Music Banter - View Single Post - I know what I like: Trollheart's History of Progressive Rock and Progressive Metal

Trollheart · 06-06-2021, 05:19 AM

Zeuhl? Logical?

(Honestly, I don't know if it's pronounced that way, but I'll be damned if I'll pass up an opportunity for a good pun!)

The next band coined the term and created the style of progressive rock which came to be known as Zeuhl. Here. let Wiki explain. I’m going for a cup of tea.I feel I may need it.

Christian Vander has described the style of progressive rock that he developed with Magma in France from 1969 onwards as "zeuhl". Dominique Leone, writing for Pitchfork, says the style is "about what you'd expect an alien rock opera to sound like: massed, chanted choral motifs, martial, repetitive percussion, sudden bursts of explosive improv and just as unexpected lapses into eerie, minimalist trance-rock." The term comes from Kobaïan, the fictional language created by Vander for Magma. He has said that it means celestial; that "Zeuhl music means 'vibratory music'" and that zeuhl is "L'esprit au travers de la matière. That is Zeuhl. Zeuhl is also the sound which you can feel vibrating in your belly. Pronounce the word Zeuhl very slowly, and stress the letter 'z' at the beginning, and you will feel your body vibrating."

Album title: Magma
Artist: Magma
Nationality: French
Label: Philips
Chronology: Debut
Grade: B
Previous Experience of this Artist: Zero
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Landmark value: As it kicked off a whole new sub-genre of prog (though seemingly restricted to French bands) it has to have a high LV.
Tracklisting: "Kobaïa/Aïna/Malaria/Sohïa/Sckxyss/Auraë/Thaud Zaïa/Naü Ektila/Stöah/Mûh
Comments: Sure are a lot of strange accents and things in these titles! That’s because, apparently, the album is sung, not in English nor even in French, but in "Kobaïan", a made-up language created by the band to tie in with the concept of the album, which apparently follows exiles from Earth as they set up on another planet (the aforementioned Kobaïa) and promptly go to war against other fellow ex-Earthers. Lovely. Look, it’s going to be a pain in the arse copying and pasting these titles, so what say I just write them without all the little accents? After all, it’s not even a real language, so who am I going to offend? Non-existent aliens? That cool with you? No? Tough: I’m doing it anyway.

Oh come on! It’s a double album? Sigh. I feel this may be a slog. Oh well, ad astra, as they say. And the first track is ten minutes long. Sigh again. Right, well forget about lyrics, as, like I said, this is written and sung in Magma’s own fictitious language, so we’ll have to concentrate on the music, which from the off is upbeat and fast, sort of jazzy with a good amount of flute. Pretty frenetic stuff, which is really nothing new, but then, as described above, the characteristics of what will become I guess Zeuhl come into play, as three minutes in the music basically stops, brings in a sort of declaimed vocal speaking against almost nothing, the music then becoming somewhat barebones before picking up again, this time with the vocal in the background. There’s some nice piano and bass, but I kind of get the feeling this won’t be for me. I expect Frownland loves this sort of thing.

I’m not entirely sure what the idea is behind writing an album in a made-up language. I get the thinking behind it, with the story and all, but how anyone is supposed to know what’s going on is beyond me. You could of course say the same of any “foreign”-language album, but there’s always the option of meeting someone who knows that language and can translate for you. Far as I know, there aren’t too many Kobaïans around here. It just makes what is on the face of it a disagreeable proposal to me even worse and harder to get to grips with. The second track just baffled me, but at least there’s some nice laid back piano and guitar on “Malaria”, though attended by rather forceful drumming and a sort of solo chant. “Sohia” definitely has a very spooky, seventies science fiction atmosphere to it, thick pulsing bass line and what sounds like brass (sax, maybe? Trumpet?) along with some rocky guitar. Think it may be an instrumental here. Actually, not quite: there is a sort of low chant comes in later on.

Overall, so far, I find this a pretty annoying blend of jazz fusion and what I can only call the most arrogant self-indulgence I have ever come across. These guys make Dream Theater sound restrained and humble. Jesus. This sort of music will never be for me. It’s really hard to even describe it, but I can confirm it’s giving me a headache. Just going to let it do its thing now and if anything interests me I’ll poke my head out, but right now I’m in hiding till this is over.

