MEKANÏK DESTRUKTÏW KOMMANDÖH

Since I heard Christian Vander in a long interview on a French Radio I was fascinated by the person and shared his love for John Coltrane.Christian Vander has like Zappa and his 'Conceptual Continuity' or Richard Wagner and his 'Gesamtkunstwerk' constructed his oeuvre around a personal mythology, that integrates music , lyrics, and graphic design : the famous 'Kobaïan mythology', in big outlines a mythology about 'Kobaïa' a planet with positive vibes in opposition to the corrupted planet Earth. Vander created even the imaginary language of the planet 'The Kobaïan', which forms the basis for the vocal work of 'Magma'. 'Mekanik Destruktïw Kommandoh' forms the third part of the 'Theusz Hamtaahk' cycle.

I liked the first two 'Magma' records and was surprised by the new orientation, that Vander took on M.D.K. The lighter instrumental Jazz-Rock/ Brass/Vocal arrangements leave place to a heavily vocal/choir oriented record, influenced by Carl Orff, Richard Wagner and the pulsating rhythm of Coltrane's Quartet, a combination which doesn't work too good IMO. The whole record, build up like a long suite( not unlike Coltrane' Love Supreme') moves on like a tank, a heavy pulsating rythm ponctuated by the alternating solo vocals/choir arragements. Even the light weighted soft Machine like brass arrangements of 1001° centigrades leave place to unisono brass blocks. I was never a big fan of Carl Orff's Oratorios and I don't know to what extent Stella Vander is responsible for the vocal & choir arrangements, but the result is not very convincing either : a mixture of free vocal expression and over simplified harmonic blocks à la Carl Orff.

Now, the musicianship is excellent and the music itself is well executed, but I don't like at all this mixture of a neo-classical oratorio with a heavy jazz pulse and I am not very sensitive to the seriousness the 'Kobaïan' dimension took on this record. This record is missing some lightheartness and humour.