Magma

Magma's music didn't always revolve around its drummer and founder, Christian Vander. Formed in Paris in 1969, the band released two albums for Philips, the first in 1970 and the second in 1971. Some great musicians passed through their ranks, including bassists Laurent Thibault and Francis Moze, pianist François Cahen, guitarist Claude Engel and sax players Teddy Lasry and Yochk'o "Jeff" Seffer. Featuring compositions from Vander and the others, both albums were vaguely jazzy affairs. Of course, Vander's tracks, fueled with considerable dark matter, had the most unique trait: Their musical expression was sung in its own language, Kobaïan, a kind of scat-Germanic phonetic invention. Not only did Vander offer the language, but the entire Magma shtick: inverted tantric symbol, dark black dress and a post-apocalyptic sci-fi storyline. The sprawling double-album Magma offers a solid look toward their future, but musically offers something more grounded. "Kobaia" opens the album with a swing, propelled by Engel's guitar and a great chorus, before breaking down into something improvisational. "Malaria" approaches Gong weirdness, while "Auraë" is a not-quite-realized glimpse of Vander's future direction. The tracks written by Lasry, Cahen, Engel and Thibault on sides two and three present more conventional fusion, yet one distinctively Magma-fied. Their 1971 release Magma 2 (later renamed 1001° Centigrades) saw Engel temporarily depart, but marked another point in the band's development. Thibault was behind the 1972 side project Univeria Zekt and its commercially-minded album, The Unnamables; but then Magma splintered, with Cahen and Seffer departing to form the similar-minded Zao.