Magma, what's there to get :-)

I think magma is a 'love it or you hate it' kind of band. Ig you like operatic vocals and you like prog you will definately going to love Magma. I really like operatic vocals and i really like prog.. So, it was destiny :D
BUTi think you will understand Magma later. I believe you understand some bands by time. Take me with Genesis for example. I start to like them recently http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_images/post_button_underline.gif

Also it helps when you see a band live. Check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlJKKtgreqw

Check the passion!

Edited by oracus - May 25 2007 at 21:12

Logan, you have good taste!

Bluesaga wrote: I didn't like Magma at first, but back then I wasn't into much prog  that are insturmental.  Eskaton are more accessible than Magma, as is Dun's Eros, Wow, I'm such a fanboy...

Dun Eros = incredible album!!!!   I do have that one.    Talk about intense bass

I'm halfway between Eugene and the rest of the people here. Who knows, maybe if you listen to Magma once more, you will like them? But it's not like you're missing anything if you don't. Personally I don't see what the big deal about this band is. Good band, but hardly an outstanding one. I love a good musical challenge, but am yet to hear anything personally challenging about Magma. Oh, there probably are some interesting and innovative things in there from the point of view of music theory, I can't commment on or argue with that, but I believe really good music should rely on more than just theory...

MDK was my first Magma album 30 years ago and I'm still a big fan today. Like Trout Mask Replica or The Faust Tapes, it seems to be one of those albums that few people are indifferent about - for some (a definite minority) it all makes perfect sense, but for most people it makes little or no sense at all. As a couple of ther people have suggested, you could try Live:Hhai or Kohntarkohsz, which feature longer instrumental passages. 

progbaby wrote: Hi All:   Magma is a band that I've tried numerous times to "get into" but always find myself annoyed by the vocals and the (what I feel to be (but others may disagree)) "pretentious" chanting.     ...   In Magma's defense, I have to admit that I do find that I like the instrumental sections with the drum and bass guitar solos.   Magma's music tends to have good rhythm.   I'd much rather listen to an ALL instrumental Magma album but I guess there is none?   But as it stands, I fail to get past 2-3 minutes of their music as the chanting (made up Kobain language which comes across as drug-induced or perhaps maybe even pompous) and wailing of the vocalists cause to to stop listening further.    ...

Jay440 wrote: You can also find that Vander already went through a period of substance abuse from his early teen years until that day in Italy, 1968.   In between being devastated over Coltrane's death and the alcoholic stupor that he was in, he "hit bottom" as they say, and this delerium was probably the origin of the vision that he had of Earth's doom.

Really? I spent quite a bit of time on that site, but I didn't see that. In any case, that seems so fitting to me, given how much Vander's situation would then mirror that of Coltrane's (what was it for him? Heroin?).

Not to mention that, yeah, it takes a special breed of person to feel genuine grief over the loss of a person - Trane - whom he only really knew through his music.

Like someone else said, there's not much to get. I think if you ask that, you're approaching Magma from the wrong direction - that of analysis rather than that of experience. To be sure, as Magma developed, simplicity became more and more a central goal of the music. I remember reading something along the lines of Vander wanting all his melodies to be basic and enjoyable, so that people would hum them as they went about their day (and I think all zeuhl freaks do in fact hum the music). In my opinion, it's an art form that aims first to convey direct emotion - with the novel technique just being what they saw as the best way to achieve this.

In fact, I think that's why Magma got so caught up in the whole repetitive thing - the effect of that to me is to first set up a general and constant mood, and then to really emphasize the emotional changes that happen when all of a sudden the repetitive pattern is broken or subtly changed.

That said, if you really wanted to "get" Magma's music, I can think of a few places to look. The most obvious is jazz. Coltrane and later Pharoah Sanders really ran with the idea of building music on constant drones. And you can hear pretty clear echoes of Sun Ra in Magma's first recordings (actually, they directly quote a few melodies by Sun Ra, though it's always possible this as coincidental). Sh*t, I think you could go further than that, and look at Magma as modern classical music. The whole repetitive rhythm and melody thing is pretty big in the music of guys like Phillip Glass or Steve Reich. I'd say they're actually exactly the same, except that Magma has a different aesthetic due to its different instrumentation.

I personally would also really recommend you look into Offering, the jazzy side project of Christian Vander. It's the same basic idea, but the rhythm is a little freer and the harmonies are a little more ornate - and overall very pleasant. Check out the album A Fieh. I think it's the perfect balance between Vander's new style of Zeuhl and his old style of jazz.

And like someone said, attentive listening is necessary, or else it really will annoy the hell out of you.


Edited by User123abc - May 31 2007 at 17:45

I like some differant stuff but Magma were just too weird for me unfortunatly .. though I can hear they are very talented I fail to grasp the idea of whats going on ? .. I guess I`ll never be a Magma fan 

micky wrote: Yorkie X wrote: I like some differant stuff but Magma were just too weird for me unfortunatly .. though I can hear they are very talented I fail to grasp the idea of whats going on ? .. I guess I`ll never be a Magma fan  what did you listen to out of curiousity....

  It was Attack  I think  .. I liked the cover and heard lots about Magma and it turned up in my local CD store so I just thought I`d give it a try ...  maybe I started with the wrong CD  

Yorkie.... if you take my suggestion seriously.. you will find  that album is not cheap...


however.. for those who don't have it .. or know...

subscribe to Napster....  sitting here looking at all Magma's album....  for a minimal charge... all at your fingertips to listen to...screen on your computer to buy at your leisure. Without sinking 30 bucks into an album just on a recommend.




Edited by micky - December 08 2007 at 10:26