Customer Reviews

1001 Degrees Centigrades

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

1001 is a rare album of the 70's. Extremely creative and well done. Vander's drums are much more precise than in Kobaia (Magma's first album), Riah, the first track, is an Modified jazz opera rock, with an intense rithm. Pay attention to the excellent bass textures and trumpets variations. It's the best track of the album, 20 mins of visceral rithmic song ! Iss Lansei Doia, track 2, is a jazz-prog track. Very interesting, almost as good as Riah, the "odd voice" in the middle of the song is sensational, the drums variations are incredible, very good track... The last one is not as good as the rest, but a weel done jazzy composition. Good piano and bass. The album is an essential Magma work, it's not comparable to MDK, it's another "voyage". But if you like the dark, intense, jazzy and misterious song of Magma, try 1001 Degrees Centigrades....

First, let me say that that is "3 stars" compared to OTHER Magma releases. Anyway--this is a great album. It's still very early in there career, so it gives you a good chance to hear how they evolved, but you can definitely hear where they wanted to go. Unlike their first release, the songs here are the longer, album-side cuts you expect from this band, but it still relies a lot on horns and more straight arrangements like the original release (one thing I like is that Vander's dreaded weapon of repitition is not really used much in this recording). Expect a great listen!

This is Magma's second album, and it's a major improvement from their first "Magma/Kobaïa", which in my opinion felt immature, with rather forced compostions.

This album features only three (but very strong) tracks penned by Vander, Lasry and Cahen. The music is here developing in the direction towards the trancelike minimalist intensity of MDK and Köhntarkösz, but it hovers close to groups like Soft Machine, with tight slick soprano sax jazzy parts. The musicians are of course very tight and impressive, and the intensity is quite controlled.

The concept of this album continues from the first one; a spaceship of Kobaïans travel to planet Earth to tell the Earthmen of the wonders and spirituality of their homeplanet, but they are captured and thrown into prison. The Kobaïans nevertheless manage to send a message to their homeplanet of their capture, and Earth get the message from Kobaïa: release our fellow men or we will use our great destruction weapon STÖAH on you.

This album is a must-have for all Magma fans!

The first two Magma albums are frequently regarded by Magma-philes as "apprentice" albums. While this is very true of their debut, 1001 DEGREES CENTIGRADE is a must-have for those who have fallen for MDK and MAGMA LIVE.

Sometime just prior to the composition of this album, Christian Vander seems to have discovered Stravinsky's LES NOCES and set out to write his own version for jazz-rock band. The 20+ minute composition "Riah Sahiltaahk" that kicks this album off is an inexhaustible fount of infectious martial melodies and moments of heart-stopping drama. The result is like nothing else in Vander's catalog -- there is far less repetition and structure than in later works (although parts of WURDAH ITAH hearken back to this style). The album is rounded out by two fine compositions from other band members, but, frankly, I hardly ever play them. "Riah Sahiltaahk" is worth the price of admission.

Before the glorious masterpieces in 1973's _Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh_, _Wurdah Itah_ and _Kohntarkosz_ (both from 1974), there was 1971's _1,001 Centigrades_, Magma's second album (also known as Magma 2.) While it doesn't seem to get as much attention and respect as the aforementioned classics, I strongly feel it's a Magma jewel right up there with the other three. It consists of three extended tracks, and is arguably more jazz-oriented than the aforementioned albums. To try to enhance my point - there are no guitars used on this album, and if there are any, they are buried in the background of the dominating instruments: piano, clarinet, bass, sax, drums and other assorted woodwind instruments. This is a unique blend of jazz, modern classical, funk and rock -- served the way only Magma could. Not as droning or oceanic as _Kohntarkosz_, and not as grand or Wagnerian as _Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh_, this album is perhaps more rhythmically energetic and accentuated (if this term can be applied to Magma.)

The centerpiece of this album is without a doubt, the 21-minute "Riah Sahiltaahk." Written by composer/bandleader/drummer Christian Vander, it is an addictive, scrumptious, exotic, regal and multi-faceted monster exhibiting traces of R&B, funk and African percussional sounds mixed with the highly accentuated jazz aesthetic. It features everything here: harmonic complexity, odd, mind-teasing rhythmical ideas which manage to sound as tasty as they are involved, regal, frightening (and strangely hilarious) vocal chants, tasty basslines -- it has it all, and the tasteful, creative motifs and ideas continually gush forth within it's long playing time. Even in parts when the complex harmonic qualities would overshadow the melody, there are parts where the track is piercingly melodic, but it's a "regal" kind of melodic. This track is so good, it feels like it ends all too quickly. Say anything you want about Magma, but you could never accuse them of being without taste: their music is jam-packed with tasty goodies. This track is a prime example.

