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"Martin told us how the original group had come to a stunning and savage conclusion in Spain after a wild magic battle between Magma's leader, the percussionist Christian Vander, and the epically named bass player, Jannik (sic) Top. Vander had rented a hilltop castle for his own uses, which had annoyed Top's ego. He had rented a similar place within sight of Vander and the two proceeded to wage magic war upon one another. [Magma's manager] Martin Cole told of how he had ended driving from one castle to another trying to patch the band up, only to discover Jannik Top with serious chest wounds, screaming that Vander had caused him to tear his own chest open."
I love that story.
A few years ago, I discovered a good friend of mine had actually seen Magma live in Paris in 1975, which was when they were at the height of their powers musically. He hated the concert but admitted that at the time he was a teen who "loved the Stones" and he probably didn't get it. But he described a concert that bordered on scary with an audience mesmerized and chanting "Magma! Magma!"
The first time I heard Magma was at my friend Eric's house. Eric always managed to be on the cutting edge of music and had acquired a copy of ATTAHK (Tomato Records, 1977). It had an HR Giger cover featuring two queasy, diseased looking twins with safety pin goggles standing in front of one of Giger's bio-organic machine structures. Definitely creepy. The back cover had x-rays of the band's skulls instead of photos. Unfortunately the music didn't hold up to the promise of the visuals, being jazzy and with completely over-the-top operatic vocals sung in a weird incomprehensible language (Kobaian, Vander's invented language). Magma became a running joke for many years after, describing for us anything lame that purported to be cool.
But I was haunted. I kept running across references to Magma, about how great they were and how influential they had been on French music. A few years later I came across a copy of UDU WUDU (Tomato Records, 1976), and I figured I should give them another chance. Side A proved to be better than I remembered ATTAHK being - the same "sound" and that damn Kobaian singing, but the music was definitely tougher and more complex. Then... Side B. Whoa. A single song, 18 minutes long, called "De Futura". Built around a muscular bass riff, slowly building over 15 minutes to a completely unbelievable apex of furious drumming, baritone chanting, and sinewy bass lines. If you don't see God during "De Futura" you probably never will. I did.
Well, that was it. I tracked down a couple more of their albums, which was pretty difficult to do as they had been out of print for a few years and had never been easy to get in the US in the first place. Moving backward from UDU WUDU the band got better and better. MAGMA LIVE (aka HHAI! , Tomato, 1975), MEKANIK DESTRUKTIW KOMMANDOH (aka MDK , Seventh, 1974)-- these guys were monsters in their prime.
Flash forward to the late 1990's. I was going through a Japanese hardcore phase (The Boredoms, Omoide Hatoba) and picked up an album by The Ruins called BURNING STONE. They were recommended as "the Japanese Minutemen" by the clerk in the store. As I listened to the first ten seconds, ejected the disc , read the label - had the manufacturer accidentally put a Magma album in the Ruins case? An hour later, after peeling myself off the apartment wall, I realized I'd stumbled onto an unknown (to me) legacy of Magma - a two man drum and bass unit from Japan. Virtuoso drumming and insane bass playing and.... weird vocals in a made up language! A bit of research and I discovered Zeuhl , a word from a Magma song title that is used to describe an entire musical universe derived from the legacy of Magma.
So what are the characteristics of Zeuhl? Zeuhl(celestial in Kobaian) is typified by very predominant drum and bass -- guitar often takes a completely backup roll here, working with the keyboards as texture and rhythm, if it even exists at all. Violin and choral singing are also common as is the Fender Rhodes. Songs are almost ritualistic constructs: rhythms are often martial and there is a tendency towards musical development by repetition and slow building of interlocking lines and tempos. The music generally has a dark tone - lots of minor, flattened and diminished chords and a propensity for the Dorian Mode. It's the musical equivalent of HP Lovecraft.
Originally, Zeuhl seems to have spread as members of Magma left the band (or were fired), joining/starting other bands where they utilized the style and structure of Vander's music. Weidorje ("v-dorje"- the wheel of heaven -- again from the title of a Magma song) is the most crucial of these bands. Founded by Patrick Gauthier, keyboard player on many prime Magma opuses (including "De Futura") and Bernard Paganotti, who had taken over bass duties after Jannick Top left in 1975. Started in 1976 as a way to honor the music of Vander but playing their own compositions they made one terrific record and then scattered.
The amazing Jannick Top went from Magma (after his chest healed -- see above...) to form Utopic Sporadic Orchestra. I don't know much about them other than a recently released disc recorded in Nancy, France in 1975 that consists of a rehearsal of "De Futura", the live performance of the same and three other live tracks. Apparently after this outing he rejoined Magma in some fashion as the disc VanderTop - Best On Tour 1976 has him performing with Magma musicians again. After that, Top retreated to the studio, working as a session bassist for French jazz and light pop stars, most notably for Celine Dion and Uta Lemper. In the early 2000s, he played in the gigantic Magma reunion shows in Paris and in 2008 he released Infernal Machina, an amazing album that might be his magnum opus. Apparently it's an album of mystical music inspired by Pythagorian spheres, alchemy, Bach and Gurdjieff. Whatever. It's a great album of slow burn zeuhl that could be "Da Futura Part 2".
I don't know any of the history as to how Zeuhl got there, but much of the current activity in this style comes from Japan. Besides the amazing Ruins, who have something like 17 discs out, noteworthy bands include:
The major Zeuhl-influenced band making noise right now is the British group Guapo. Based around the duo of Daniel O'Sullivan and Dave Smith the current lineup is a formidable successor of Magma's zeuhl crown. They have been releasing material since 1995, though their last two releases Five Suns and Black Oni are the easiest to obtain and probably the most fully engaging of their catalog. Besides the hardcore Magma-esque zeuhl, there are elements of metal, progressive rock, Zorn-like cut-n-paste, and jazz threading through their compositions. Their last release is on Mike Patton's Ipecac label, and they just did a tour of the US, starting with a set at NEARFEST and actually stopping in Pittsburgh. Live they as stunning as their albums suggest they should be.
For the novice, zeuhl can be difficult to approach since the discs are invariably imports or on very small labels, so a short primer of Recommended Listening for those inclined to explore:
Download some Ruins tracks at Skingraft Records (they also have some worthwhile Cheer-Accident tracks posted).
Buy most of the discs mentioned above at Wayside Music .
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