Magma news

[Dana5140]

This is a fun find: Jean Marc Jafet and Thierry Eliaz playing jazz in a quartet from 5 years ago. That's when it was uploaded, but I am not sure when it was recorded as Eliaz sure looks younger here.

[The Czar]

New album finally showed up. I'm really enjoying it a lot. I hear echoes of a lot of Magma stuff in here but it actually kind of reminds me a lot of Setna, a band I discovered through this message board. the music is really pleasant and I think the production is maybe the best we've ever heard on a Magma studio album. I wish they'd been recording Vander's drums this way from the start. My only complaint is that it's a 2xLP even though the album itself is only 40 minutes long. It's cool to hear the demos from 1978 to see where a couple of these compositions came from but they're not exactly well recorded demos. They sound like they're being played over the phone. Oh well. Hard to complain cuz I like the music so much. Letting other members write for the band was a pretty good decision. I hope they do more!!!

I love Setna.

[Dana5140]

One more interesting find, Caroline Indjein singing something from the Israeli series Shtisel, and her Hebrew is perfect:

[flytomars]

One more interesting find, or Caroline Indjein singing something from the Israeli series Shtisel, and her Hebrew is perfect:

Nice find! its an Avi Belleli song (Nikmat Hatraktor, also Roy Yarkoni collaborator)
He has some really fine soundtrack albums, some of which are borderline RIO (there is also one Nikmat Hatraktor collaboration with Roger Trigaux)
Indeed her accent is almost perfect!

[Dana5140]

I'd love to hear the story of how she made her way into Magma after the departure of Sandrine DeStefanis. I know Laura Guaratto sings vocalese, so I assume Herve knew of her, since he also sings vocalese and acapella. As does Sylvie Fisichella.

[Marco]

Isn't it because Sandrine is an antivaxxer?

[Dana5140]

Yes, that was reason Sandrine left. But what I really mean is, how did they know to even give her an audition? How did she, a singer mainly of Brazilian and piano music, find her way to the most progressive band on the planet?

[unclemeat]

According to Vander, an archival release consisting of various renditions of MDK is being prepared.

[neuroticdog]

Some advice from the Magma heads plz...

After a waaaaaay to long period of not listening to them, over the last few months I've been slowly revisiting things. I'm wonder two things right now:

1-I love the retrospektïew albums and was wondering if it is worth it to pop for the download on BC of all 3 volumes with the 15 minute bonus cut...and it's says remastered in there somewhere too. I already have the original cd's from decades ago...is it worth the upgrade?

2-Wondering what peoples thoughts on the Alhambra album are? Performances? Sound quality? (my speakers are currently sub optimal on my computer so can't really determine)

thx in advance

best
Michael

[unclemeat]

Some advice from the Magma heads plz...

1- The remasters are worth having, if only for the bonus tracks. btw Udü Wüdü is notably superior to the old CD version.
2- fine performances indeed (and I was fortunate to attend them all), including the complete E-Rê (with Funerarium Kahnt), and Sëntëhndëh, a gospel that has so far only been performed at those Alhambra concerts.

[neuroticdog]

1- The remasters are worth having, if only for the bonus tracks. btw Udü Wüdü is notably superior to the old CD version.
2- fine performances indeed (and I was fortunate to attend them all), including the complete E-Rê (with Funerarium Kahnt), and Sëntëhndëh, a gospel that has so far only been performed at those Alhambra concerts.

thx alexis...this is what I needed to hear and will be downloading both shortly...good info!

best
Michael

[Hobo Chang Ba]

According to Vander, an archival release consisting of various renditions of MDK is being prepared.

I would buy this.

[Dana5140]

Michael: The remasters are noticeably better and cleaner than the originals. Well worth having.

[neuroticdog]

Michael: The remasters are noticeably better and cleaner than the originals. Well worth having.

thx D

best
Michael

[unclemeat]

My own criterion for evaluating a remaster or remix is : does it help me understand the artwork better ?
e.g. the 2016 version of Tales from Topographic Oceans.
Sometimes, extra "clarity" destroys the original mood or meaning. cf the 2007 versions of the early Genesis albums.

The question : "does it sound better ?" is largely a matter of taste and fetishism. It often involves comparison with "the real deal" (i.e. some "warmer" vinyl edition). I never A/B : a remaster has to be it, e.g. the Queen 2011 remasters.
The arguments of "sonic fidelity" etc are mostly of a commercial nature (get 7% more authenticity for your money !) with a dash of ideology
("audio vérité", technological progress as an end in itself, the economy of attention), nostalgia, sometimes revisionism.
That's why there is no such thing as a definitive edition.

PS : cf in the news today, the story of the Mondrian painting that has been hanging the wrong way for decades. But it'll remain shown that way, because that mistake is now part of the history of the work.
"Restoration is always two-sided: the process of “desedimenting” always entails both gain and loss. Restoring a work to its original condition often requires losing something that can be nearly as valuable as the original. A perfect illustration of this is the recent restoration of Rembrandt’s painting The Mill. Prior to its restoration, it conveyed a somber tone by what seemed to be dark, foreboding colors – the sort of murky tones we tend to associate with Rembrandt’s works. However, cleaning revealed something that we do not at all think of as typically Rembrandt: a bright sky and colorful landscape. Which one is the “real” painting? Of course, the one with bright colors is the one that is closer to what Rembrandt actually painted. Yet, we have viewed it for so long as “dark and foreboding” that there is an important sense in which – for us – it is dark and foreboding. Restoration reveals something that almost seems to be a different painting."
(Bruce Ellis Benson, The improvisation of musical dialogue (2003), p. 112)

[Dana5140]

So, a different take here, not disputing your take.

