ATTAHK

Definitely more of a group effort than ÜDÜ WÜDÜ. Also, more of an influence from contemporary R&B and black American spiritual music creeping in this time round. (explicitly so on "Spiritual", which is basically a gospel tune in Kobaïan!) This takes more of a turn towards fusion than the last three albums or so, which kind of shows Magma going full-circle, returning to their jazzy roots after some cosmic explorations.

This album finds Blasquiz somewhat marginalized, only really showing up for some odd alien vocalizations on "Maahnt", easily the strangest song here. The other tunes generally mate the distinct Magma intensity to white hot fusion playing, making this one incendiary record. Christian's voice has gone off on an R&B/soul-inflected falsetto tangent, which might rub some the wrong way, but which works for the type of music.

Alternately, "Rind[untypeable character]" and "Dondaï" are as close as Magma have ever come to "ballads". The latter is something you could even call "beautiful", a tune that wouldn't even scare Grandma. Yet it's utterly wonderful at the same time, utilizing the female backing vocals and layered keyboards to their best effect.

So, yeah...a little more of a conventional offering from Magma, but enough of their distinct personality shines through to make this one another winner. Probably one of the better places to start with the often rather daunting Magma oeuvre.