There’s a nice kind of Romanesque march-y thing in “Thaud Zaia”, puts me in mind of those old Biblical films, a sort of solo vocal chant again but I’d have to say this is about (so far) the only track that hasn’t made me want to extract my own teeth with rusty pliers rather than continue listening to this album. Maybe there’s hope. But I doubt there’s much of it. Nice flute ending. That wasn’t terrible. And neither is the next one, at least when it begins, on gentle acoustic guitar and maybe soprano sax? Never really sure. It’s the longest track though, at thirteen minutes and I doubt it will remain this way all through its length. “Nau Ektila” does of course morph into something much different, conga drums and sax and flute and god knows what all piling into the mix and making it sound like some sort of lambada on mescaline, possibly. Goes all wild and frantic freakout then slows down into a nice pastoral section with a soft vocal which of course doesn’t last. I suppose you’d have to give it to them and say these guys are nothing if not versatile, and also impatient to jump to a new style every few minutes.

I very much like the piano run here, about the eighth minute, and were it to stay like this, notwithstanding the freakorama just prior to this, I could even be entering this under the definitely to be sparsely populated “favourite tracks” section, but I doubt it will. Well spin my nipple nuts and send me to Alaska! It did. Well I never. That’s two tracks then. Wow. Only two tracks left to go, but this is Magma so that means another twenty minutes of this nonsense. Hey, maybe the trend will continue from the last two tracks? A screeching voice and doomy sax quickly disabuses me of that notion, and I’m off to walk the dog. And I don’t even have a dog!

I guess in the final analysis the problem I see with this music - or at least, this album - is that while there are some good ideas - nice melodies, good instrumental passages, even some decent singing, it too often breaks down into shouts, chants, screams and improvisational jazz figures to make it possible to really point to a track and say I like that one. Almost always, I can say I like this part but not that part, and there are really only two tracks here I can say I quite like.

To be perfectly honest, that’s two more than I thought there’d be.

Favourite track(s): Thaud Zaia, Nau Ektila
Least favourite track(s): Everything else. Most with a passion.
Overall impression: If this is Zeuhl, count me as not a fan. Has most of the things I hate about avant-garde, experimental, jazz etc. Sure, I can accept its importance as the beginning of a new form of prog rock, but it ain’t for these ears, son.
Personal Rating:

Legacy Rating:

Final Rating:

