Produced by Giorgio Gomelsky and Magma
Bassist Jannick Top had had enough of Christian Vander after making three records with him, and thus quit the band after touring Köhntarkösz. He briefly rejoined to record their next studio record before quitting permanently, seemingly on the condition that he had more creative input (I’m speculating here), as this is essentially his record. He’d played sideman on Vander’s music for three of Vander’s big pieces, and now he wanted to contribute one of his own. And contribute he did, with great success — but more on that in a moment. There’s not really a band here — Vander and Top are the main musicians on this record, each overdubbing multiple instruments. Blasquiz also contributes to most of the songs — everyone else seems more like a session player.
Üdü Ẁüdü is a scattered collection of stuff that manages to be remarkably coherent given what it is. The band was feeling the market pressure to move towards greater accessibility, and thus greatly decreased the average song lengths. It’s a collection of abbreviated creative contributions by three different parties, with Top’s being the largest. All three went on to flesh out what was presented here, meaning that most of the material on this album was re-recorded later.
The first three tracks are unique to this record. It opens with Vander’s title track, clocking in at a mere 4 minutes — they truly were striving for greater accessibility. The first thing I notice is the return of the horn section, though it turns out that’s only for this song. It’s an interesting choice pairing the brash horn parts with percussion, as the drum kit is nowhere to be found in this song. It all feels a bit kitschy, especially with Vander doing his signature ridiculous heavy vibrato vocals buried near the back of the song. This track doesn’t really go anywhere — it just explores different melodies over what’s basically a one chord loop, stopping for a couple brief chord changes in the middle before returning to the loop.
This highlights my general issue with Vander’s shorter pieces from here on out — they all end up feeling underdeveloped, like decontextualized excerpts from a larger work. He really shines as a composer in long form settings — the smaller pieces never feel satisfying. As mentioned in the previous review, two of his pieces here literally are excerpts from Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré. Zombies (Ghost Dance) is such a great tune that it works relatively well on its own despite feeling like the excerpt it is. Tröller Tanz, the other Vander piece unique to this record, feels like a complement to Zombies. It’s a goofy track but good fun, with a bit of a Mussorgskian feel. It isn’t very developed, but doesn’t need to be. An excerpt of the beginning of the second movement of E-R appears here as a bonus track. It starts to lead into Hhai at the end, then fades out. It makes me wonder how much of this piece they actually recorded back in the day vs how much was released.
The second track, Weidorje, was composed by bassist Bernard Paganotti (who appears only on this song — Top plays the rest of the record, though Paganotti appeared in later live iterations of the band) and vocalist Klaus Blasquiz (who appeared on all of the band’s 70s work, but is nowhere to be found on the new material). Also appearing exclusively on this track is keyboardist Patrick Gauthier. Gauthier and Paganotti went on to release their own zeuhl album under the name Weidorje in 1978, making this track a bit like an invasion by a new band. It’s not my favorite thing here — I find it a bit plodding and unmemorable.
I don’t think I’d ever revisit this album if it was all like the first 3 tracks, but the real core of the album is in Jannick Top’s contributions — Soleil d’Ork and De Futura, the next two entries in his Ork saga. He went on to re-record both of these pieces on his solo record ‘Soleil d’Ork: Inedits 74–76', but the versions here are vastly superior to those sluggish drum-machine-laden recordings — Vander’s drumming really brings these pieces to life, which is the only reason this album hasn’t become redundant and obsolete.
The shorter piece, Soleil d’Ork, is much more compelling than the previous record’s Ork Alarm. A mysterious eastern-inflected melody drifts above funky bass and sparse percussion — a very cool effect. But like Ork Alarm, this piece doesn’t really go anywhere. Side A of this record really is a bunch of brief, somewhat undeveloped mood pieces. They mostly complement each other quite nicely, but just don’t feel as satisfying as the band’s longer form material. Soleil d’Ork and Zombies (Ghost Dance) are the most compelling pieces on Side A, but the album feels like it’s just getting warmed up.
Thankfully, side B makes it all worth it with Jannick Top’s sidelong epic De Futura, which is easily the main attraction here. This is one of the best pieces in the band’s entire canon, and a hell of a way for Top to go out — he really left the band on top (yeah, yeah, I know). Top’s signature stuttering gritty half step bass lines are paired with epic drum grooves and absurd melodies. This piece is dripping with character — strange vocalizations blend with what sounds like a theremin. Guitars playing tritone licks give way to a central section that’s bound to be some of the grooviest, catchiest shit you’ve ever heard a prog band play. The classic zeuhl repetition is made tense as hell here, thanks in large part to the way Vander plays with the grooves. It definitely doesn’t need to be as long as it is — they could’ve easily gotten away with half of the near 18 minute runtime — but you certainly won’t find me complaining. You’re gonna want to dance — just be careful not to hurt yourself! The power of these grooves is simply too strong, not to mention the speedy climax.
This is the only Magma album between their sophomore record and their latest record from last year to feature extensive writing contributions from people other than Vander, and it’s shockingly cohesive for what it is. It’s become a fan favorite — it’s their 2nd highest rated on RYM, after K.A. For me, it’s all about the Top material — I’d rather hear Vander’s material in the full context of E-R, and I can take or leave his other two songs here and Weidorje, leaving side A mostly disposable for me. Despite all that, I would indeed say that this record is essential. De Futura is just that good. A rather sluggish live performance of De Futura sans-Top can be found on ‘Triton Zünd Zëlëkt Live 2005’.
https://seventhrecordsmagma.bandcamp.com/album/ud-w-d-remastered https://seventhrecordsmagma.bandcamp.com/album/triton-z-nd-z-l-kt-live-2005
