Customer Reviews

Live 1975

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2 star:		(1)
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'Magma Live' comes in two editions: this single CD compilation, and a double CD version, also available on Amazon at the time of writing. For some unexplained reason, the sound quality on the single CD is not as clear.

I saw them in concert in 1974 in the Jannik Top era. Unbelievably, they performed at my Northamptonshire school, and it was one of the most incredible things I've seen. But for me, Magma's masterpiece is the studio album, 'Mekanik Destructiw Kommandoh'.

Rather like Van Der Graaf Generator, Magma went through several incarnations and could sound very different from one album to the next. And rather like VDGG, the band also employed a violinist for a while. The violin is not one of my favourite rock instruments, and I don't feel it enhances this recording.

Magma were a gloriously French band. An English prog group like Yes might toy with a concept, make an album out of it and then discard it, due to a limited attention span. But the idealist Christian Vander went the whole hog with his spiritual/ecological vision, inventing an entire language to describe this odyssey over the course of many albums.

Magma were a wonderful band that made the world a better place for having existed. Snooker World Champion Steve Davis liked them so much that in the 1980s he paid for them to reform and perform a one-off gig in London.

This album is a fair sampler of Magma's 70s output, but it isn't a greatest hits package.

This is a musical experience that reaches levels of musical sublimity and spiritual intensity unreachable to lesser bands. And this is the definitive live Magma document in full-on zeuhl mode. Zeuhl, for the uninitiated, is a complex blend of rock, jazz, and classical/opera, where forceful chants constitute the primary melodic device and the basic compositional structures (usually established as chordal motifs on electric keyboards) are highly repetitive but subject to extensive rhythmic and harmonic variation. Bass guitar is heavy and growling, and the drumming of Christian Vander is astonishing.

While deeply entrenched in Vander's zeuhl vision, this album is also a sort of throwback to their earlier jazz-rock beginnings. The band pours forth their fusion chops with even more passion than their spirited early days. The electric keys and violin are quite fusion-esque at times, not to mention Christian Vander is kind of like France's version of Billy Cobham at times. At this point, Vander's musical vision had been more unified and better absorbed by Magma's musicians, and the results are more musically successful. The lineup is three vocalists, guitar, bass, two keyboards, drums & percussion, and Didier Lockwood's spellbinding violin. All involved are uniformly outstanding, but special mention has to go to that violin, since a) Magma isn't a big violin band, for the most part, and b) the violin on this album is nuts.

The live version here of the major composition "Kohntarkosz" (here called "Kohntark") is the main course of disc one. It is a startling, powerful rendition and _definitely_ worth hearing for lovers of the studio version. (One problem: Because of the limitations of vinyl for the original release, the 30-minute "Kohntark" is split into two halves. This kills its momentum when it goes silent between the two. Very annoying.) Lockwood's violin adds _lots_ to this piece, but there are other differences found deeper. There's a mad jazz-rock freakout at the end of it all, too. Another huge composition appears at the end of disc two, the euphoric "Mekanik Zain". These are the highpoints of both cds, but the shorter pieces are also great, from the shimmering, blissful "Lihns" to the meticulous, tense minimalism of "Emehnteht-Re".

To those unfamiliar with Magma, it can be a disconcerting experience because the music is very different. And Vander's passion approaches religious zeal which some people think is just pretentious. But whatever! Vander is one of the true originals of the 20th century, and Magma is one of the greatest bands -- they reward being heard. Those new to Magma should definitely make this their first purchase.

Magma is an incredible French band that made a very unique contribution to progressive rock - in the words of drummer extraordinaire Bill Bruford, "Magma turned heads". One pass through this stunning live recording from concerts held at the Taverne de L'Olympia between June 1 and June 5, 1975 made me understand why - this stuff is intense. Surprisingly though, this music is not as alien as one might think. In fact, the album opens with a somewhat familiar introductory fanfare that would not have been out of place on a Mahavishnu Orchestra album (Birds of Fire from 1973 comes to mind). I suppose shades of mid-1970's King Crimson are present too, although the music of Magma is just so different that drawing parallels with other bands would ultimately diminish it.

