The New Vocalist for Magma is .... Davros

Our friend Andy Bole created this little mashup of Dr. Davros (from Dr. Who) and Magma. He makes a pretty good vocalist, don't you think? Watch out, Herve. The good Davros may be after your job!

King Vander

On DIME - TROC - Unreleased Track from 1973

The Kohntarkosz Blog (http://kohntarkosz.blogspot.com) is happy to bring you, for the first time ever :

The French Gentleman Tapes - Volume 9

Troc
1973

01 Trick

aud > reel-to-reel (1st gen, mono) > wav > flac

Magmasystems Notes:

Troc was a French band that was active around 1972/3. it is notable for being the band that Jannick Top was in before he joined Magma.

The lineup for this unreleased track is unknown. But, the standard lineup for Troc during this time was the following :
André Ceccarelli (d)
Alex Ligertwood (v)
Jannick Top (b)
Henri Giordano (k)
Jacky Giraudo (g)

Update from user dukecobham on DIME:

This song is "Happiness Is Just Around The Bend" that Alex also sang with Brian Auger's Oblivion Express on the "Live Oblivion" LP from 1975.  The song was originally on the "Closer To It" LP from 1973 (which Alex did not sing on) and was also on the The Main Ingredient LP "Euphrates River" from 1974.

On DIME - Magma - October 13, 1976 - Grenoble

The Kohntarkosz Blog (http://kohntarkosz.blogspot.com) is happy to bring you, for the first time ever :

The French Gentleman Tapes - Volume 7

MAGMA (VanderTop)

GRENOBLE, France
Eglise du Sacré Coeur
13 oct 1976

01 crowd (2:46)
02 Hhai (13:16)
03 De Futura (27:28)
04 Ptah (24:21)
05 La musique des sphères (24:13)
06 Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh (39:25)

Total : 2h11

Christian Vander : dr, voc
Jannick Top : b, voc
Klaus Blasquiz : voc, perc
Gabriel Federow : g
Didier Lockwood : vl
Michel Graillier : k

aud > reel-to-reel (mono, 1st gen) > wav > flac 


The sound quality is not that good, and to me, it sounds a little "reverbish". This is probably because Magma was playing in a large church that night.

More Artwork for Chateauvallon 1972

On DIME - Magma - Grenoble - May 17, 1975

The Kohntarkosz Blog (http://kohntarkosz.blogspot.com) is happy to bring you, for the first time ever :

The French Gentleman Tapes - Volume 6

MAGMA

GRENOBLE, France
Palais des Sports
17 may 1975
Festival (with Mahjun, Mama Béa Tekielski, Henry Cow)

01 Intro (1:44)
02 Köhntarkösz (34:52)
03 Emëhntëht-Rê (announcement) (7:20) >
04 Ptah (22:35)
05 Hhai (14:32)
06 Intro (1:29)
07 Mëkanïk Dëstruktïw Kömmandöh (43:33)

Total : 2h06

Christian Vander (dr, voc)
Klaus Blasquiz (voc)
Stella Vander (voc)
Gabriel Federow (g)
Didier Lockwood (v)
Jean-Pol Asseline (k)
Benoît Widemann (k)
Bernard Paganotti (b)

AUD > reel-to-reel (mono, 1st gen.) > wav > flac

Jannick Top - July 27, 1974, La Rochelle, France

Thanks very much to Jacky Pillac for sending me this photo.

For more photos, you can visit visit his blog at http://jacky-pillac-photographies.over-blog.com.

On DIME - Utopic Sporadic Orchestra - Nancy - 1975-10-17 (FM - Unreleased Piece)

 The Kohntarkosz Blog (http://kohntarkosz.blogspot.com) is happy to bring you, for the first time ever :

The French Gentleman Tapes - Volume 4


UTOPIC SPORADIC ORCHESTRA

NANCY, France
17 Oct 1975
Festival Nancy Jazz Pulsations

1) Andranomadio (22:24)  (Unreleased)

FM > reel-to-reel (1st gen mono) > wav > flac


Magmasystems Notes:

This is a piece from the famous USO concert that WAS NOT released on CD anywhere. The only CD of USO that has been released is this one:

http://www.discogs.com/Utopic-Sporadic-Orchestra-Nancy-75/release/1956301

and the tune on this torrent, "Andranomadio", was not included on this CD.


