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Magma - Üdü Ẁüdü CD (album) cover

ÜDÜ ẀÜDÜ

Magma

 

Zeuhl

3.80 | 496 ratings

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SaltyJon
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
3 stars With this album, we see yet another change in sound from Vander and crew. Whereas the last three were pretty similar in that they were all basically album-long epics, this one changes up the format a bit and decides to go for some individual songs along the way. For a good while, this was one of my favorites, and it was one of my first few Magma albums. Unfortunately, this one hasn't held up as well over time as most of the others.

Side one is what I really don't like quite as much as previous (and most later) Magma material. The songs are still good, but for the most part they lack a certain, special something that the majority of Magma's material have for me. One good thing this side of the album did for me was introduce me to Bernard Paganotti and his intensely fuzzy bass. He would be put to much better use on Magma's live albums and in his own band, Weidorje, though. One of my favorite parts on side one, "Zombies" was updated and put to MUCH better use in the band's most recent album, Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré. This side of the album is "merely" good, which as far as Magma goes is below par in my opinion. There aren't any bad songs on this side, but none of them are exactly amazing, either...except the previously mentioned "Zombies" and "Soleil d'Ork", which has a nice funky bass line throughout. Side two, however, is another story. What we get here is the incredible "De Futura". This track was the first track I truly loved from this album, and it's remained my favorite over the years. It starts off chugging along, but as things go on it builds in intensity and speed to an incredible climax before disappearing, leaving you wishing for more. The atmosphere throughout the song is pretty mysterious/dark, definitely well done. As other reviewers have said, this track alone is worth the purchase of the album.

Overall, I would not recommend this album as a starting place for Magma. Once you're acquainted with the band's overall sound and atmosphere, though, it's not a bad place to go. The followup, Attahk, will take the style of the first half of this album, improve upon it, and change it into a much better (in my opinion, of course) style, bringing out the jazz/fusion style of the band for an incredible album. This one, though, is deserving of something around a 3-3.5.

SaltyJon | 3/5 |

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