Magma - Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh

I read a description of Magma's music here as "As one might expect, the music from Kobaia several hundred years from now is very unlike what we are accustomed to on twentieth century planet Earth". Well, I don't know how it would have sounded in the anything-goes era of early 70's prog-rock. But listeners would probably draw the same conclusion as now, that they are a bunch of nutters. The lunacy was mainly down to one Christian Vander, their main composer, drummer and singer. Their albums are based around mythical stories of a planet called Kobaia. Vander yelps and screeches the words in the made-up "Kobaian" language, a twisted derivative of German.

However if you stripped away the silly voices, the imaginary language and the sci-fi fantasy myth trappings, you'd be left with some original and highly distinctive music. It's based throughout on a series of insistent, ritualistic rhythms. As well as Vander's daft squealing there's a tribally-chanting female chorus, 70's rock-opera orchestra and a dash of abstract jazz in this musical mix. There's more than a few hints of Orff's hedonistic choral work "Carmina Burana" in the way they build up and piece together the contrasting sections, while always maintaining the rhythm. Might be called typical over-the-top prog, but it's not kitchen-sink or wankily virtuosic like some prog. It can be a good listen for a glance at an interesting sideways approach to music, but it's difficult to get past the overwhelming daftness.

June 29, 2004

6 out of 10

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