The lineup on this album is complex and huge and consisted of bandleader/chief composer and incredible drummer Christian Vander; the remarkable Bernard Paganotti (electric bass guitar); Didier Lockwood (violin); Benoit Weidmann (electric piano); Gabriel Federow (electric guitar); Klaus Blasquix (vocals); Stella Vander (vocals); and Jean-Paul Asseline (electric piano). At the very heart of this album are monolithic slabs of thunderous drumming and excellent bass playing by Bernard Paganotti. Bernard favors a heavily distorted tone on his Fender - much like the tone John Wetton (of King Crimson) would get. There are moments when he hits what sounds like a low "B" - I am not sure if this is different tuning or a five string bass. Bernard and Christian really lead the band and atop this heavy, dark and roiling mass of sound are pleasant violin parts and clean sounding guitar parts. The electric piano fleshes the overall sound out and lends it a somewhat jazzy feel - not too much though. The vocals are what really give this music an alien feel - they are presented in a very unusual fashion and the lyrics are sung entirely in Kobaian (sic). Although there are points when the vocals lapse into a rasping growl, the sections that feature Klaus and Stella singing together are very delicate - the contrast is impressive. All of these musicians are virtuosos and when the band gets going full steam, things really cook.

Musically this album is a toughie - I hear a lot of progressive rock, with some jazz rock, free jazz, post-war classical (Carl Orff), the avant -garde. In short, this is daunting music not for the faint hearted. The five tracks on the album range in length from 4'53" to the massive 31'00 Kohntark suite which is an amazing piece of music. I believe that this lengthy track was originally presented on the studio album Kohntarkosz (1974) (and it was 30 minutes long on the studio album too). There are some excellent rave ups that remind me of King Crimson (circa 1974) at their heaviest. Of course, there are some quiet moments and somewhat melodic tunes on the album too (Kobah is a lot of fun) that present a nice contrast with the heavier material. In short, the performances on this live album are breathtaking and this music is simply amazing!

While this CD replicates the LP track listing (yet combines the two part Kohntark) there is a 2-CD set out there that includes extra tracks, but the sound quality is supposedly not that good. The sound quality on this Charly release is pretty good (most likely taken directly from the mixing boards) and the audience is all but mixed out with the exception of a few track endings where the audience can be heard briefly. In fact, this is more like a studio album than a live album. There is a very skimpy booklet that lists the lineup and track listing but that is about it - there are no informative liner notes.

All in all, this is an amazing album that is very highly recommended along with Udu Wudu (1976) and Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh (1973).

Magma is not an easy band to describe to people. in fact, i feel like the term "band" is not adequate and is misleading. the same goes for labels and genres like "prog" or "fusion." sure, there are plenty of those styles represented within Magma's core sound; and their influences are easily felt in their music. but Magma, to me, are a force...a gigantic, almost monsterous presence that cannot be ignored. their sound is huge and massive, filled with moments of terror and beauty. stark minimal rhythms give way to colourful audio explosions, drenched with harmonious voices and thundering bass and guitar. and the drums...wow. well, the drumming is just brilliant. this French group has enjoyed legendary status for decades, and has been highly influential (spawing many Zuehl obsessed bands...Ruins, Guapo, The Flying Luttenbachers...just to name a few), but yet their overall appeal is quite limited. probably due in no small part to their choice of language to sing in (a language called Kobian, which Christian Vander, drummer and mastermind behind Magma, has invented in order to explain the concepts behind his group's music and lyrical stance). there pieces are long and full of complexities and brilliant twists and turns...dark, treacherous, disonant avant-prog with intense crescendoes that bubble and boil with an electrifying power and joy that is both familiar and strangely alien to the senses.

this live document is a testament to the band's incredible power in a concert setting. i once heard that their performance made Frank Zappa so impressed and so awed that he couldn't take the stage after their show. i'm not sure if that's a certified fact, but after hearing this cd, it's not difficult to imagine being true.

This is surely one of the greatest live concerts ever recorded, up there with the MC5's "Kick Out the Jams" in terms of sheer intensity. But Magma is a band unlike any other, a French proto-Wagnerian juggernaut that combines the mystic chanting of Karl Orff with the classical complexity of Stravinsky, and the sheer volume and instrumental expertise of the Mahavishnu Orchestra at its prime. Though this was recorded in the 1970's it still thrills today. It's live version of Kohntark is a killer, with the first 16 minutes gradually building in intensity until the band cuts loose form all moorings and goes berserk, with maniac solos from violinst Didier Lockwood and bassist Bernard Paganotti, and a final burst of huge choral chanting and the astonishing drumming of founder Christian Vander. This composition is simply breath-taking. Version of Hhai, Lihns and Kobah follow, each with its own pleasures, from the invocation of Hhai to the gentle and charming Lihns. The CD closes with the composition Mekanik Zain, which is taken from the longer compositon Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh, still a stalwart composition in the Magma repertoire today. Toward the end, it is not possible for humans to sing that fast and that hard for that long; having seen this live in concert, they do, and Stella Vander still leads the choral contingent today, nearly 30 (!) years after this was recorded. This record is so blisteringly intense it will peel the paint from your walls.

