Prog Disco (2)

Magma, for sure ... and I love Cos. 

I was just thinking about doing a poll with Cos' Greeneldo as another disco one, but thought I should search first.... I missed this before.

I'm guessing that the poll question is which do you like more, but then I would have thought the Cos would be doing better. I think that it's an excellent track, and I love Cos and I love Babel. I mean, I perversely enjoy Call From the Dark, but I'm surprised that it's got three times as many votes as the Cos (which is only two votes difference, but still...).

I vote for Greeneldo very easily as my favourite of these.

I do get a kick out of the "Ooh, Ooh Baby" song, it does amuse me, and think more highly of Merci on the whole than most (even if I only really love the last two tracks). I can imagine how many people would turn off that album before even getting through that track -- it's such an oddity for Magma.

I prefer the version of "Call From the Dark" called "Love in the Darkness" done by Offering. It's still not a fave of mine off of Offering I, which is a much better album than Merci to me.



Edited by Logan - May 11 2017 at 12:31

I must've missed this somehow and what a shame seeing as it is one of the only times I've come across Greeneldo in a poll
Which incidentally also is where my vote went. I love COS. Their first three records should be mandatory amongst Canterbury fans.

^ i agree. I love Magma but Merci is a trainwreck of magma-nanimous proportions! Cos did a better job

Mortte wrote: That Cos was horrible! When first time listened Merci, I was suprised it wasn´t as bad as it has said to be. So Magma.

I find myself agreeing with you a lot, but not this time. I was also pleasantly surprised with Merci, but it’s the B side that I particularly like (especially Eliphas Levi and the Night We Died). The opening “Ooh ooh baby” track is a fun slice of disco-y cheese, and does have complexity, and I get a kick out of it for its uniqueness in Magma’s repertoire — been thinking about doing a topic on band’s least representative music and that would score high on that front — but it is not nearly so good for my ears as “Greeneldo”. While the first two COS album are much more lauded than Babel (Viva Boma being particularly acclaimed ) and I love those and can understand why, I adore those plus Babel (I like a lot of early Euro-Disco). Pascale Son is one of my favourite vocalists, but I get that she wouldn’t be to every one’s taste. Anyway, despite your strong negative reaction towards Grreneldo, if you don’t know the earlier COS albums yet, I do suggest checking them out. It’s one of my absolute favourite bands. Perhaps I wouldn’t have enjoyed Babel so much had I not already been familiar with the band. While I love all of Babel,, some early faves from it for me were “Mein Maschine Ist Schön”, the short “Oostend, Oostend” as well as the opener.

^ Did you vote?

Maybe that was included in one of the other polls of this series. I like this (recall Automat making the series before).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-4_2NMGfxg

And love Tenebre by Goblin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO5DnxR3nb8

I made a Disco Appreciation thread in January, I can't recall you mentioning it there. If you didn't, perhaps you would. http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=112593

{EDIT: Had a look through the series and didn't notice the Mother Gong song -- I think that would have paired nicely with one off one of the Disco series poll, Can's I Want More. I'm so tempted to do that poll, but I would much rather Meltdowner continue his series. Perhaps since this one was resuscitated all of the others in the series should be too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ2v0JBhZ9s

Back on the topic of the poll as I don't wish to hijack it, I am still surprised that the Magma is beating the Cos. Merci is commonly reviled, and I thought that song had an awful lot to do with it. Perhaps Mortte sums it up about "Greeneldo" for various people.
I think it works better as a closer for the Babel album than "Call from the Dark" does as an opener for Merci -- I long suspected that many people hated Merci because they didn't get past that song (or never listened to the B side). I appreciate Merci more than most, and am glad that it's in my collection, but it is still my least favourite of the Magma/ Offering albums.

{Second edit: Changed my embeds to hyperlinks as otherwise they can distract from any potential "Greeneldo" and "Call From the Dark" chit-chat}

Edited by Logan - March 22 2018 at 11:06