ever heard from the Mute Grey Area Tyranny of the Beat compilation VHS and later CD. Man that video and song through me for a loop.

"Halleluwah" is gonna walk!

"Oh Yeah" is the only song off this album I can hear over and over and over again, and the next time, I'll still be giddy with excitement to hear it again. Obviously many great songs here, but I get burnt out on this album too easily, aforementioned exception aside.

In brief: jaki roxx u r all gaye

Oh Yeah, the first Can song I ever heard from the Mute Grey Area Tyranny of the Beat compilation VHS and later CD. Man that video and song through me for a loop.

WHAT THAT MAN SAID RIGHT THERE

Oh Yeah was the first Can song I ever heard - and I still love it - but Halleluhwah gets my vote.

Have you seen the snowman standin' with the lord? (???)

I love everything on this album but Halleluwah is the one.

This was the first album I bought after discovering Pitchforkmedia (remember how easy it used to be to browse their older reviews?). I put it in my discman at the bus stop outside of the record store. Paperhouse and Mushroom taught me that there were people out there doing Pink Floyd way better than Pink Floyd did.

When Halleluwah rolled along, I was almost home but got so into it that I decided to go sit in the park rather than have to take the headphones off when I faced the roommates. Listening to Halleluwah, I really started to notice Jaki Liebezeit. I had this startling moment of realization that most of the drummers I had previously expressed admiration for were nowhere near as good as I thought they were.

Tried to replicate the experience the next weekend with the first NEU! album to much disappointment.

Also, although it is a much looser, more raggedy affair, Anthem of the Sun makes a great companion to this album, if you're up for an afternoon of Stockhauseny psychedelic bliss.

<i>Halleluhwah</i> for the funky hypnotic groove (thanks Jaki) and the great improvisations which go on around it. Damo's shouting fits perfectly. A wonderful piece of music.

Aumng

Which is the one that the Fall are referencing in "Damo Suzuki?" I can never remember which song title goes w/which song on this one (aside from Mushroom). Anyway, that one gets my vote.

i think that's "oh yeah"

Paperhouse wins. Mushroom, Oh Yeah, Halleluhwah joint runners up. Second side sucks donkey balls.

second side _is_ Halleuhwah!

(i voted 'paperhouse')

Is there anything that cannot be bootmashed with Can's "Augm" ?

Oh yeah. The only thing I don't like is that their name is practically un-google-able.

"halleluwah" is too epic not to win this poll.

Oh Yeah

kingkongvsgodzilla owes me an hour and a half for listening to the Grateful Dead when I could have been, I dunno, cutting myself and rubbing salt in the wounds or something.

OH YEAH

if for no other reason than the last minute, halleluwah.

You guys are seriously going to make me pull this out now.

this was the cd that was in my old laptop that got stolen :(

h-wah

Been listening to this lately! Excellent driving music. Was the first Can album I heard.

Voted Halleluhwah.

Ridiculous years-ago incident I'll never forget (try as I might): my old roommate catching me sitting cross-legged on my bed, naked but for a headset playing "Halleluwah", eyes closed, head weaving back and forth like a charmed snake, oblivious. Embarrassing to be sure, but not enough to change my vote.

I just voted for "Peking O" because it would appear no one else is going to.

don't be an outsider. let halleluwah win by a landslide.

OH YEAH x 1000

Bring Me Coffee or Tea is the surprise at the end! It deserves a vote.
I voted Hallallalalallalalalaluwah, tho.

Although the rhythm section on "Oh Yeah" is about as god as it gets, it's all about "Paperhouse."

Hm, that typo is oddly appropriate.

>I just voted for "Peking O" because it would appear no one else is going to.

millions of years listening later "Peking O" is my fave.
references Peking Opera by the way - 'an acquired taste'.
"driving my way back to yesterday..."

2nd fave - bring me coffee or tea. I'll bring you (& me) tea.