There are certain albums that transcend things like labels, or catagories, or even time and place. For me, MAGMA LIVE is one of those albums. I have most the MAGMA albums, from their second album (1001 degrees centigrade) up to ATTAKH. All of them are superb. Naturally, if you read the reviews, you find that EVERYBODY considers M.D.K. Magma's masterpiece, and rightly so. MAGMA LIVE contains live versions of basically two albums, KOHNTARKOSZ, which is the album after MDK, and also, MDK. I was told to buy the two CD version of this LIVE album, for the extra tracks. At the time had I known the LIVE version was available WITHOUT the extra tracks, I would have opted for it. WHAT A MISTAKE THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN!!! You see, the great song on this live album, is the one which gives the live version of most of MDK album. (The last song, known as "MeKanik Zain", which is nearly 20 minutes long.) The EXTENDED LIVE 2CD SET, has a nearly 7 minute piece of music, that precedes the "MeKanik Zain" song, known as "Da Zeuhl Wortz Mekanik". The two songs, are NOT DIFFERENT SONGS, but one LONG SONG, off the MDK album. They must be listened to together. If you enjoy this band, if you love MDK, or just if you love music, then get the extended version. VANDER would never have edited the first part of "Mekanik Zain", except this was obviously released first as a vinyl record, and you cant have 27 minutes of DEEP BASS on one side of vinyl. He corrected it, when he released this live album on his own label (SEVENTH RECORDS), as a 2 CD set. If you don't know MAGMA's sound, you will hear people talk of opera, classical music, jazz, prog, Zeuhl music, etc. I like to see it as TWO PIANOS, and TWO DRUMMERS (the piano is a percussion instrument, and never is that more driven home than in this live album.) Also, a phenominal BASS player, a violinist, a guitarist, and a choir. Dont let the insturmentation scare you, cos the whole is much greater than the parts its made of. I would think that if you could really hear all the music going on, your brain would erupt like Mt. Saint Helens. This entire concert, which is complete on the 2 CD version, keeps piling up steam, gathering momentum, until you get to the last two songs. Naturally, that being the case, you dont want a version of this album, that cuts off the 7 minute into, of the concert's pay off. I have a confession. This is embarrassing, but i've listened to this album, and ended up crying, really letting go too, at the ineffable beauty of the last song. No, it doesnt happen EVERY time I listen to it. Are we always open to a "PEAK EXPERIENCE"? No. This last section of music certainly delivered to me that day. My artistic experiencec derived from the musical and rythymic complexity of the peice, and its interlocked parts. Or so I guess. While listening to the second CD of the extended LIVE album (which is the better part of the concert), the basic themes from MDK started to resound, starting with "Da Zeuhl Wortz Mekanik". I was LISTENING, totally engrossed. The two keyboards were drawing me in, the interlocking vocal parts, the trance inducing rhythms of the drums and the bass player, and the depth from the other instruments. More than anything, the ENERGY, the DRIVE, since the piece is played with a faster tempo than the studio album. AND it just took me somewhere......incredible. The energy just BUILDS and BUILDS and BUILDS, until you reach a little legato section, where you take a breath. THEN, it starts up again, with the MOST INTENSE MUSIC I HAVE EVER HEARD. This intensity goes on for about the last 10 minutes of the last song. By the end, those singers are vocalizing faster, than what is humanly possible to reproduce. Those imaginary words, nailed onto notes of such rapidity, dazzles. The song reaches a final crescendo, and SILENCE. You can hear an enraptured audience take a DEEP breath in, pierced by one or two audience members letting out screams of delight. Then, a surprise occurs. Your ears get assaulted with the most INTENSE CRESCENDO ever recorded...I'm serious. IT only lasts the last minute of this concert, but its like you are placed next to a space ship blasting off into space. That coda is PURE SOUND. When it finally DOES end, the audience just SCREAMS. I just cried. This is without a doubt, the most intense music I own. The world mankind has created, can often be ugly, cruel, and bitter. This live album is a wonderful tonic, for the horrors of the mundane, daily existence. Isnt that what we all are looking for? I'm just grateful I was able to HEAR this album, and that I got the LONG version, so I could totally enjoy that last song. Sadly, the edits done on the SINGLE DISC version, removes the part of this monumental song, the slower intro, that leads to this incredible crescendo, that ends the concert and the album. Their is ONE SONG edited out of the first CD on this live album, EMEHNTEHT-RE, which is 8 minutes long. The second CD, removes KOBAH (6:23 minutes long) and the aformentioned opening to the magnum opus, called DA ZEUHL WORTZ MEKANIK, which is 6:25 minutes long. So yes, you will pay a bit more, maybe a lot more, to get the complete release. However, ask yourself, would Beethoven's 5th symphony make sense, if you ONLY heard the last movement? So, altho I would want to give this CD at least 6 stars (big stars too...blue giants perhaps) i honestly have to dock a star, because of the edit. I would NEVER do that, unless it ruined a large part of the effect of the live concert, and believe me, it does. I have nothing against the music imprint CHARLEY. They are a good, inexpensive British company, that makes a lot of prog classics afordable. I like their gatefold CDs. BUT if you ever splurge for something, get the LIVE MAGMA album, that SEVENTH RECORDS puts out. (This is VANDER's own imprint, as already mentioned, and is produced in France.) The audio quality is clearer on the SEVENTH RECORDS edition as well. And, a final plea, can be that this is the version the COMPOSER/LEADER of MAGMA prefers, since his record imprint produced it.
If you must "test the waters" of Magma, and you dont have much money, just go ahead and buy this CHARLEY one CD version. I know this music is pricey, but here is one instance, where you get what you pay for.

