THE MAGUS

Listening to this album and then have write a review of this album makes me sweat blood. Neither of Universal Totem Orchestra's two albums is easy listening albums. Magus is one heck off a cookie. Where do I start ?

The opening track De Astrologia goes down the Magma route like the Paris to Lyon fast train. Some good themes along the way and this is really superb. All twenty minutes of it. Excellent female vocals.

From here on in, the music takes a much more neo-jazz classical route. The hardcore zeuhl has gone. Is this still the Magus album ? Well, Ana Torres Fraile's superb female vocals is still here. The result is a bit of a lounge jazz. Great, but not expected from this band. They returns to the zeuhl genre and some more Magma adoration at the final three songs though.

I very much prefer Magus when it is a zeuhl album. But the jazzy parts is also very good. This album has a lot of different spices and flavours though. Something that this genre really needs sometimes. I am a fan of both of Universal Totem Orchestra's two albums and I hope we will get more albums from them.

This album is recommended. But be prepared to take some time over it because easy listening, it is not.

4 stars