This is the first time that these recordings have been released. The original reels came from "A French Gentleman" who stumbled upon the various Magma blogs and who, as it turned out, had seen Magma several times in the 1970's. The gentleman not only had some assorted photographs, but had recorded various concerts. These tapes made their way to a well known DIME contributor who wishes to remain anonymous at this time. This person spent quite a bit of time digitizing the music and trying to clean up the sound. Some of these efforts were successful, some were not so ... as will be apparent in some later releases. I have dubbed these recordings "The French Gentlemen Tapes", and after about two years, I have been given permission to share these through time. Much thanks go to the Gentleman, as well as Trahnsferheur.

If you want to find out more about Utopic Sporadic Orchestra:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0BjmQvN9xk

On DIME - The French Gentleman Tapes - Vol 3 - Zao - Paris - 1975-03-15 (FM - Excellent)

The Kohntarkosz Blog (http://kohntarkosz.blogspot.com) is happy to bring you, for the first time ever :

The French Gentleman Tapes - Volume 3


ZAO

PARIS (?), France
Festival International du Son
15 mar 1975

01 Boogie à Toto (8:32)
02 Yog (9:27)
03 Isis (9:56)
04 Satanyia (17:30)
05 Attila (6:56)

Total : 52' 21

Francois "Faton" Cahen (k)
Jeff "Yoch'ko" Seffer (sax, fl, k)
Joël Dugrenot (b, voc)
Mark Barschmidt (dr)

FM (France Musique, 1975) > reel-to-reel (mono, 1st gen) > wav > flac

On DIME - Magma - Sanary, France - 1973-07-27

The Kohntarkosz Blog (http://kohntarkosz.blogspot.com) is happy to bring you, for the first time ever :

The French Gentleman Tapes - Volume 2

MAGMA

SANARY, France
Cité de la Jeunesse
27 jul 1973

01 Kohntarkosz (Gamma Anteria) (30:15)
02 Sowiloi (Soi Soi) (14:33)
03 KMX BXII (8:53)
04 Stundehr Korusz (7:18)
05 Ptah (19:02)
06 Intro (3:00)
07 Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh (34:25)

Total : 1h57

Christian Vander : dr, v
Klaus Blasquiz : v
Jannick Top : b
Claude Olmos : g
René Garber : cl. contrebasse, v
Michel Graillier : k
Gérard Bikialo : k

aud > reel-to-reel (1st gen, mono) > wav > flac

Magmasystems Notes:

This is the first time that these recordings have been released. The original reels came from "A French Gentleman" who stumbled upon the various Magma blogs and who, as it turned out, had seen Magma several times in the 1970's. The gentleman not only had some assorted photographs, but had recorded various concerts. These tapes made their way to a well known DIME contributor who wishes to remain anonymous at this time. This person spent quite a bit of time digitizing the music and trying to clean up the sound. Some of these efforts were successful, some were not so ... as will be apparent in some later releases. I have dubbed these recordings "The French Gentlemen Tapes", and after about two years, I have been given permission to share these through time. Much thanks go to the Gentleman, as well as Trahnsferheur.

About this recording:

This recording is for die-hard collectors only. There are many, many drop-outs, bleed-throughs, and overall poor sound. However, if you are a fan and a follower of Magma's most formative years, the period from 1973-1974, then this recording is necessary. Collectors of Magma will realize that they played three days before in Marseilles, and that concert was released on DIME several years ago. This was a period of the group where they were trying to make sense of a melange of tunes that included Kohntarkosz, KA, and Om Zanka. Musically, this recording is extremely similar to the Marseilles recording. However, we have something new here .... a 7 minute contrabass clarinet solo from Rene Garber.