06-06-2021, 05:19 AM	#207 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,971	Zeuhl? Logical? (Honestly, I don't know if it's pronounced that way, but I'll be damned if I'll pass up an opportunity for a good pun!) The next band coined the term and created the style of progressive rock which came to be known as Zeuhl. Here. let Wiki explain. I’m going for a cup of tea.I feel I may need it. Christian Vander has described the style of progressive rock that he developed with Magma in France from 1969 onwards as "zeuhl". Dominique Leone, writing for Pitchfork, says the style is "about what you'd expect an alien rock opera to sound like: massed, chanted choral motifs, martial, repetitive percussion, sudden bursts of explosive improv and just as unexpected lapses into eerie, minimalist trance-rock." The term comes from Kobaïan, the fictional language created by Vander for Magma. He has said that it means celestial; that "Zeuhl music means 'vibratory music'" and that zeuhl is "L'esprit au travers de la matière. That is Zeuhl. Zeuhl is also the sound which you can feel vibrating in your belly. Pronounce the word Zeuhl very slowly, and stress the letter 'z' at the beginning, and you will feel your body vibrating." Album title: Magma Artist: Magma Nationality: French Label: Philips Chronology: Debut Grade: B Previous Experience of this Artist: Zero The Trollheart Factor: 0 Landmark value: As it kicked off a whole new sub-genre of prog (though seemingly restricted to French bands) it has to have a high LV. Tracklisting: "Kobaïa/Aïna/Malaria/Sohïa/Sckxyss/Auraë/Thaud Zaïa/Naü Ektila/Stöah/Mûh Comments: Sure are a lot of strange accents and things in these titles! That’s because, apparently, the album is sung, not in English nor even in French, but in "Kobaïan", a made-up language created by the band to tie in with the concept of the album, which apparently follows exiles from Earth as they set up on another planet (the aforementioned Kobaïa) and promptly go to war against other fellow ex-Earthers. Lovely. Look, it’s going to be a pain in the arse copying and pasting these titles, so what say I just write them without all the little accents? After all, it’s not even a real language, so who am I going to offend? Non-existent aliens? That cool with you? No? Tough: I’m doing it anyway. Oh come on! It’s a double album? Sigh. I feel this may be a slog. Oh well, ad astra, as they say. And the first track is ten minutes long. Sigh again. Right, well forget about lyrics, as, like I said, this is written and sung in Magma’s own fictitious language, so we’ll have to concentrate on the music, which from the off is upbeat and fast, sort of jazzy with a good amount of flute. Pretty frenetic stuff, which is really nothing new, but then, as described above, the characteristics of what will become I guess Zeuhl come into play, as three minutes in the music basically stops, brings in a sort of declaimed vocal speaking against almost nothing, the music then becoming somewhat barebones before picking up again, this time with the vocal in the background. There’s some nice piano and bass, but I kind of get the feeling this won’t be for me. I expect Frownland loves this sort of thing. I’m not entirely sure what the idea is behind writing an album in a made-up language. I get the thinking behind it, with the story and all, but how anyone is supposed to know what’s going on is beyond me. You could of course say the same of any “foreign”-language album, but there’s always the option of meeting someone who knows that language and can translate for you. Far as I know, there aren’t too many Kobaïans around here. It just makes what is on the face of it a disagreeable proposal to me even worse and harder to get to grips with. The second track just baffled me, but at least there’s some nice laid back piano and guitar on “Malaria”, though attended by rather forceful drumming and a sort of solo chant. “Sohia” definitely has a very spooky, seventies science fiction atmosphere to it, thick pulsing bass line and what sounds like brass (sax, maybe? Trumpet?) along with some rocky guitar. Think it may be an instrumental here. Actually, not quite: there is a sort of low chant comes in later on. Overall, so far, I find this a pretty annoying blend of jazz fusion and what I can only call the most arrogant self-indulgence I have ever come across. These guys make Dream Theater sound restrained and humble. Jesus. This sort of music will never be for me. It’s really hard to even describe it, but I can confirm it’s giving me a headache. Just going to let it do its thing now and if anything interests me I’ll poke my head out, but right now I’m in hiding till this is over. There’s a nice kind of Romanesque march-y thing in “Thaud Zaia”, puts me in mind of those old Biblical films, a sort of solo vocal chant again but I’d have to say this is about (so far) the only track that hasn’t made me want to extract my own teeth with rusty pliers rather than continue listening to this album. Maybe there’s hope. But I doubt there’s much of it. Nice flute ending. That wasn’t terrible. And neither is the next one, at least when it begins, on gentle acoustic guitar and maybe soprano sax? Never really sure. It’s the longest track though, at thirteen minutes and I doubt it will remain this way all through its length. “Nau Ektila” does of course morph into something much different, conga drums and sax and flute and god knows what all piling into the mix and making it sound like some sort of lambada on mescaline, possibly. Goes all wild and frantic freakout then slows down into a nice pastoral section with a soft vocal which of course doesn’t last. I suppose you’d have to give it to them and say these guys are nothing if not versatile, and also impatient to jump to a new style every few minutes. I very much like the piano run here, about the eighth minute, and were it to stay like this, notwithstanding the freakorama just prior to this, I could even be entering this under the definitely to be sparsely populated “favourite tracks” section, but I doubt it will. Well spin my nipple nuts and send me to Alaska! It did. Well I never. That’s two tracks then. Wow. Only two tracks left to go, but this is Magma so that means another twenty minutes of this nonsense. Hey, maybe the trend will continue from the last two tracks? A screeching voice and doomy sax quickly disabuses me of that notion, and I’m off to walk the dog. And I don’t even have a dog! I guess in the final analysis the problem I see with this music - or at least, this album - is that while there are some good ideas - nice melodies, good instrumental passages, even some decent singing, it too often breaks down into shouts, chants, screams and improvisational jazz figures to make it possible to really point to a track and say I like that one. Almost always, I can say I like this part but not that part, and there are really only two tracks here I can say I quite like. To be perfectly honest, that’s two more than I thought there’d be. Favourite track(s): Thaud Zaia, Nau Ektila Least favourite track(s): Everything else. Most with a passion. Overall impression: If this is Zeuhl, count me as not a fan. Has most of the things I hate about avant-garde, experimental, jazz etc. Sure, I can accept its importance as the beginning of a new form of prog rock, but it ain’t for these ears, son. Personal Rating: Legacy Rating: Final Rating: __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 06-06-2021 at 09:24 AM.