Listened to this last night b/c of this thread, and i think i gotta go with "paperhouse", "mushroom" a close second. The first half of this album is pretty much perfect. Still working on tracks 5-6 though.

Difficult choice, but I went for "Mushroom".

I wonder is anyone is outré enough to vote for "Aumgn."

Always my least favorite of their early period albums, if only because of "Augmn" and "Peking O", which take up well over 1/3 of the running time. It's really hard to choose between the others, but I suppose I'll go with "Oh Yeah".

I think "Oh Yeah"... errrrrrrrrrrrm, maybe... maybe "Halleluwah", but I think it's slightly too long... maybe "Mushroom", which maybe isn't long enough... never been a big fan of "Paperhouse", I don't like the end bit that much... the basslines on "Oh Yeah" and "Halleluwah" are genius, the drumming on EVERY track beyond genius! So "Oh Yeah", the explosions/thunderclaps edge it.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

kingkongvsgodzilla owes me an hour and a half...

Everybody always says this when I recommend pairing these albums and I have no idea what they're not getting out of it that I am. : (

without a doubt "oh yeah"

the drumming at the end of "Aumgn" is awesome (I voted for "Paperhouse, though)

hahaha

my wife, while PV was playing: "is this the fucking Grateful Dead?"

it was some really noodly (and lovely imho) Fischelsinger guitar part, but yeah I laughed

pv might be my favorite of them all

i'm a crystal brained yoga head though

God, I wish. Worst New Age music ever created. I remember trying to get into them and starting at the beginning (those two long ambient whatever albums) and feeling nonplussed. Yesterday I rearmed Hosianna Mantra and was so appalled I had to put on Dead Can Dance (first two albums) to cleanse my spirit.

Yesterday I resigned myself also to this: I don’t much care for Future Days. It’s always been this “wha happened?” kind of album for me, like it’s on and then it’s over. I do like the fact that Holger is just like “I’m playing root notes only ok guys? and only on the downbeat and only every four bars”. It is a cool decision

But really: Faust. Of all these “sometimes we freak out” early 70s bands they are the heaviest of shredders. “Meadow Meal” is such an astounding piece of music

yeah it's be cool to do a mix of the "heaviest" Faust moments

My favourite will always be Neu! but the band that influences my personal life decisions the most is Cluster

Popol Vuh rules, Cluster rules, Faust rules, but Can's Tago Mago album reigns supreme, that's how I break it down to you

when I was a kid it was Future Days and Ege Bamyasi that ruled over Tago Mago. Even though I'm very jazz coded and Tago Mago was kind of a jazz fusion album.

fgti do you know the Walter Wegmuller album

Nope-- I have so many weird blind spots, I'm a Slapp Happy acolyte but have never listened to a Blegvad solo album i.e.

Will check it out tho thx!

Damo’s bassy “aumgn” made more monolithic

I believe that's Irmin.

well idk I think it's a pretty obscure one though given the musicians on it you'd think it would be pretty well known. it's basically the Cosmic Jokers lineup, except they know they're being recorded this time :)

Tarot is a fantastic record, iirc it got plenty of praise in julian cope's book (where I likely first heard of it).

Yes, it's pretty well known in Krautrock circles.

well nobody I know has heard of it :)

I'd never heard of it either till the Julian Cope book tbh.

i like a few popol vuh things but oftentimes their music reminds me of that ritual scene in Help! where they try to cut off Ringo's finger.

ege bamyasi is the overrated can album, like it's good and all but it's not transcendent like tago mago and future days

we can all have can opinions but ffs don't start trying to diminish how fucking great ege bamyasi is, kids!

Hear hear!

haha we should do a "most overrated Can album" poll

it's only like their sixth best album but that means it's still very good

haha we should do a "most overrated Can album" poll

The later albums aren’t as bad as the conventional wisdom had it, but they ain’t better than the canonical albums

the first Can album I ever heard was Soon Over Babaluma at some point in about 89/90 After that I ended up walking half way to Leeds because I was like about 58p short for trainfare, just so I could buy Tago Mago from Jumbo Records.