Also, bear in mind that, around this time, Magma made a trip to New York City for a few days to play at the Newport Jazz Festival and at the Hippopotamus club. Wouldn't it be amazing if these concerts ever showed up on DIME. Anything is possible.

Artwork for Magma 1972-08-23 Chateauvallon

Thanks to our good friend Laurent Planer for the artwork. One for Zund I and the other for Zund II.

Now on DIME - Magma Chateauvallon Jazz Festival - August 23, 1972

The Kohntarkosz Blog (http://kohntarkosz.blogspot.com) is happy to bring you, for the first time ever :

The French Gentleman Tapes - Volume 1


MAGMA

CHATEAUVALLON, France
Festival de Jazz
23 aug 1972

01 Intro (Giorgio Gomelsky) (5:01)
02 Stöah (7:14)
03 ''Iss'' Lanseï Doïa (12:22)
04 Sowiloi (Soï-Soï) (9:36)
05 Ki Ïahl Ö Lïahk (13:40) >
06 Ptah (10:30)
07 Intro (2:31)
08 Mekanik Destruktiw Kommando (30:24)
09 Klaus Kombalad (4:52)

Total : 1h36

Christian Vander : drums
Klaus Blasquiz . vocals
Francis Moze : bass
Teddy Lasry : soprano sax, flute, derbouka
François Cahen : keyboards
Jean-Luc Manderlier : organ
Jeff Seffer : tenor sax

AUD > reel-to-reel (Scotch, 9.5 ips, master ?, mono) > wav (16/44) > flac

Magmasystems Notes:

This is the first time that these recordings have been released. The original reels came from "A French Gentleman" who stumbled upon the various Magma blogs and who, as it turned out, had seen Magma several times in the 1970's. The gentleman not only had some assorted photographs, but had recorded various concerts. These tapes made their way to a well known DIME contributor who wishes to remain anonymous at this time. This person spent quite a bit of time digitizing the music and trying to clean up the sound. Some of these efforts were successful, some were not so ... as will be apparent in some later releases. I have dubbed these recordings "The French Gentlemen Tapes", and after about two years, I have been given permission to share these through time. Much thanks go to the Gentleman, as well as Trahnsferheur.

If you want to find out more about Magma's appearence at Chateauvallon, read the article here:

http://kohntarkosz.blogspot.com/2009/11/best-no-51-magma-chateauvallon-1972.html

"It was half past two in the morning when Magma could take possession of the stage because in addition to having nothing to say CTI said slowly. Magma begins to play and two hours sweeping and ridicules everything that had been previously submitted to and Châteauvallon. The outstanding musician, a remarkable singer, all led by a crazy drummer who knows what he wants and what he can get, as this is Magma which confirmed what we already believed, namely that they are the best European group and they may arise in the face of monsters equal Anglo-Saxon. The atmosphere and the climate created by Magma are not unlike those of James Brown, that the hypnotic rhythm crushes everything in its path and hungry machine that swallows you whole if you happen to take leave your finger. Faced with this demonic rhythmic change of high-class musicians like Francois Cahen, whose piano solo was reminiscent of Keith Jarrett. It should also emphasize the virtuosity of the singer Klaus, he would name them one by one as all are outstanding, but above all Magma is a group and certainly the largest that we had in France.

The ovation they gathered was the most enormous sounds in the pines festival Châteauvallon and the last image I retain is that of three thousand people standing, screaming, asking over at half past four in the morning."

VanderTop 1976

This is the last photo from the book Les Genies du Rock. Thanks to Akoustikus for taking the time to scan and to send me these pictures.

This one is a well-known photo of the 1976 VanderTop formation. However, this version has the sharpest resolution of any of the version that I have previously seen.

Akoustikus Photo of the Day

This looks like it is around 1978 ... which is one of my least favorite periods of the Magma legacy.