MAGMA - rfi

listening to the best album of all time, merci

i mean all-time for "otis" alone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTERp_MTcis

I love the live versions of Otis. the studio cut is alright, a little subdued, which makes that high note Vander hits pretty jarring. imo Side 2 of Merci is incredible. in fact I think the whole album would be much better regarded if they'd just cut the first track.

you don't even have to cut the first track... offering's arrangement of it is really good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXXzXRI668M

I think Vander realised that trying to make Magma a commercial soul/funk band was Not Happening and took it in a jazzier direction with Offering, since the prog sci-fi album cycle approach was a little out of step with contemporary sensibilities by that point. Another thing that wasn't happening: replacing the best drummer in the world with a fucking LinnDrum.

Love Merci! "Eliphas Levi" is my favorite Magma song that isn't an album-length epic

eliphas levi is amazing, my standard take on "merci" is that it's the one where they "sold out" with a concept album about death featuring an 11 minute piece about the 19th century magus who transed baphomet which incorporates mccoy tyner's piano solo from trane's version of "my favorite things"

which definitely puts it on my list of "greatest sellouts ever", alongside albert ayler's _new grass_

also, i went to listen to this song and i get to see stuff i wouldn't run across normally, like this epically bro-y video about baphomet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOgeejjr2VQ

I Will Return is one of my favorite Magma tunes, I love when they just go full showtune

its too bad they didn't release a whole lot between 78 and whenever Offering started, they were going in a real interesting direction. what bothers me about Merci is that it's just sort of orphaned out there

I think Vander realised that trying to make Magma a commercial soul/funk band was Not Happening and took it in a jazzier direction with Offering, since the prog sci-fi album cycle approach was a little out of step with contemporary sensibilities by that point. Another thing that wasn't happening: replacing the best drummer in the world with a fucking LinnDrum.

― derek of the bailey (Matt #2)

the thing is that magma never really sounded like "merci", if you listen to live concerts from the early '80s the group naturally evolves into the "offering" sound as vander tried to adjust to the realities of life in a post-blasquiz magma. "merci" is kind of an outlier. as for the linndrum, it sounds great... when prince uses it. christian vander isn't prince.

idk i lost a bunch of my playlists when my old hard drive crashed recently... mostly it was curated grateful dead mixes (though i kept the "tc era dark star" epic mix i spent a month working on in late '21, thankfully... best mix i did that nobody will ever hear) but there's some great unreleased magma stuff. at least for the attahk era stuff you can hear the bourges '79 official release and bobino '81. anyway there's a great early tape of offering from late '83 that shows off the direction they were going at the time.

I think Otis sounds like a certain side of Magma but yea that's what's frustrating about it, it lacks any context

Just went through the track listings of the aforementioned Bourges '79 and Bobino '81, and yes there's basically an unreleased album there:

Retrovision
Who's My Love
You
Ürgon Gorgo
Zaïn

which all, depending on how long they could be stretched out, adds up to around 40 minutes. Plus there's a couple of demo recordings from the era that were on the "Kãrtëhl" album from a year or two ago. Given that they've spent the last couple of decades excavating old pieces that never had a proper recording I wonder if there are any plans to tackle this stuff before Vander retires/dies?