My own criterion for evaluating a remaster or remix is: do I think it sounds better to my ears? That's it, that all it takes for me.

[neuroticdog]

My own criterion for evaluating a remaster or remix is : does it help me understand the artwork better ?
e.g. the 2016 version of Tales from Topographic Oceans.
Sometimes, extra "clarity" destroys the original mood or meaning. cf the 2007 versions of the early Genesis albums.

The question : "does it sound better ?" is largely a matter of taste and fetishism. It often involves comparison with "the real deal" (i.e. some "warmer" vinyl edition). I never A/B : a remaster has to be it, e.g. the Queen 2011 remasters.
The arguments of "sonic fidelity" etc are mostly of a commercial nature (get 7% more authenticity for your money !) with a dash of ideology
("audio vérité", technological progress as an end in itself, the economy of attention), nostalgia, sometimes revisionism.
That's why there is no such thing as a definitive edition.

PS : cf in the news today, the story of the Mondrian painting that has been hanging the wrong way for decades. But it'll remain shown that way, because that mistake is now part of the history of the work.
"Restoration is always two-sided: the process of “desedimenting” always entails both gain and loss. Restoring a work to its original condition often requires losing something that can be nearly as valuable as the original. A perfect illustration of this is the recent restoration of Rembrandt’s painting The Mill. Prior to its restoration, it conveyed a somber tone by what seemed to be dark, foreboding colors – the sort of murky tones we tend to associate with Rembrandt’s works. However, cleaning revealed something that we do not at all think of as typically Rembrandt: a bright sky and colorful landscape. Which one is the “real” painting? Of course, the one with bright colors is the one that is closer to what Rembrandt actually painted. Yet, we have viewed it for so long as “dark and foreboding” that there is an important sense in which – for us – it is dark and foreboding. Restoration reveals something that almost seems to be a different painting."
(Bruce Ellis Benson, The improvisation of musical dialogue (2003), p. 112)

He uses the word "desedimenting" which is a word, or a variation of a word used by post Cartesian mid-century philosophers (specifically thinking of Merleau-Ponty here...at least that is where I've run into it) so...in that spirit, let me get obnoxiously pedantic and say every"thing" that exists in reality is perceived by humans in an A-B fashion. Every"thing" has determined boundaries and where those boundaries end...there is another "thing". That other "thing" is needed to signify the original "thing" (you may have been looking at, or in this case...listening to). So, when you say you don't make A-B comparisons...you sir, are wrong

(hate me yet

...but, I get where you are coming from, and mostly agree with it, especially the "there is no definitive editions" bit. But, for me...like what Dana sez...when it comes to Magma, I want it to sound crisp and clean so...I guess I'm a fetishist when it comes to CV

best
Michael

and edit...those Alhambra recordings are freaking stellar. Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré has been my favorite piece by them for quite a while now and I'll admit right here and now...as much as an emotional cold fish that I am...when I saw Magma perform this the second time they were at NEARfest, it was the closest I ever came to tears when listening to music. Pretty fucking funny...eh?

[Steve F.]

...it was the closest I ever came to tears when listening to music...

Didn't the huge metal pipe rolling off the stage and nearly beaning you during Faust at R.I.O. make a few tears well up?

[boilk]

Didn't the huge metal pipe rolling off the stage and nearly beaning you during Faust at R.I.O. make a few tears well up?

Neil

[neuroticdog]

Didn't the huge metal pipe rolling off the stage and nearly beaning you during Faust at R.I.O. make a few tears well up?

dammn near soiled myself!!!

(and I can swear Zappi was smirking at me after the fact)

best
Michael

[NogbadTheBad]

Faust at RIO was an 'event '

[neuroticdog]

Faust at RIO was an 'event '

do you remember Peron running around the whole theater with an "active" buzz saw jammed on #10 setting? I kept on thinking...if this mother fucker trips we are in splatter town bitches!!!

best
Michael

ps-we should get back to Magma now

[unclemeat]

He uses the word "desedimenting"

Yes, I had noticed. This is a red flag word for me (as are "embodiment", "binaries", "stereotype", "deconstruction", "narrative", etc), as it often signals that a philosophical debate is about to err on the iffy side... I'm not an advocate of endless indefinite reinterpretation, absent any solid and well-delineated referent - au contraire ! Only observing that what is marketed as "definitive" usually isn't.

[Dana5140]

I love reading postmodern philosophy as much as the next guy () but I think that with regard to this question, the real idea is whether or not you simply like something. I can dive into quoting Merleau-Ponty and Foucault and Derrida, but really all that does is confuse language (to unclemeat's point immediate above). As a Magma fanatic, what I really care about is intensity, and rhythm and building tension, and there are times when the original recordings are muddy to me; the remasters make it possible to hear things I had not heard before. I notice this a lot on the remaster of Theusz Hamtaahk, for example, on LP- wow, it sounds so much better than the CD version I have or the older LP version I also have. And to me that does not require any deeper thinking- it is pure feeling.

[neuroticdog]

Hi...yes Dana...the A-B philosophical thing was more a joke with unclemeat than anything else because of that million dollar word "unsedimented" that was used. I thought I put enough smileys in there to cover that...I was just having fun with unclemeats response. Although, as I said...I think he makes a great point about there not being any "definitive versions" of anything.

I agree, there is no deep thinking required when it comes to sonic preferences between the original versions and the rematers. I listened to Theusz Hamtaahk and MDK off of the Retrospektiew remasters (though good headphones) and they sounded amazing. I did not listen to the original (which I remember not sounding bad to begin with) to compare since I bought this mainly for the extra 15 minute version of Retorvision

The Retrospektiew performances are shot through with speed and adrenaline taken to uncanny levels... and I love them for that!!!

best
Michael