(KrautJazzRock) \Exmagma - Exmagma + Goldball (2 on 1) 2003, Germany - 2003, FLAC (image + .cue)

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The EXMAGMA LPs usually get filed under Krautrock, but there's nothing typically German in the way they develop their freeform experiments, that turn out to be well structured on the third hearing. No AMON DUUL freakouts, no metric rhythms a la CAN, and two albums that - though mostly instrumental - sound totally different. They've been often described as Jazz Rock, Fusion, or even Electronic Avant-Garde, but none of these pigeonholes could ever do them justice. Bored with YES, GENESIS, SUPERTRAMP and all the crap they nowadays try to sell you under "Symphonic-Prog", they dropped some acid and set sail for new shores, weaponed only with sticks, strings and keys.

The two German members of the group were Thomas BALLUFF from MULI & THE MISFITS (a '60s Mod-Soul band that depended on his Hammond B-3 grooves rather than on brass) and guitar and bass player Andy GOLDNER, who came from FIVE FOLD SHADE, Stuttgart’s premier R&B band in the PRETTY THINGS / YARDBIRDS category. Fred BRACEFUL, the late drummer, was born in Detroit and came to Germany with the US Army in the late '50s. He was a well-paid free-lancer in the early '60s, but never quite your standard jazz drummer who'd be content to build the backbone of a rhythm section. With like-minded keyboarder Wolgang DAUNER, he formed ET CETERA in 1970, a group that released one of the few real necessary and satisfying albums of a genre that we now know as Krautrock. (Back then we didn't call it Kraut, and Rock without Roll is a four letter word anyway.) When DAUNER started flirting with the eight letter word (jazzrock, dummy!), BRACEFUL joined MAGMA, the band that changed to EXMAGMA after finding out about the French outfit of the same name. (The fact that EXMAGMA's second LP was only released in France caused a lot of "who's who" guessing among collectors, especially as the French MAGMA sound a lot more Teutonic than EXMAGMA.)

Right on, what about the music? The eponymous first LP, recorded in 72, reminds me a lot of the late '60s SOFT MACHINE, taking a direction that probably wouldn’t have caused Robert WYATT to quit. There's no sign of bombastic or pathetic ingredients, which makes comparisons with PINK FLOYD misleading (unless you saw them after "Ummagumma" but before "Atom Heart Mother"). One side live, one side studio, EXMAGMA are pouring it all out and leave it up to you. Recommended to open minded explorers or acid eaters. Budweisers won't do the trick.
In early '73 EXMAGMA toured France, where their sound experiments were well received (though they always devided an audience to pro and contra factions) and stayed there for about two years. "Goldball" was recorded in Conny PLANK's sudio near Cologne, but only released on the tiny French label Urus.

While the debut was floating like a raft on sometimes stormy sea, this one grooves like HENDRIX jamming with Miles DAVIS, teaching each other "Dolly Dagger" and "Bitches Brew". (If you've ever heard Miles DAVIS play the organ instead of the trumpet, you'll know what I mean.) The second LP definitely is the more accessible record, but still a well deserved shock to those who associate groove with jazzrock. The spirit is Rock'n'Roll, the approach is improvisation. If you expect fusion, prepare for confusion. It's the kind of record that makes me curse myself for not arranging my collection alphabetically, I don't know where to put it thematically.
Even harder times are ahead: I received a promo copy of a third, previously unreleased EXMAGMA LP recorded in 1975.

It's yet another bundle of joy with lots of good vocals and weird as they are, songs that sometimes rock like hell. This, their most aggressive and mature epic, stayed in the can because their record company insisted on stripping the double album concept to a single LP. The band refused back then, but the two remaining members found a keen little company (sic!) 26 years later and "Exmagma3" will be out on Daily Records in the near future. Till then, have a whiff of their drug rock fusion.