The other two tracks: the proto-Henry Cow-ish "Iss Lansei Doia" and "Ki Iahl O Liahk" are good, and exhibit interesting harmonic qualities, but I rarely listen to them. This probably only stems from the fact that they follow the monster above. But, nevertheless, they are still worthwhile tracks.

If you are a Magma fan, or a fan of tasty avant/jazz/rock, don't make the mistake of passing this one by. I strongly urge you to grab it while you can. It's loaded with goodies.

This review is not for the music of Magma, which at worst is fascinating and close to spectacular, but about these particular releases that Amazon INCORRECTLY has listed as follows:

"Available again at a new low price for a limited time. Digitally remastered and authorised by the group. Reissue of the veteran French prog act's 19__ album. Standard jewel case."

In fact, having purchased some of these releases, the only portion noted to be true - arguably - is the 'low price' description, as these ARE low price - for Magma releases. Unfortunately, every other aspect is false - these are simply the UNremastered, DIGIPAK Magma albums by themselves, all previously found in the Studio Zünd: 40 Ans d'Evolution box set containing every Magma release up to and including K.A. While these are the more domestic releases of choice to buy, since they are the ONLY newer European/North American releases authorized by the band, I was disappointed because I was seeking to update my older Magma CD's with deluxe remasters, and this is unfortunately not the case for these releases. The only authorized remastered Magma albums, to the best of my knowledge, are actually featured in a Japanese box set whose release corresponded with that of Studio Zünd in Europe. The Japanese box is Disk Union/SHM, the packaging is a box with two smaller boxes inside housing 'mini-LP' sleeves, and the quality of sound FAR surpasses any other Magma release to buy. Unfortunately, most of us who cannot afford $30 per import or $600 for the hard-to-find box will sadly be waiting longer still for an affordable collection of Magma's fabulous discography that does the music true justice.

"1,001 Degrees of Centigrade is SUCH a drastically different form of music compared to everything else out there, and that's not the only weird album Magma made either (check out their most popular "Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh" album for more or less the same exact *highly* bizarre style of constantly sung brief operatic chants that's featured on "1,001 Degrees of Centigrade").

The album begins with the 20-some minute "Rïah Sahïltaahk" epic. Yes, this track most certainly *is* epic. It's constructed in similar fashion as the majority of "Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh" with results just as memorable, chaotic, and well, just flat out STRANGE!

If you've ever read my review for "Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh", you'll know that I really have no idea how to interpret the music of Magma. It's so highly original and unique compared to absolutely *anything* else out there (both rock artists and opera musicians) that finding the right words to describe them is a pretty tough job.

They definitely have a distinct operatic vocal style. It's not anything like the band Queen for instance. It's just... very weird.

The fact they utilize their operatic style for the ENTIRE DURATION of their songs is another thing that's completely amazing. They don't let up at all- it's one vocal chant immediately leading into another (different) one, and this formula keeps going until the album finally reaches its conclusion. Weird, but absolutely cool too.

"1,001 Degrees Centigrades," also known as "Magma 2," is a great album, but not always in the way that Magma is normally (?) considered great. It's obvious that this is a transitional album; the style is mostly jazz, but you can hear stretches of the famous Magma "zeuhl" breaking through. Alas, no lyrics are included, which I found to be a handicap, but the vocals are not as drowned out as they are on "MDK." However, there -is- a poem in Kobaian included, with a French translation...probably the closest we'll ever get to a Kobaian Rosetta Stone!
The longest track, "Riah Sahiltaahk," follows the Kobaian storyline begun on the first album, and is fun to listen to. It includes some pretty odd sound effects as well. I'm not sure how the other two tracks, "'Iss' Lansei Doia" and "Ki Iahl O Liahk," fit into the Kobaian universe (other than the language, of course), but they are packed with tasty jazz licks (again, with a little "zeuhl" here and there) which actually seem to prefigure those of smooth-jazz ensembles such as Spiro Gyra. I actually like "Ki Iahl O Liahk" the best of the three right now, but time and repeated listening could change that.
Some people may actually find the music on "1,001 Degrees Centigrade" to be more accessible than Magma's later "classic" works; others may sniff at it as "pedestrian." I see it as Magma in transition, and that's good enough for me!

As on the first record, horns and horn arrangements are a prominent characteristic here, though on subsequent Magma works the instrumentation leans towards more rock conventional and the vocals become more densely layered. The music here is generally likeable and well-constructed, and unusual. This one doesn't necessarily transcend the progressive rock genre, but is more an artifact that fans of that genre can easily appreciate and assimilate.