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@johnny – I love this!
Quote:If there was a Nobel prize for rock music, MP would be close contenders for the first nomination. Exaggerated? Fan view? Probably. But…Motorpsycho do not just "copy" or "replay" or "milk" 70s rock, be it progressive, heavy, folky or whatever. Motorpsycho do to 70s rock musically what Bob Dylan has done to the american folk blues canon: took it up, wrestled with it, re-shaped it, re-interpreted it and spit it out as something intelligent, new and still recognizably old at the same time – and definitively their own.
And I completely agree with you and suntripper regarding the inadequacy of language to describe the, er, ineffable. :lol:
@suntripper – I have to say that poetry, a few exceptions aside, leaves me cold. And it took me years before I really started to appreciate lyrics (thank you Miss Mitchell with your pills and powders and passion plays). But outside of the musical setting I just don't feel it. Anyway, yes I read Autobiography of a Yogi and a couple of Hesse books, including Siddartha. Loved Siddartha and Steppenwolf. For some reason I never read The Glass Bead Game (Das Glasperlenspiel), though people kept telling me I should. I'm not familiar with Zanoni at all. I read Von Daniken's Chariot of the Gods back in the early 70s. It was a fantastic read, as I remember. Exciting ideas and possibilities to the mind of a 13-year-old kid or anyone with a vivid imagination.
I listened to DDU a couple of days ago and reread the lyrics. Obviously it's strongly narrative, and it seems very literary to me. Another story of transformation, it too seems to end in an epiphany of sorts (Into the Mystic), though the nature of both the journey and the realization are fairly ugly. But, the narrator does seem to have conquered the fear of death, looking it in the face.
Death appears to be a motif in both N.O.X. and Begynnelser. Of course MP didn't write Begynnelser but it's a funny (non-?)coincidence. All three are also about life, beginnings, transcending the mundane and defying death.
I really don't know if life or death are themes in Folk Flest. I just haven't engaged with it that way at all. Like Magma's music (talk about concepts!!) (by which it's clearly influenced) I just love it and have never attempted to understand it. What I really need to do is sit down and read Johan Harstad's manifesto and the rest of the stuff in the booklet.
Talk about concepts!! Magma are a bloody weird band to try to describe to people. It's not too bad as you stumble through the unusual mix of musical elements, but when you add that it's sung in Kobaian and then have to explain all that, it starts to get really difficult to convince just how bloody brilliant this band is.
Have a good Sunday all
I never got to grips with the DDU concept/lyrics. Everytime I tried I was somehow transported into the world of Terry Jones' "Eric the viking" – and therefore DDU always has an underlying comic note for me. Probably never intended by MP
Kobaian: after being estranged, surprised, fascinated and equally irritated by that language it suddenly appeared to me that it may be just a Frenchman's concept to come to terms with the German language. German – without understanding the words – must have an equal effect to a foreign listener, especially one not used to germanic tongues. I consider the whole Magma concept as a way of – probably subconciously – coming to terms with the French occupation trauma during WW2: horror, submission, and at the same time the dark fascination of fascism, military order, Nazi uniforms and so on. It certainly all is mirrored in the Magma concept – probably expressed in the strong Carl Orff influence on the music. Of course the French counter culture of the 70s used the social taboos and fears (especially the dark Nazi elements) to express itself. Same thing probably happened – on another level – in England, from David Bowie and Lemmy Kilmister via Joy Division up to Prince Harry.
In Magma this dark side is outbalanced by the strong spiritual dimension which Vander always has explained as his Coltrane influence.
Daevid Allen has always described Magma as the shadow (band/aspect) of Gong – and vice versa. On the one hand total musical discipline, strong leadership, big Ego on Planet Kobaia, on the other hand loose, chaotic hippie mysticism on Planet Gong. When both bands went on tour together, which happened several times in the 70s, it would always be a brilliant evening for one band and a musical disaster for the other – with changing roles.
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