1001 Centigrades by Magma

    Magma does not write music for the casual listener. Magma does not write normal music for normal people. They writer serious, abnormal music for abnormal people. The powerful jazz rock of Magma is in direct contrast to the easy-going jazz fusion of Weather Report. If you like your music heavy and energetic instead of languid and mellow, then you will like Magma. Though their ensemble on this album only consists of 8 players (more of a chamber ensemble than a symphonic orchestra) they make up for that by playing with a sort of symphonic heaviness, that is slow, loud, and emphatic.

    1001 Centigrades was released in April 1971 by Phillips Studio. It is Magma’s 2^nd album. The first track on this album is 21 minutes (again, this isn’t for the casual music listener) and is written by Christian Vander. The second track is 11 minutes and is written by Teddy Lasry. The third track is 8 minutes and is written by Francois Cahen. Although this band is based in France, the album is composed entirely in a fantasy language that is a Germanic language; Kobaian. The language is phonetic, not semantic so the words are chosen for their sounds, not the related meanings.

    The first track is as has previously been stated, very bombastic. It is bass-heavy. The bass clarinet of Jeff Seffer and the electric bass of Francis Moze along with the plodding slow-tempo march gives this track a sound bass-filled but peppy and melodic. The composition on this first track however seems (in spite of its best intentions) to have an issue with composition, in that there should be distinct sections, but there are not. It seems there was a half-attempt at doing this by Vander, but in the end, he decided certain things would simply run together. Themes would re-occur as if a section of composition was interrupted by other parts within it, only to continue with its composition. This being said, the energy, the heaviness, and the balance of parts as well as competent playing almost makes up for all of this. If this song were 5 to 7 minutes instead of 20, it might have been a better song on repeated listens. That would also force them to try and simplify the structure of the song.

    The track song “Iss” Lansei Doia starts with some great bass, with what seems to be a slow flanger effect. The bass does not stay long enough. We are instead treated to electric piano, percussion, and a sustained drone vocal. Now, these are interesting in and of themselves, but they are not what the track originally treated us to. The bass continues, but is upstaged by saxophones, clarinets and trumpet. There is some weird and dark-sounding Tibetan chanting later on in this track. I could have done without the chanting. This is, overall a track with solid playing, but even a track with solid playing can wear someone out over multiple listens if it is too long. Now, this doesn't have to be punk short (1 minute at the extremes), but it could be shorter for the sake of those who must listen to it multiple times.

    1001 Centigrade by Magma is an album with decent presence and energy, that is held back by issues of length and lack of compositional structure. If you like jazz fusion, or progressive rock this album might be for you. If you like pop or punk rock you probably want to steer clear of this album. I give it a 7/10.