Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh - Magma

Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh - Magma, 1973

1. Hortz Fur Dëhn Štekëhn Ẁešt - 9:36
2. Ïma Süri Dondaï - 4:30
3. Kobaïa Is de Hündïn - 3:34
4. Da Zeuhl Ẁortz Mëkanïk - 7:48
5. Nebëhr Gudahtt - 6:02
6. Mëkanïk Kömmandöh - 4:10
7. Kreühn Köhrmahn Ïss Dëh Hündïn - 3:13

A classically influenced choral song cycle sung in the language of a colonizing alien race, Magma's Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh is the pinnacle of this unique French band's musical vision. Originally written as the third part of a trilogy chronicling the war between Kobaïa and Earth, it was the first to be recorded, with part two (Ẁurdah Ïtah) following the next year, and the first (Theusz Hamtaahk) only released on live albums.

Though divided into seven tracks, Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh is a single musical piece, with a break between tracks 3 and 4 (where you would have had to turn over the record). The music is heavily percussive, with drums, piano, xylophone, and other tuned percussion driving the songs forward. Rhythmic repetition and manipulation create a ritualistic, hypnotic, primal sound that resembles chant. Brass, woodwinds, electric guitar, bass, piano, organ, and synthesizer flesh out the megalithic sound, but the real motive force is found in the impassioned choral vocal arrangements. Turning on a dime from heavenly, almost gospel-influenced celebrations to operatic screams, wails, and portents, the singers on this project truly create the atmosphere and communicate the tale in spite of the "language" barrier.

The story (so I'm told) involves the benevolent Kobaïans offering their protection to the remaining humans on Earth, as long as they adopt Kobaïan culture and religion. The recalcitrant humans refuse, forcing the aliens to unleash technological destruction. The music is sufficiently doom-laden and intense, yet there are many moments of musical light throughout. The pacing and dynamics are perfect, ratcheting up the intensity only to release it in cyclical patterns of musical catharsis.

For the adventurous, Magma offers a unique and compelling musical vision. At times frightening, at others uplifting, this French group created music the like of which can be encountered nowhere else.

Arbitrary rating:  5 out of 5 operatic screams, wails, and portents

1001° Centigrades - Magma

1001° Centigrades - Magma (1971)

1. Rïah Sahïltaahk - 21:45
2. "Iss" Lanseï Doïa - 11:46
3. Ki Ïahl Ö Lïahk - 8:23

French progressive band Magma stands alone in the annals of rock music. Founding member and primary composer Christian Vander (drums) sought to tell an epic tale, spread over ten albums, about the destruction of Earth, the assimilation of humanity into an alien race on the planet Kobaïa, and the conflict between the Kobaïans and the remnant of humanity left behind on Earth. Since human culture ultimately does not survive, the story is told by the alien overlords, in their own language. The fact that the albums are sung in Kobaïan, a phonetic language invented by the band, is just one of many other-worldly elements of the music.

The three lengthy pieces on Magma's second album are stylistically rooted in jazz, but they also feature many of the musical elements the band would make their trademark: rhythmic repetition, complex song structure, creative chord changes, chant-like melodies, and (of course) Kobaïan lyrics. I believe the story centers around the Kobaïans returning to an almost uninhabitable Earth to search for other human survivors, but I can't prove it... The jazz focus lightens the sound of an otherwise intense album, with plenty of adventurous horn and woodwind charts decorating the complex structures. The opening "Rïah Sahïltaahk" is a veritable cornucopia of styles, encompassing up-tempo (almost danceable) Kobaïan party songs, symphonic instrumental vignettes, creative jazz arrangements, and menacing monotone war chants, punctuated by percussive blasts from Vander. The whole forms an organic and entrancing journey - impressive in its own right, but also a noteworthy warm-up for the band's later album-length song suites.

The two other songs offer musical treasures of their own. "'Iss' Lanseï Doïa" starts with mercurial bass, piano, and fluttering woodwinds before picking up into a horn-led modern jazz madrigal replete with intertwining harmonies among the many instrumentalists. When lead singer Klaus Blasquiz comes in, he lurches back and forth between a sunny theme and a guttural, amelodic vocal over chilly Fender Rhodes piano and haunting xylophone. Fascinating. The closing "Ki Ïahl Ö Lïahk" features some more traditional musical elements, including an impressive piano solo from Francois Cahen, but it too cycles through a fair number of styles, alternatively invigorating and spooky.

Perhaps a bit more inviting than later Magma albums, 1001° Centigrades is an impressive opus in the realm of creative rock and jazz. Though jazz never disappears from the band's palate, the sound would morph drastically with their next album...