Oh btw until I googled the lyrics yesterday I always thought it was “bring me coffee or tea / call me pretty or ugly”

Given the choices of Damo’s verbal weighting (and Mark E Smith’s summarization: “What, have you got, in that paper bag”— or worse, “ain’t to time for Western lesson!”)— it has been easy (for me) to miss that Damo’s lyrics are at times very beautiful

EB is fucking fantastic, it’s like a singles collection of short-form brilliant ideas. How it’s even possible to overrate a record with “Vitamin C” and “Sing Swan Song” is beyond me.
Also fgti you need to crank up the title track of “Future Days” and pay it undivided attention. The drama alone.

polling the most overrated CAN album could bring about the final destruction of ILM

I might say Delay 1968, never really got why some people were so gaga over that one, love Monster Movie though

such a poll would require deleting the "L" from ILM

xp it's all about "Uphill" on that one imo

I, Music?

my wife, while PV was playing: "is this the fucking Grateful Dead?"

It's the Grateful Dead IF THEY'D BEEN ANY FUCKING GOOD

(ducks)

which is the most overrated classic-era CAN album?

there's something very gnarly about the keyboards and guitar grinding all over the place in "future days". they're low in the mix so they're easy to miss and honestly also easy to gloss over because they're kinda nasty imo! nasty and weird hiding under holger's plonking away and damo's very tuneful / lovely singing in the chorus and all the high frequencies / cymbals that make it sound like the tide is coming in over everything. it's sorta chromatic, sorta blues, sorta just random, all demented.

suffice it to say but can were weird as hell and they still throw me off sometimes. "soup" on eb. weird track. karoli's soloing has the effect sometimes of making me feel like i have a stomach ache. they kind of have the energy of an evil klezmer band sometimes? playing in a funhouse and you're on ayahuasca.

"thief" is the best

they should really do a repressing of The Lost Tapes...crazy to think between that stuff and Unlimited Edition they could've cranked out like 3 or 4 more classic albums if they wanted to

xp yeah that's peak Mooney

there are so many of those “live in” discs now. what’s the consensus on those

I still relisten to the stuttgart one regularly

I might be in the minority but I'm on record as feeling very "meh" about that entire series. But I think Can has always been more of a studio band for me

hahaha

my wife, while PV was playing: "is this the fucking Grateful Dead?"

― Serfin' USA (sleeve), Friday, February 20, 2026 1:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Hahaha

I bought Tago Mago, therefore I like it least.

Bought it LAST, haha

When I first joined ILX, I was on some thread where someone was asking for similar music to CAN, and I recommended early Grateful Dead. That poster came back later, and was like "yeah, that was not it." Whatever similarities I had heard, it wasn't what they liked about CAN.

And to be honest, I'm not that much more knowledgeable about CAN than I was then. I pretty much know 3 albums very well - Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi, and Future Days - and have a passing acquaintance with some of the other stuff. But, and especially having heard those live albums they've been putting out in the past few years, I still think it's a lot closer than people would like to admit.

Popol Vuh might’ve been cool when it came out but it sounds to me now like you’ve been tricked into a sexy weekend with a RennFaire lady and you want to leave so badly but you feel obligated to stay out of politeness

― 🎶 should I slay or should I ho 🎶 (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, 20 February 2026 19:38 (yesterday)

Missed this thread revive until now and this post was first thing I see under the cut: made me laugh so hard.

I lost interest in the live series after the 2nd one, but the Stuttgart one is in my regular Can listening rotation, it covers all the bases for me as far as live Can goes

The Keele live album is tremendous, it's become a real fave of mine.

I like the live series as a big whole - like I put one on at random and hang with this band for a bit and they're usually fascinating and sometimes amazing and I drift in and out.

Can't always really remember which is which.

Super obvious but Paris Fünf (Vitamin C) is amazing.