KÖHNTARKÖSZ

Magma are one of those bands where I like about half of what they do, and the other half is just OK. Kohntarkosz is an album that has been really hard for me to decide whether I like it or not. Everything that has defined Magma in the past is here, but I'm just not "getting it" this time 'round.

The 2 track title-suite is a big miss for me. I've acknowledged that a lot of the transitions between passages and the passages themselves are executed very professionally, and they sound perfect, and it's all wonderfully written, but the only part of this suite that I actually found to be interesting and able to stick with me is the bass groove at around 3 minutes into the first half of the epic "Kohntarkosz". That passage only lasts for about a minute, and enjoying 1 minute out of a 32 minute epic isn't a good sign for me. The rest of the epic, even the more energetic second half, is just so boring. Everything moves so slowly without creating any atmosphere or memorable motifs, or emotion even. I've never been a fan of the Magma operatic vocals, because they always sound unemotional and the vibrato sounds terrible, in my opinion. I just think other zeuhl bands do everything better than Magma, which is odd to say.

The last two tracks are still bland and boring tracks with no development. "Ork Alarm" is just a chuggy cello riff with caveman chanting, and "Coltrane S'ndia" is an uneventful and failed attempt at creating a beautiful and atmospheric piano-based track.

I want to like Magma, and I've always tried to like Magma, but most of their work is just boring. Definitely theatrical and dramatic, but it just isn't interesting. Great musicians, bizarre music with no emotion.