Arbitrary rating: 4.5 out of 5 modern jazz madrigals

Ziltoid the Omniscient - Devin Townsend

Ziltoid the Omniscient (Devin Townsend, 2007)

1. ZTO - 1:18
2. By Your Command - 8:10
3. Ziltoidia Attaxx!!! - 3:43
4. Solar Winds - 9:46
5. Hyperdrive - 3:47
6. N9 - 5:30
7. Planet Smasher - 5:45
8. Omnidimensional Creator - 0:48
9. Color Your World - 9:44
10. The Greys - 4:15
11. Tall Latte - 1:03

What a trip!  An unholy alliance of progressive rock, death metal, Broadway, ambient, choral, spoken word, science fiction, and (most importantly) humor, Ziltoid the Omniscient charts the nefarious doings of the title character, a self-important, megalomaniacal alien who seeks to destroy Earth after the humans fail to deliver him the ultimate cup of coffee. The over-the-top story hides a fairly humble message: that behind the biggest bluster lies frailty and smallness.

Though every element of this album is pretty fantastic, my favorite part is the humor, particularly the spoken word portions. Everything is delivered with such a grandiose mock-seriousness, particularly Ziltoid's lines. Consider these chestnuts (though I feel like I should be typing them in all caps):

"If there were to be two omnisciences, I would be both! Prepare for the subjugation!"
"Check this out!" (crazy guitar solo) "Simple!  I am the greatest guitar player ever to have lived!"
"Curses! They must have jumped into hyperdrive. Phooey!  Indeed, phooey!"

The music is complex and intense, with layer upon layer of orchestration. Townsend plays all instruments, including the drum machine - and it qualifies as artistic use of what is often thought of as a cheat.  No one could play the drum parts on this album - he programmed unnatural, intense, brutal drums in the heavy sections, adding an alien musicality to his extraterrestrial narrative.  However, there are many moments of tender beauty and mystery in the music as well, particularly in "Solar Winds", "N9", and "Color Your World". Multiple vocal parts form harmonies and choirs at key points, and the emotional arc of the music matches the story.

The story isn't strictly an amusing sci-fi concept. It bleeds through to metafiction and metaphysics with ease, and it is easy to see the world-conquering alien who can't conquer a world as the ambitious musician trying to write "the greatest album ever". This self-deprecating twist makes the album endearing and humble, odd words for an opus that, on the surface, is a pretentious and demanding musical journey, and that certainly is a virtuostic and larger-than-life creation.

Arbitrary rating: 5 out of 5 self-deprecating twists

Flight To Arras - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Flight To Arras (Saint-Exupery, 1942)

A memoir of the final days of France's fight against the invading Germans in 1940, Flight to Arras covers a lot of philosophical and emotional ground. Saint-Exupery uses a flight into German territory as a springboard for portraying the disillusion, disorder, and seeming futility of the final missions of a French army in defeat. Forced to offer his life on a meaningless mission almost certain to end in death, his brush with mortality reawakens him to the reason he is fighting in the first place.

The stirring realism of the book puts you in the cockpit of a touchy, malfunctioning fighter plane, attacked by invisible bands of German pilots and an intense barrage of anti-aircraft gunnery as it attempts to gather intelligence on the German position and arms. There is no glorification or bragging here, rather the picture of men performing duty, the details and immediate needs of their situation distracting them from comprehending the shadow of impending death.

Since Saint-Exupery is a poet at heart, there are several deeply poetic scenes and images mixing freely with the exploding shells and rising flames of the burning town. He also chronicles the general picture of France's retreat: streets clogged with evacuating people, lines cut between commanders and front line soldiers, men fighting and dying to no purpose, with no ability to stop the invading army.

At the end, Saint-Exupery has several epiphanies which contain a lot of truth, but his conclusions ultimately fall short for me.  The next to last chapter is the most convincing sermon for secular humanism that I've ever heard, but I'm still not convinced. He concludes (truly) that men must have something greater than themselves to live and die for; that each person and culture has value beyond the mere number of people or the individual identities of each person; that equality transcends identity or sameness; and that a great community will risk one for many AND many for one. The recurring image he has is that of a heap of stones opposed to a cathedral. The problem is, his cathedral has significance merely as a work of architectural art and cultural heritage. Feeling that God can no longer be used as our greater purpose, he proposes Man as the replacement - Man in the abstract, representing the potential for all human goodness and creativity. He makes a very good argument, but it rings hollow for me. Nevertheless, it does not negate the chronicle of thought that preceded it, and it is still a benefit to wrestle with the ideas that came forth from the author's soul-searching.

Arbitrary rating: 4 out of 5 shadows of impending death