Magma - Live (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) [2LP Blue]

Magma's Live returns for its 50th anniversary as a deluxe, remastered double LP on blue vinyl in a gatefold jacket, capturing Christian Vander's band at full, ferocious power.

The story behind it is almost as dramatic as the music. After a punishing 1974 tour left the group in pieces, Vander rebuilt Magma around singer Klaus Blasquiz and a crop of new players, including a young violinist named Didier Lockwood. In June 1975 the new line-up took over the Taverne de l'Olympia in Paris for a run of shows produced by Giorgio Gomelsky, and the tapes kept rolling.

What came out is zeuhl in its purest, most physical form: chanted vocals in Vander's invented Kobaïan language, hammering bass from Bernard Paganotti, twin keyboards and drumming that seems to propel the whole room. "Köhntark" stretches across two full sides, a slow-building ritual that erupts into something close to rapture.

The second record is just as gripping. "Kobah" and "Hhaï" reveal a more melodic, soul-inflected side of the band, before the long, roaring "Mëkanïk Zaïn" brings the set to a breathless close.

Long regarded as one of the great live albums of the 1970s, this set remains the ideal entry point for anyone curious about Magma, and an essential shelf companion for those already converted.