Magma

Your son will be 'initiated'. This will be his moment of profound revelation.
.......or he will be knocked-out by Vander's playing
You guys are fortunate. Can't see Magma playing Down Under anytime soon.

Taking both daughters to see them next Saturday.

Thanks for the replies.

Tom, at times Vander’s drumming does have a military sound. I’m not fond of that aspect of his drumming and prefer the other stuff he does. For instance I’ve been meaning to mention that I like the Santana-ish sound at the beginning of Kobaia and how he does it for punctuation and dramatic effects in that song and others.

Jaz, I saw the little Nazi signs in the cover design, and I thought, as you pointed out, that the artwork was depicting the destruction of the earth because of all the bad stuff that was happening on it. (one of the bad things being Nazism)

I suppose in the early 70s a group singing in a strange language that looked/sounded like German and dressed in black with a logo on their shirts would be scary and unusual to people. Though I don’t think the logo itself looks anything Nazi-like. I think it looks sci-fi. As you say, people didn’t understand what the band was about and misinterpreting things.

I’ve read that Vander is a fan of and influenced by John Coltrane. I wouldn’t think that a Nazi white supremacist would be a fan of John Coltrane. I can’t imagine why he’d do an interview for a white supremacist publication. That was a bad idea.

Getting back to the Magma logo emblem and first cover design, that is interesting what Hellogoodbye posted. I had wondered if the bird claw on the first album cover was what the logo emblem was supposed to resemble. But now Vander explained that it isn’t bird related. I wonder what the bird claw represents? The fingers of the claw look like molten magma sprawling out. It looks like smoke at the top. Could it be a volcano with lava coming down? Is this volcano claw there to put an end to the bad thing things happening on Earth? Another thing the smoke top and claw reminds me of is a nuclear blast cloud. Though I don’t think that is what it is.

these rumors about him being a hitler fan are all well known for years.  I mean just look at him in the 1970 video of them miming to Stoah, hes really just copying hitler's mannerisms.  Honestly, i think he was just fascinated by the power/emotion of the guy as opposed to his ethics and wanted to capture that raw emotion when he sings.

I'm seeing them a week from today.  I'm really excited.  I'm not an afficionado, but everything I've heard I've liked.  I'm trying to delve into their catalog as much as possible without overloading my brain. 

When I start getting into a new band, I'll typically listen to a couple records, and if one of them really grabs me, I'll listen to it repeatedly before going back to previous ones I've listened to or venturing on to new ones.  I used to get multiple records/CD's at once and binge listen, and that ended up leaving me confused, as I wasn't able to connect the music to specific albums or time periods, as it was just a jumbled mess in my brain.  Digital music buying has kind of wrecked that experience of picking up an album and absorbing it (artwork, lyrics and all), as we can now oversaturate ourselves with music.  Off topic, I know, but I think Magma are a band that deserve a more constructive first time listening experience.

I really love the Univeria Zekt album, and the Lockwood/Top/Vander/Widemann 'Fusion' album (from 1981).
I have not known anyone to have Francis Moze's solo album.

Others influences : 

Edited by Jaz - April 05 2015 at 01:41

Who knows, Qui sait helloggodbye !

Edited by Jaz - April 05 2015 at 06:40

One of the most Magma like track from OFFERING I-II.

Here the last Christian Vander interview (in English !)

Edited by Jaz - April 06 2015 at 02:40