Friday 20 January 2017

The Magits ‎– "Fully Coherent" (Outer Himalayan Records ‎– SRTS/79/CUS 401) 1979


What better way to mark the inauguration of anti-intellectual philistine Donald J. Trump as leader of the western world than to intellectualize the art of the very short avant-pop tune and outsider art?
This 'entartete kunst' (nazi for 'degenerate art') ,would be instantly labelled as 'Garbage' in the black and white world of Trump and yer average Brexiteer (Entartete Kuntz anyone?)......just like Hitler's chums did back in the thirties.
Nick Blinko's first release was with Martin Cooper on vocals/words, in a minimal synth duo called The Magits.
The four songs,if we can call them songs(?), are so short they seem to only exist as long as sub-atomic particle in the hadron collider. They have a lot in common with the 40 one minute tunes on The Residents' "Commercial Album"; like a collection of intro's, unfinished ditties,and songs cut in half. The song titles seem to describe the music very well, fragmented, disconnected, disjointed, and detached. Probably how Blinko felt within himself,as he is now a prescribed schizophrenic.
The short song was an anti-establishment statement following the progressive rock era from 1976 onwards. So the shorter the song the more punk kudos one received,until it became the art form first displayed by art-punkers Wire on the monolithic "Pink Flag" album, and taken to its logical conclusion by Napalm Death with the one second long "You Suffer" from the jaw dropping "Scum" album.
Blinko's rather good anarcho-punk group Rudimentary Peni, stuck largely to the short burst template,at least until the mid-eighties,when lengthier tunes started their comeback,for the same reasons the sub-minute songs appeared in 1977.
Blinko is now referred to,patronisingly, as a much sought after "Outsider Artist", (who isn't?) mainly due to the fact he makes interesting Hieronymus Bosch like drawings and is a Schizophrenic. He has to stop taking his medication in order to create his art,and dream believe it or not? Therefore he has to risk his mental stability to satisfy his desire to make his pictures; this really is art on the edge.
Both Magits and Rudimentary Peni's releases were works of art rather than one person's expression of their 'angry years'; they were just pure,untutored, expressions of the need to create.
In fact the first couple of hundred copies of this EP came with a small photocopied 3-page folded & stapled "Magitzine" which features collages, a small essay and lyrics. Some of these initial copies also came with a hand-made paper "magit" - a small and fragile hand-cut and glued representation of the creature image used on the front sleeve (referred to as a "Magit") - basically an egg-shaped face with a tail stuck on.

Tracklist:
A1 Fragmented 0:55
A2 Disconnected 0:48
B1 Disjointed 1:24
B2 Detached 0:55

5 comments:

rev.b said...

It's been a difficult day. I've made a point of avoiding hearing or reading anything about it. The wife heard the speech and said it had all the nationalist swine fever of Der Führer, except Hitler used larger words and had a better grasp of grammar. I'd rather spend my time with The Magits. Thank you for the opportunity.

Jonny Zchivago said...

I did unfortunately watch it, and enjoyed the live riot that the BBC seemed to concentrate on. Your wife was very accurate in her description of his monosyllabic speech,which was impressive only by its dumbness.
I give it six months.

rev.b said...

I listened to an interview the other day with two attorneys that had served as ethics advisors to previous administrations, one for Bush, the other for Obama, You’d expect them to be on apposing sides but they found themselves in complete agreement on the issues related to trump’s conflicts of interest. There are many who can’t wait to impeach the guy. Six months, six days, the sooner the better as far as I’m concerned. Today there’s a march of ‘nasty women’ in DC against trump. I’m told the crowd is larger than for the inauguration. Good.

Jonny Zchivago said...

Yes,i saw that interview too. Its an open and closed case...unless he follows their advice, which would mean liquidating his assets and having truly independent management of his remaining business assets ,that is none of his awful children involved. can't see him agreeing to that...then we'll have religious nut Pence as president????....i may prefer trump!

sweethooligan said...

Was lucky to find a copy of this little gem recently alongside another Outer Himmalayan release Soft Drinks 'Pop Stars in their Pyjamas'. Even got scans of the sleeves and inserts from Mr Outer Himmalayan himself Paul 'Platypus' Rosen...