Magma at Ex Theater Roppongi, September 21st 2019

Every once in a while Magma will play a short residence at Le Triton, a small club in the outskirts of Paris. They even recorded a couple of live albums there. The place is more of a hole in the wall with a tiny stage, quite a contrast with the venue they performed at in Tokyo. I got the chance to see them at Le Triton in 2010 and witnessed the insane amounts of energy pouring from that stage. It was in the summer and felt like a sauna in there, to the point that, on cue, a woman fainted while the last notes of the last song were played. After seeing them live I could understand why they’re filed in the jazz section at the Fnac stores in France. The improvisational aspects of the band come across clearly in the live setting. It’s hard to describe, but there’s definitely a jazz feel to their music.

At tonight’s show Cristian Vander will grab the mic for some singing and scatting from behind his kit during slow passages. He’ll held it as if he was pressing the keys of a saxophone. Not for nothing he claims that Coltrane’s music and spiritual quest is at the core of Magma. Another influence it’s definitely Classical music of the bombastic kind, think of Wagner or Orff’s Carmina Burana. Their music fits comfortably in the unclassifiable bin, but the vocals and their seriousness pushes it over the edge. 

Unfortunately his choice of making the vocals unintelligible by the use of a made up language, the troubling intonation employed at times, the visual imagery of the band and even accusations from former members (you can look it up) make the cultish and fascist tags not that much of an overstatement. I’m not going to lie, it could be extremely off-putting.

The thing is that the music is excellent. It is clear that, for the most part, it’s in a quest for spiritual transcendence. There might be not much in terms of dynamics, the beats are usually pounding and relentless, but the accumulation and constant repetition are constantly reaching for a climax unlike other bands from the genre. In concert this display of energy is quite impressive to witness. The band’s configuration this time is three singers, guitar, bass, drums, a xylophone and a Fender Rhodes. By the time they hit the audience with Hhai/Zombies in the first half of the show most jaws were already on the floor. A truly amazing display of tension. I liked how the guitarist added distortion at times for a more aggressive sound compared to that on the records.

What’s crazy is that tour de force couldn’t even compare to the sheer attack that was the Mekanïk Destruktïẁ Kommandöh finale at the end of the show. It prompted a spontaneous standing ovation that contrasted with the previous subdued response from the audience; more subdued than usual, if you ask me. If it was amazing to see Vander’s prowess from behind the kit ten years ago, it’s now a mystery how can he manage to still do it at age 71. Just like Elvin Jones, the drummer of the immortal Coltrane quartet, did.

They came back for an encore, De Futura-Hiroshima from the album Üdü Ẁüdü  This additional epic rounded in style up the 130 minutes length of the show. The aggressive guitar sound was this time at the forefront, same for the most rock oriented drumming of the evening. They finished it off with Stella Vander triggering electronic effects from an iPad while the stage lightning flickered in strobe, I’m guessing emulating the catastrophic effect of a nuclear attack. I hate to be crass, but Magma literally destroyed that place. If the levels of intensity of the Triton shows were not reached it might have been for a notch or two, because this show was truly fire. 
  
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