This is one artist I really love. Now, as I was skimming through his various works in Google Images I noticed something outrageously awesome. Observe this:
And now this:
Apparently, Magritte has had over the years a subtle relationship with popular music from decades after his quote-unquote death. How could he have achieved this? Was he in fact a time traveler? That is the only logical explanation.
Needless to say, I'm blown away. My very view of life, the Universe and Everything can never be the same.
I'm not sure what my many legions of adoring readers think of this band called "The Mars Volta", but I happen to think know that they're the best thing that happened to music since Adrian Belew joined forces with Robert Fripp. Anyway, we've all been eagerly awaiting their sixth album for too much fucking time. Octahedron was released way back in 2009... What's up with that, Omar? And though there's still no absolutely certain release date, at least now we have a title:
All I can say for certain is, it'll sound like the complete opposite of whatever any of us expect. But it's not up to us to question Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, for He works in mysterious ways.
Above: my own masterfully executed tribute to Gentle Giant
This is one band which really BLEW MY FUCKING MIND. I truly admire them beyond words. Each individual band member can play every instrument ever invented, and play it well. Just look at this:
Far out man... You can get their debut album here. Can you believe this stuff was released way back in 19-fucking-70? Way ahead of anything else from that year. If you want a few specific high points, I'd have to say that they are "Giant", "Funny Ways", "Alucard", "Isn't it Quiet and Cold?", "Nothing at All", "Why Not?" and "The Queen". Download the thing.
Interesting title, eh? It is in fact in Kobaïan - a language spoken on the planet Kobaïa (duh!). This planet is the birthplace of drummer and musical mastermind Christian Vander and the setting of most (if not all) of this French band's albums.
You know how Pink Floyd were famous for their grandiose concept albums? Well, Vander took that idea to the next level, and through the years has built up a concept discography with Magma. Over ten studio albums, they tell the (surprisingly long and confusing) story of a group of people fleeing a doomed Earth to settle on the
planet Kobaïa, With conflict(s) arising when the Kobaïans — descendants of
the original colonists — encounter other Earth refugees. All of this is explained in Kobaïan of course, making the albums' liner notes (or alternatively, the internets) the only way to figure out what the hell they're singing about. And they don't even tell the story in chronological order!
Apart from that, what makes this band revolutionary? For one thing, their sound: imagine a Carl Orff-meets-jazz-and-plays-hypnotically-repetitive-militaristic-compositions, sung by a choir with some ridiculously exaggerated falsetto vocals. And dare I say that there's a hint of Philip Glass style minimalism? That's pretty much what Magma sound like on this album. It is a sound which transcends all musical genres, to the point where the label zeuhl had to be applied to their music (and subsequently that of other French bands that would follow in their footsteps). Zeuhl is a Kobaïan word meaning "celestial". How cool is that? Playing music for which no human word exists? Pretty rad in my opinion!
