1001° CENTIGRADES [AKA: 2]

What an inferior cover pictured here compared to the beautiful colourful original of the vinyl issue. But now to the music: First a fierce bass-line accompanied by Vander's drumming kicks in, then making it's musical appearance is the electric piano, then the woodwinds and finally Blasquiz' fascinating and almost unbelievable vocal work in a foreign self-invented language, and by then "Rïah Sahïltaahk" is blasting through the speakers in all it's musical splendour, very energetic and extremely well-played epic piece of music, it never bores me, it's constantly evolving throughout the 21 minutes, full of constant changes in rhythm and melody, but succeeds in never actually losing it cohesiveness, there are even plenty of occasionally catchy jazz-like textures. I see "Rïah Sahïltaahk" as a very well accomplished bridge between the first more "jazzy" LP, and their future signature Zeuhl sound, albeit "Rïah Sahïltaahk" is more closer to the sound of their first LP. The second side is consisting of two compositions not composed by Vander, they are much closer in spirit to what you hear on Magma's first LP. All though not quite the absolute splendour and mesmerizing energy of "Rïah Sahïltaahk", Lasry's "Iss" Lanseï Doïa" and Cahen's "Ki ïahl ö lïahk" are nothing short of brilliant, very solid jazzy compositions. Overall I rate this splendid record approximately about 4.75 stars.