Zeuhl Music

[GA Russell]

The Wall St. Journal Friday referred to Zeuhl Music, which it described as "A dark and gloomy jazz-rock fusion genre heavily influenced by the French band Magma."

I've never heard of this before. I remember Magma from thirty years ago.

Is anyone familiar with this? Are there any bands or albums you can recommend?

[Niko]

Roughly, Zeuhl is to Magma what Canterbury Scene is to Soft Machine (or maybe rather: to Gong)... in particular, there are not terribly many bands besides Magma in that vein, ZAO would be one

this guy's lists are a good starting point:

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/siriuspooka

[Guy Berger]

I saw Magma at a ProgFest festival in the mid-90s. I remember that this was quite an event among progheads - they hadn't played in the US for a long time, maybe ever. I also had (have?) a few of their albums. I remember thinking they were OK. The mythology/vocals were a little too silly for my tastes.

Haven't heard any of the other zeuhl bands except for Happy Family (the self-titled album): http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/happyfamily.html . Fun thrashy first track, the rest of the album is eh.

[GA Russell]

Thanks guys! I'll look into it.