Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh

Mekanïk Destruktïẁ Kommandöh, also abbreviated as MDK, is the third studio album by French band Magma, released on 6 May 1973. Magma's original recording of the composition that makes up the album was refused by the record company at the time, but was eventually released as Mekanïk Kommandöh in 1989.

MDK is the group's most famous and acclaimed record. The French edition of Rolling Stone magazine named the album the 33rd greatest French rock album. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked the album 24th on its list of the '50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time'.

History
The title Mekanïk Destruktïẁ Kommandöh had gone through a longer, almost two-year, development phase before it was fully developed and first recorded in the studio. From the early stages of the work comes a recording from the summer of 1971, which appeared in the park of Château d'Hérouville as Mekanïk Kommandöh in a 5:55-minute version on the jazz themed compilation Puissance 13+2. Here the piece starts with jazzy intro that sounds more like bossa nova, and the lyrics had not yet been finalised either. Three months later, in November 1971, Mëkanïk Kömmandöh was performed for the first time in front of an audience at a concert at the Théâtre 140 in Brussels in a much more developed version with a length of 17:19 minutes, and was released in 1996 on the album Concert 1971, Bruxelles: Théâtre 140. The theme and the basic structure was already included here, but large passages were still not in their final forms.

The originally intended version for the release by Magma featured percussion, organ, bass, piano and a mixed choir, with a running time of 38 minutes. Its focus was on the choir vocals and a more "acoustic" musical accompaniment, with longer piano passages. This version was rejected by Magma's record label A&M Records, as it did not meet their standards for rock music. Therefore, electric guitar, brass, flute, bass clarinet, vibraphone, xylophone and additional vocalists were added to the line-up, and electrically amplified instruments and horns were used to achieve a "rockier" sound for the album. This version was recorded in April 1973 at the Oxford Manor Studios and the Aquarium Studio in Paris and released on 6 May 1973. The version originally planned by Magma, and discarded by the record label, was eventually released in 1988 on the compilation album Simples, and in 1989 on the CD Mekanïk Kommandöh.

Over the following years, Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh was recorded in many different variations and instrumentations, the versions released on record alone ranging from 19:44 minutes on Live in Tokyo to 48:45 minutes on Theusz Hamtaahk.

In the 1990s, Vander rearranged Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh into Baba Yaga La Sorcière for performance by children's choirs. This is a shortened version of the piece, whose Kobaian lyrics have been rewritten by Gaston Tavel so that they can easily be interpreted by a children's choirs. The recording of a concert on 15 October 1995 was released on CD in 1996.

Marking the 50th anniversary of Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh, Magma released the LP box set Magma une histoire de Mekanik Coffret 50 ans Mëkanïk Dëstruktïw Kömmandöh in September 2023, limited to 2000 copies and containing different versions of the title from 1972 to 2021 on seven long-playing records.

Musical style
Magma's two previous albums, Magma (1970) and 1001° Centigrades (1971), were even more jazz-oriented and their compositions contributed by various band members. With Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh, Vander and Magma created their typical Zeuhl style, which has been preserved until today through changing Magma line-ups and became the starting point of the Zeuhl genre ("Zeuhl Ẁortz" in Kobaïan means something like "music of all-embracing power" or "heavenly music").

Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh is introduced by a monotonous beat with a repetitive piano motif with varied guitar ornamentation that is distantly reminiscent of psychedelic rock. After about two minutes, the horn section, as well as an evocative choir, enters and the piece increasingly picks up speed and dynamics. Dynamic changes between instrumental and vocal passages follow, which vary in tempo, rhythm and intensity in the course of the piece, with complex time signatures and contrapuntal motifs provide variety. At times, the melodies run against the lead vocals, and later in the piece, more vocal lines blend in smoothly.

Track listing
Track 8 is a (mostly) instrumental demo of the piece that also appears on the double-CD rarities compilation Archiẁ I & II, available only on the 12 disc box set Studio Zünd: 40 Ans d'Evolution.

Personnel

 * Klaus Blasquiz – vocals, percussion
 * Stella Vander – vocals
 * Muriel Streisfield – vocals
 * Evelyne Razymovski – vocals
 * Michele Saulnier – vocals
 * Doris Reinhardt – vocals
 * René Garber – bass clarinet, vocals
 * Teddy Lasry – brass, flute
 * Jean-Luc Manderlier – piano, organ
 * Claude Olmos – guitar
 * Jannick Top – bass
 * Christian Vander – drums, vocals, organ, percussion

with
 * Giorgio Gomelsky – producer
 * Eddie Sprigg – engineer
 * Gilbert – engineer
 * Gilles Sallé – engineer
 * Simon Heyworth – engineer
 * Steve Michell – engineer
 * Tom Rabstener – engineer
 * Loulou Sarkissian – stage manager