RETROSPEKTÏẁ I-II

This double live album takes us back to June 1980 in Paris, France where MAGMA were performing a reunion concert. They played three nights. Two thirds of the "Theusz Hamtaahk" trilogy have been included, in fact the first self-titled movement had never (at that time) been on any of their recordings until this one. The second album consists of the third part of the trilogy "MDK" the self titled track from that famous record. This song is different from the original in that there are synths in place of horns and we also get some great violin from Lockwood.

"Theusz Hamtaahk" opens with fast paced vocals and outburts of drums. When they settle the crowd roars it's approval. Faint vocals start to build and it kicks in before 3 1/2 minutes. It settles again as female vocals come in. Nice.The tempo continues to shift. Keyboards after 6 minutes start an excellent instrumental section until about 10 minutes in. Amazing sound and rhythm here. Love the bass from Paganotti. I should mention that Gauthier and Widemann are both playing keyboards on this double album. Blasquiz and Stella are helped by four other vocalists including Christian Vander of course. Check out the nasty,growly bass 17 minutes in ! Things get a little crazy after 22 minutes followed by some equally crazy vocals. Spoken words 26 1/2 minutes in as we get some atmosphere until it kicks back in before 31 minutes. Applause after 32 1/2 minutes is interupted by waves of synths, some screams and all around freaky stuff.

"Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh" opens with keyboards as female vocal melodies sing over top. Bass and drums take over as the crowd cheers. Spoken words join in. Male vocals come and go along with the female ones. Prominant guitar after 7 minutes. The drumming is incredible before 11 minutes. Piano follows. It settles 13 1/2 minutes in. Christian comes in vocally as it kicks back in. Check out the filthy bass solo after 22 1/2 minutes ! The song kicks in after 26 1/2 minutes with piano and drums as bass continues to dig deep. Violin joins in as Lockwood ends up taking over. What a display he puts on ! He ends it around 33 minutes. Amazing ! Female vocals come in as bass, keyboards and drums lead the way. Intense. Drums and guitar before 34 1/2 minutes impress. That repetitive rhythm continues until about 36 minutes in when it changes. Guitar lights it up briefly after 37 minutes.

A must for MAGMA fans out there.

My own belated initiation to the alternate universe of Magma came in the late 1990s, with the blind purchase (on vinyl!) of the band's 1975 "Live/Hhaï" double disc, generally regarded as the ideal point of entry for aspiring Magma novices. But this more recent (and likewise live) album, from a June 1980 reunion gig in Paris, may in fact be even better, presenting vivid sound quality, inspired performances, and a choice of material taking full advantage of compact disc technology: fitting two long, uninterrupted songs on a single CD.

Each is an album all by itself, the back-stories of which can be found in other, better informed reviews here at Prog Archives. "Theusz Hamtaahk" is a relentless, hypnotic anthem for marauding alien armies, building in lock-step intensity for over 22-minutes before shifting suddenly into a more up-tempo but equally energetic vocal interlude lasting another quarter-hour, with the trademark Magma chants and harmonies interweaving and overlapping like perfectly meshed, pan-galactic gears.

And there's even more drama waiting in the opening chords of "Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh": a truly awesome introduction to an obvious fan favorite, judging from the rightfully ecstatic audience reaction. The entire 1973 album is presented in all its widescreen fury and grandeur, clocking in at a full 40-minutes, without a wasted moment among them (I'm assuming the quick fade to Bernard Paganotti's juggernaut bass guitar solo, near the mid-point of the opus, marked the vinyl transition between sides three and four of the original twin-LP release).

Over the epic length of each track there isn't a single instrumental break or vocal cue left to chance. And yet the entire set flows with astonishing grace and precision, albeit more powerful at times than a cresting sheet-metal tsunami. The remarkable, near telepathic synchronicity is all the more impressive when you consider how crowded the stage must have been: a total of twelve performers were needed to effectively render 'MDK', all playing and singing simultaneously.

I just now noticed the frequency in this review of superlative adjectives: remarkable, astonishing, awesome and so forth. Hard to avoid when writing about this band, but employed here without a trace of hyperbole. In deference to the Prog Archives guidelines I considered holding my rating down to four enthusiastic stars, but this one album captures the Magma sound so flawlessly that it easily wins a full five-star rave.

Another excellent live Magma album, this time presenting Theusz Hamtaahk and Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh in versions performed at a reunion concert in 1980. The style of the performance is very much in the mode of the classic Magma sound of the mid-1970s - the funk experiments of Attahk are not in evidence here - and the sound quality is decent, though as far as live performances of Theusz Hamtaahk go I don't think this one quite beats the BBC 1974 performance. Still, this is a great little introduction to Magma, and if you don't already own Theusz Hamtaahk on one or another of its renditions it's as good a pick as any.

You've probably heard the story before: Magma is a tough band to swallow at first. I've had a hard time trying to "get" their music. My first album of theirs was Mekanik Destructiw Kommandoh and, to be honest, I didn't understand what was happening. The vocals were too grating, the beat was too repetitive and the music sounded too chaotic. Magma scared me. It took me a lot of time to understand what they were doing, years, to be a bit more precise. But one day it clicked. I don't know how to explain it. One day I played it and it all made sense. The jazz-rock, that I didn't even realized at first because of the shock of all the music, grooved throughout the whole album and I was chanting gibberish and dancing all the way until the end. The chaos in their sound started to take form and everything, even the vocals, were necessary for it to click. The repetition made it all more intense and engaging (it'll grab you, alright, and it won't let you go.) Before I knew it I was downloading albums like crazy. I was hooked on Magma like a junkie. To be fair, some albums weren't as good, but I still went through.

But if you, reader, want to get into Magma, don't do as I did, don't start with MDK. Heck! Start with K.A., since everything sounds so crisp, pounding, aggressive compared to the studio version of MDK. But if you really want to know what all the MDK fuss is about, then you should do yourself a favor a get this live album. MDK is a beast! For starters, the studio version of MDK gives more importance to the orchestration and it drowns the sound of the band. In Retrospektiw the sound is evenly balanced. The rhythm section, which is the driving force behind Magma, sounds crystal clear and up front. This is the important thing here and it does make a difference, since THEY are the band, not the orchestra. The music sounds more organic and less polished, though not less tight. Magma needs to sound gritty for it to be effective. The other composition, Theusz Hamtaahk, is no less interesting, though it is a bit less explosive. The middle section of Theusz will put you in a trance and you'll end up nodding your head without even knowing it.

All in all, this live album is a must for Magma fans and for people trying to get into 70's Magma. Considering that you're knowing what you're getting yourself into, this album will deliver, and how it delivers!

4.5, but I'd rather give it a 5 than a 4. It deserves it, and you deserve this album, too.