Miles Davis - Fillmore West 10/18/70 

Very short, 40-minute and probably incomplete show from the mid-October stint that has slightly more well known dates. It’s too bad because this clip is generally up to about any other in the month of October and certainly comparable to anything in 1970. Band’s cranking hot here and the slight muffly tone doesn’t hurt the impact too much

Magma - Mythes et Legendes Volume II (DVD)

The second DVD in a planned series of four recorded at an already legendary four week residency at the Triton with special guests, this one came with more subdued responses than the first, although with Wurdah Itah, MDK and De Futura being the main compositional works, I found it hard to imagine at first, but then that’s us Magma collectors, splitting hairs, finding the gems among the gold so to speak. After the first 40 minutes, an absolutely staggering Wurdah Itah, with great vocal performances, especially from Antoine Paganotti, who is close to genius here, my slightly lowered expectations were trampled and after a break, Jannick Top walks on stage to take over as bassist for the rest of the night and I couldn’t wait.

I could argue about the bass tones a little, they’re not classic Magma and don’t cut into the mix as well, and to some extent Top’s was even more in this direction, despite the fact that watching him start up was like watching a classic jazz persona dominate the proceedings, there was all the maturity and cleverness of a bassist with decades of experience. However, when the stage was left to Top, as it was on several occasions during the performance (performances? I wasn’t watching for a compilation from the week), the solos left quite a bit to be desired, slow, often using loops and definitely not reflecting the energy of the Top of youth. Be that as it may, by the time MDK had reached it’s phenomenal climax, the Top of youth was exactly who it looked like on stage and with James MacGraw’s amazing guitar solo, whatever slowdowns the middle of MDK might have held were long forgotten.

More bass solos (or bathroom breaks if you prefer) followed, before the classic Vander Top collaboration finished the night, a De Futura that I probably wouldn’t classify as one of history’s best, let’s call it a workman’s version. However, and I should actually have returned to this point more often in this, the vocalists held it all together and it was amazing to watch them switch from the choirlike approach of MDK to a more chantlike one on De Futura. And it should be mentioned that Klaus Blasquiz returns for De Futura as part of the group.

Overall, it’s yet another great Magma DVD, although this isn’t likely to replace the Trilogie au Trianon set with the similarly overlap, despite some of the mixups. Fanatics are likely, like me, to be waiting for the third installment.

The Olivia Tremor Control - Emmaboda Festival, Rasslebygd, Emmaboda, Sweden 8/7/98,01

I think this is the last available Olivia Tremor Control “show” I had at hand (dug one more up after I wrote this) and it happens to be the best sounding of all of them, largely due to the FM sourcing. And with a better mix, things sound a hell of a lot better. I should mention, this appears to be a comp of two different shows or part of shows from the same festival but two different years. So the quality varies a bit between the two, but both are miles ahead of some of the audience recordings I’ve heard, where the audience becomes part of the multi-part harmonies. A couple of these versions might have a little fire in them too, something I wouldn’t swear to until next listen.