MAGMA - rfi

thank you for making my day

fantastic... thank you!

holy shit just hook it to my veins

this studio version! https://xoxo-ex.bandcamp.com/album/the-last-seven-minutes

A thread on nerdy Japanese backroom musicians/producers telegraphing their obsessions via idol culture is overdue imho.

love that the cover for the single is a takeoff on Flaming Youth's "Ark" album

its like a fever dream

lol MaresNest listen to this

https://xoxo-ex.bandcamp.com/track/progressive-be-bop

Trailer for the forthcoming album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCF9-k_LnOg

getting the feeling that this is gonna be insanely good

Who says Vander doesn't have a sense of humour?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hc02vaxDow

That film title, though (think 'me want da Benjamins')… Casual racism in the service of post-May 1968 anti-capitalism. Autres temps, autres mœurs, I guess.

looks pretty fantastic actually

http://www.frenchfilms.org/review/moi-y-en-a-vouloir-des-sous-1973.html

we haven't discussed the new album much - I know it's an old piece but still, I think it's as good as K.A. or ER. the orchestra is a really nice touch.

Heads up, there's a fantastic audience recording from Toulouse '72 gone up on D1m3 for those that are interested.

holy fucking shit, thank you, i haven't been on dime in ages and never would have seen this. this is amazing, a 15 minute dotz hundin?!? i know of the rare charente tape from the same month that opens with a killer version of "undia", a great tape by a really unusual skeletal lineup, so fantastic to have more, all hail the liberators

YALL THIS IS FUCKING AMAZING

i had no fucking idea dotz hundin was ever performed outside that one time

Seems there was a big upheaval in the ranks at the end of last year - long-serving bass genius Philippe Bussonnet has been replaced with Jannick Top's son (!) and the vibes player is gone too. Several new singers have swelled the ranks though, although of course it's all on hold for a while now along with everything else.

Be aware this is two years out of date now and it's all changed again.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/timeline/631d4bfede7feaa1d54e6459f535fe75.png

Stella did some cute stuff pre-Magma

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLE4AeCnpjw

https://i.imgur.com/6sx5dHL.jpg

Fair deal

new stuff coming Oct 7? I thought Zess was supposed to be their final album? anyone have a clue what this is?

https://www.facebook.com/zeuhlwortzmekanik/posts/578689800285739

Preview track up from the oddly-titled new album Kãrtëhl. Sounds upbeat!

https://seventhrecordsmagma.bandcamp.com/album/k-rt-hl

Maybe cuz this (and at least one other track) are from the Attahk era? I wonder what the rest sounds like. Only listened to a minute of the preview track (cuz let’s face it, I’m buying this no matter what) and it’s nice

Wow the preview track is great, reminds me of Félicité Thösz. Was hoping they would return to the more melodic, optimistic vibe of that one.

Bandcamp page is still up but the preview track and buying options seem to have disappeared

anyone got it yet? my copy is still on order but it looks like some people got theirs weeks ago

The Quietus reviewed it, they seem pretty high on it

https://thequietus.com/articles/32113-magma-krthl-review

if it's really somewhere between Attahk & FT I suspect I'm gonna like it very much

oh yeah it's nice. I actually hear echoes of a lot of Magma albums on this. the band itself sounds a bit like Offering, real jazzy and smooth. it's recorded really well too. this is how I wish they were recording Vander's drums from the start. lets see what else. one of the tracks opens with what sounds like the entire band making turkey noises. I love it. "Dehnde" is the track that sounds like what Magma would've done after Attahk. I also think this is the first Magma album you could probably play in mixed company. it just sounds really great. my only complaint is the vinyl itself which is a 2xLP when the album itself could easily fit on one. it's cool that the demos are there but you don't really need them. it's not like they were anywhere near complete at that stage. on the other hand I guess showing what these tracks evolved from 45 years ago is pretty cool. just not worth the extra LP. whatever. the music rules.

also got the lps over the weekend. agreed on the smooth, polished sound and this being a generally good thing. its pretty evocative music, something like a jazzy lost morricone score to an italian 70s police procedural. or something.

initially this feels like this might be the best since Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré but i gotta spend some more time with it.

they sound like Setna now. who of course draw a lot from Magma. I mean this could've been on the album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pjESCC_nkQ

just noticed that the new bassist is Jimmy Top, who I assume is the son of Jannick Top. or maybe the brother of Jimmy Pop??

I never thought that I would hear any music ever again that sounded like "Supertzar" off of Sabotage, like a mass offered up to the Elder Gods or some shit…but goddamned if that's not what Mekanik Destruktiw Kommndoh sounds like… one almost wonders if Tony heard Magma, much less this record…very very unlikely…

new video?! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmgJkEajQUo

RIP Brian Godding

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s0TwBJ8gf0

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?