This track Otis is from Magma's 1984 album Merci, which was a very different Magma album from their other work. It is closer to soul music that the large-scale progressive work that they are better known for.
Magma's creative force, drummer Christian Vander, has always been open about the way Magma was influenced by jazz and soul music, and it was on this album that the soul influence was most noticeable, breaking with the heavy progressive sound that they had been previously associated with.
It's not the most popular album with Magma fans, the band seemingly trying a new musical direction that didn't meet entirely with success. The only band members at the time who were in the earlier line ups were Vander and his wife Stella, and they would soon revert to work that was more in keeping with their earlier vision.
Don't worry about not understanding the lyrics. Vander took a decision to step around the problem of French bands not being understood by the English speaking listener by having the band's lyrics in Kobian, their own language, apparently the language spoken by aliens from the planet Kobaia who are descended from refugees from Earth.
I love this video on account of the Eurovision Song Contest stylings of the show, with Vander a most unlikley crooner. To a Magma fan like me it also seems curiously subversive. I wonder how many people picked up their more difficult work after hearing this?
It's not the first time I've featured Magma, and it will not be I expect the last time they pop up on Vive le Roq
There is more Magma on the vey active Zeuhl and Beyond blog >
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