Magma were stunning at the Marquee in 1973. Rarely is it our privilege to hear music of such an intensity and integrity. I had gone with great interest for their latest album, I thought, was truly outstanding. But I doubted their ability to reproduce that dense, structured sound on stage, particularly in the foreign surroundings of the Marquee. I need not have worried. For a start Magma are evidently total professionals, though I doubt whether it's the description they would apply to themselves.
Magma were an eight piece French group led by Christian Vander who devotes most of his own time and creativity to it and evidently demands that the players who make up the group do so as well. Vander is the drummer, and with him were three vocalists - a girl and two men, who doubled on percussion and a curious instrument known as a contrebass clarinet, which requires a microphone at well over head height - plus two keyboards, bass and guitar.
Of course it's strongly rhythmic, based around Christian Vander's inspiring drumming, at the same time simple in its appeal and extremely complex in its structure: and though the voices (all lyrics are in Vander's imaginary language Kobaïan - another quite conscious reprise of existing traditions) seem to serve only as a rhythmic function, you soon found yourself floated away by unsuspectedly beautiful melody lines. Perhaps the link was the incredible Jannick Top, whose swift and fluid bass fingering liased between the three part vocals of Klaus Blasquiz, René Garber and Stella Vander, and the constantly changing drum patterns of Vander, which he pared down to the bare minimum essentials to suggest the rhythmic subtleties, leaving himself plenty of space for the very considerable muscle he exercises.
The band's constant attack comes straight from the drums outwards and characterizes all sections of the group - the way that the group works is as a band comprised of sections. Magma's overall approach is orchestral but the result is a hybrid music which comes as near to the totally original as I've heard in years.
Magma would be a bit too much to take for many people. It challenged too many of our comfortably middle-aged assumptions of what pop music was all about. But for those who go with open ears, who still have the ability to enjoy the unpredictable and unheard, it's an experience not to be missed.