As there seems to be some confusion as to the different original 2LP Philips pressings, here's what I know...1. 6395 001/002 +FLAPS - BLUE LABEL 19702. 6395 001/002 +FLAPS - BLUE LABEL 1971 (some credits changed)3. 6311 193 +FLAPS - BLUE LABEL ~1975 = first version I bought in 19774. 6311 193 +FLAPS - BLACK PLASTIC LABEL ~19765. 6621 032 +FLAPS - BLACK PLASTIC LABEL ~1978?6. 6621 032 STANDARD GATEFOLD - BLACK PLASTIC LABEL ~1980?Any confirmation on ~ dates, plus extra info, and any additional pressings, welcome.

Absolute unique musique. Intense. Pushing the bounderies of liberty.A different world.

Bands do have to start somewhere, and with Magma, it's this debut, released in 1970. It's strange that their debut is a double album, but there you go. It's a bit different from later Magma albums as it's much more on the jazz rock side, with that Zeuhl style not fully developed. Certainly you get those strange vocals from Klaus Blasquiz and Christian Vander, but again, the Zeuhl sound would not be fully realized until Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh. So you get tons of flutes, horns, lots of jazzy drumming from Christian Vander, plus those operatic vocals. What you don't get is shrilly female voices and repetitive riffs and choir. Right from Day One, the album song titles and singing are all in Christian's made up Kobaian language. At times you get reminded of Soft Machine, particularly with those sax solos. But if you're familiar with later offerings, it's a bit of a shock how mellow lots of this album is, particularly in those flute passages. There's even use of acoustic guitar which is very untypical of this band! Listening to this album you get lots of great material, but at the same time, you can tell there was room for improvement. Some of those flute passages can be a bit on the slow side, for example. Luckily the band only got better. Still every Magma fan needs this debut to see how things got started.