ROCK DUO »MAGMA«

The band name MAGMA has been a popular one with bands still adopting it in the 21st century even though by now it's quite obvious the most popular band with this name is the French version with Christian Zander at the helm. Apparently it wasn't so easy to find these things out back in the 1970s when a few bands found themselves with the same name. Of course the French masters of zeuhl were the first to claim this name as far back in 1969 but another band from Argentina called themselves MAGMA in 1974 and not one but two German bands did the same.

Both of these German bands formed in 1973 but the one from Stuttgart got the memo about the French band and immediately and hilariously adopted the moniker Exmagma however this band from Gelsenkirchen seems to have been oblivious to the wonderful world of zeuhl and released this sole album ROCK DUO MAGMA in 1975. Amazingly this duo existed for five years before calling it a day in 1978.

This MAGMA was nothing like the more famous band from Paris. This classically trained duo seemed to be stuck in the 60s and sounded most like Sweden's Hansson & Karlsson who are claimed to have released the very first true symphonic prog album in 1967. This MAGMA was very similar and featured Siegfried Scholz (drums, percussion, vocals) and Detlef Gehrke (piano, organ, synthesizer, vocals) and nobody else.

Apparently despite the world of progressive rock having entered its most complex and daring stage by the mid-1970s, a number of two member bands persevered despite sounding rather dated. The other German act of this ilk was the Düsseldorf based Twogether. The original 1975 vinyl release on the rare Elrec label featured seven tracks but the 2003 CD reissue on Garden of Delights added an extra five bonus tracks making the totality of MAGMA's music nearly an hour in length. Despite releasing a sole album, MAGMA was quite prolific in playing live with up to 15 performances per month around Germany and the Netherlands.

Musically this is organ based style of dark psychedelic 1960s moodiness withe the keys providing many counterpoints that included the whole spectrum of treble to bass with lots of late 60s organ sounds. It's so dated in fact that it's very difficult to believe this was recorded after 1973 because it sounds more like 1967 thus giving the entire album a rather proto-prog feel rather than anything that came out in the year 1975. This one is chock full of all those fuzzy organ sounds that made The Doors famous but sounding more like Cressida and of course an apparent direct descendent of the classic Hansson & Karlsson or the American Hardin & York.

Like all these duos, the instrumentation is very limited and to make things worse the vocals are fairly substandard, two limitations that made Hansson & Karlsson so snoozy woozy. On the positive side this music is much more energetic than its 60s influences with beefier bass grooves, excellent technical drumming and some pretty cook keyboard virtuosity. Perhaps if this had come out in 1968 it would be considered the step between Hansson & Karlsson and The Nice but given its actual date i could only consider this an example of retro music from the decade prior.

Overall this is a pleasant enough listening experience but this MAGMA is more notable for having the same name as the prog megastars that invented their own style of prog called zeuhl. Out of the three MAGMAs i've experienced this is my least favorite because even the Argentinian prog folk band sounds unique in comparison. Add to that the English lyrics are in a heavy accent and not so overly profound either. A nice historical anomaly for its time and place and worship of an era long passed but nothing that gets me overly excited either.