Dave's Reaction: Magma - KMX B12 

Dave, I've been listening to Magma for almost 50 years. In 1988 I wrote about them in the music magazine Option and I wrote the entry on them at Sea of Tranquility. Magma is the band of the drummer, Christian Vander, who is one of the great drummers- a small kit, never plays a song the same way, is intuitive and astonishing. This song was written by a former Magma bassist, the equally legendary Jannik Top. It is not an improvisation. Here, it is played by another former bassist, Phillip Bussonett, also known as Bubu. Phillip is one of the greats- check him out of songs like Slag Tanz. Phillip was actually fired more than 2 years ago, as Christian felt a need to shake up the band. The new bassist then? Jimmy Top- son of Jannik! And not the first of kids of former players, either, as Himiko and Antoine Paganotti sang for Magma many years after their dad Bernard played bass. One of the sad things here is the guitarist in this clip, James Mac Gaw, died nearly yeas ago after a 4-yr battle with brain cancer. You should check his incredible guitar solo on their composition Kohntarkosz, Magma's masterwork according to Vander (not Mekanik Detruktiw Kommandoh, as most would assume). Magma is a legendary band, now in its 55th year of existence and still playing live! The current iteration of the band has 7 singers, 2 keyboards, bass, guitar and drums. I'll follow this comment up with a few links.

Never heard of these guys, but that was thoroughly entertaining. Love watching and listening to great musicians. Thanks guys, glad you’re back.

i can definitely hear the tony williams and cohn joltrane influence. nice one, as liam would say.

Saw these dudes live on their 50th anniversary tour. Was a bit up and down but the good parts were great!

can you do Buried Alive by Avenged Sevenfold?

Probably the biggest influence (apart from John Coltrane) would be the classical music conservatoire that Christian Vander attended. From what I've heard, he's far from self-taught. The Coltrane influence, though, is very specific. According to Vander the whole reason he started Magma was to try to make up for the loss to the world due to John Coltrane's death.

Good ear. This is very atypical Magma, who do have a wide range though, and attract an eclectic mix of fans. Metalheads like them for pieces like this:

Slag Tanz:

KMX is intially a composition of the bassist Jannick Top which was a member of the band in 1973-1974. Here Phillip Bussonet is very ( i mean very) inspired by the playing of Jannick Top : the original version of this song was published on the album "Inedit" in 1977 ( it is a compilation of live and studio song )

Apologies for several posts now, but I thought you'd like to see eh current version of the band:

Magma's Maahnt:

I've heard of these guys and listened to a few tracks. It's good to pick an instrumental tune because their lyrics/vocals are definitely an acquired taste! But this cut I liked. Cool jam. Here's an obscure but worthy track for Dave to check from a band from Indiana called, Roadmaster, who were discovered by Todd Rundgren (who even produced a few of their tracks), their sound is like a mix of Boston and Styx. This tune is called, Hey World.