Let's get down to business. I am French-American and a drummer. I cannot stop raving about this band and this excellent Live Recording. I have seen Magma in the late 70's in a High School Hall in Meaux (East suburb of Paris) and they were fantastic because Magma excels in concerts. Christian Vander, Magma's drummer and band founder is the primary composer and if you are a musician or just love music, you can tell right away that every sound, tempo, bridge, rhythm in Magma's songs have that drummer's instinct, which is to attack and strike. Magma is an "attack" band. The crescendos are planted all over their songs like reference points into unknown paths. With Magma, you don't know where you are going. Magma's music transports you in an indefinable dimension. Their language can't even be translated unless you ask Vander himself to tell you. Vander is a wild cat and still plays in a Jazz Trio. In the 70's I knew someone in Paris who was taking drum lessons from Christian Vander (teacher) and what he told me about Vander is that he was a very strange, very strict and very demanding fellow. I own this double LP released in 1975. When you listen to any song from this live album recorded in Paris at "La Taverne de L'Olympia," you can't tell if you are listening to jazz, rock, fusion, opera or avant-garde rock. You just have to tell yourself that you are going into unparalleled territory. Just as Frank Zappa's music could not be understood and was unparalleled, Magma cannot be labeled with music types. It's mysterious, riveting, confusing, engaging, exciting, invigorating, subliminal, and putting it simply, it's crazy stuff. Enjoy!

How such angular attacks of harmonic ambition are pulled off live is a continuous marvel to behold, injecting even more eerie energy into the lead-off focal point Kohntarkosz, and matching the profound fluidity in spades on shorter counterparts (of which the 18 minute closer gives a close run in epic form).

Some bands are just content to create their own sound. These guys create their own language.

Magma sings that language over a mixture of Bitches Brew style jazz and a modern orchestral sound. There are highly organized, highly climatic sections of these tightly arranged scores, but there are also long passages of improvosation. The arangements make quick changes, and are always extremely complex and dynamic

At no time is Magma's languge a gimmic. It is sophistcated, and works perfectly over this complex music. The work is truely origional, and is never boring. I have been listening to progressive rock for years, and have never heard a permutation of the genre like this.

Most strongly recommended.

On the contrary of some amazon.com american reviwers, who obviously don't know what tey're talking about, we are in the presence of a great european band. This record stands alone for it's music, and becomes even more intersting in the Magma context. Maybe our american reviewer "grew up in the 1960s's" is not familiar with a culture with no censorship. I remind him that unlike the USA in europe there are no fascist regimes.