MAGMA!!!
say it loud say it proud.
Big fan of Magma and Christian Vander. was a mild fan after getting a prog bands box set and heard two songs by them back in the mid 90's. Then I saw them in 2003 and was blown away by their performance. Yes Magma is a strange band that can throw you for a loop the first time you hear them. Christian Vander, the drummer, is the leader of the band and has replaced parts over the past 40+ years but has kept it going. I saw them again in 2007 and they were even better with some new young blood.
Magma blends fusion jazz with rock accents and them throws in a opera-like choir arrangement with four or five singers. As Tatoo'd lady stated they have their own language and the music is so different they basically created their own Genre (Zeuhl). Don't let the opera choir arrangement scare you away they are just as much a rocking intense band. Their new album that came out last year is excellent-this sums it up:
"The bulk of Emehntehtt-Re is taken up by the four-part title suite, which incorporates all the elements of the classic Magma sound — lightning-fast bass runs, stormy-but-fleet Elvin Jones-influenced drumming, Bartok-meets-Mahavishnu Orchestra harmonic sensibilities, and vocals that alternate between creepy, Carl Orff-like group chants and solo singing that combines stentorian, operatic tones and jazzy ululations. Discounting a quick outro, things close with the doomy clang of "Funehrarium Kanht," a properly intimidating track that could have fallen off the soundtrack to the scariest gothic horror film never made. Spooky, jazzy, bewildering, intimidating — if that doesn't add up to classic-sounding Magma, what does?"
1977 MAgma
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9yaYvrp3B4&feature=related
2006
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o0WPAE8v3o&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfEaAQFk0Is
If you like Magma check out this japanese influenced by MAgma band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiy8MHXUu8o
Magma NEARfest 07