ENERGIT

Here's a band from the Czech Republic that promptly blew my head off. They originally arose from the ashes of FLAMENGO with the drummer and vocalist of that band joining forces with JAZZ Q's guitarist and bass player. The Communist government quickly banned the group citing the lyrics as being too provocative. They were pretty much playing Hard Rock at this time. So the band sort of imploded with ex-JAZZ Q guitarist Lubos Andrst keeping it alive by hiring Jazz players to fill out the new lineup. This is their first studio album and it's very much a MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA styled recording but with sax instead of violin. I have to say that the electric piano and guitar work is beyond incredible on this album.

I'm using the English song titles. "Morning Part I" is the opening side long suite. Outbursts of sound come and go then percussion only as drums then electric piano join in. Yes we have a drummer and a percussionist (congas) the latter brings SANTANA's music to mind at times. Deep bass lines come to the fore then sax. The guitar after 2 minutes starts to light it up. Sax replaces the guitar around 4 minutes and he's now ripping it up after 5 minutes. Electric piano and percussion also standout here. A calm before 7 1/2 minutes then percussion, electric piano and bass take over. The guitar joins in and eventually comes to the fore after 10 1/2 minutes and proceeds to light it up. It settles right down after 14 1/2 minutes then turns powerful again a minute later with sax playing over top. So freaking good.

"The Early Sunday" sounds great with electric piano, drums and bass leading the way as the sax joins in. "Night-Butterfly" opens with atmosphere as sparse sounds come and go. A change 2 1/2 minutes in as it turns powerful with bass and drums as the electric piano plays over top. The guitar starts to solo 4 1/2 minutes in. it settles back to that intro soundscape before 6 1/2 minutes right to the end. "Apotheosis" features guitar, electric piano, drums and synths throughout. "Morning Part II" is a great way to end the album reprising the opening track. This of course is a much shorter version. Percussion only ends it.

I have to give this 5 stars. So powerful and the guitar and electric piano are intoxicating to say the least.

Take the Mahavishnu Orchestra sound from The Inner Mounting Flame, remove the violin and put a mean sax in its place: that's what the Energit sound amounts to on their self-titled debut album. Are they a clone band here? Well, maybe, maybe not, different people draw the line different places on that score - but what I can say is that just as band leader Lubos Andrst is able pull off an uncannily accurate take on John McLaughlin's guitar tone, the band as a whole manage to match early Mahavishnu in terms of style and compositon for much of this album, right down to the similar mix of louder, volcanic excursions and quieter, more peaceful pieces.

If you desperately wish the original Mahavishnu lineup had made another album or two, you could do a lot worse than investigating this, though at the same time I don't think Energit build much that is novel on the borrowed foundations they are working with.

Legit Jazz-Rock Fusion from Czechoslovakia that is quite mature and dextrous if somewhat derivative/imitative of the power fusion bands that formed in the USA and England a few years earlier.

A. "Ráno (Morning Part I)" (17:25) opens with a brooding Latin-based RETURN TO FOREVER-like MAHAVISHNU motif over which guitarist Lubos Andrst plays an impressive Jan Hammer-like solo for the third and fourth minutes. Bridge at 3:30 leads into a motif shift: this one being more syncopated and funky--especially from Jan Vytrhlík's bass and Emil Viklický 's electric piano. Also the conga play of Jirí Tomek stands out more in this passage as sax and electric piano try leading in the melody-making department while everybody else seems to be having a fantastic SANTANA-like jam beneath them. Rudolf Tichácek's soprano sax playing is okay: always coming in bursts, never smoothing out or choosing melody over dynamics. The next solo is from Emil's electric piano: his being a little smoother than Rudolf's but still conforming to the more-percussive staccato approach for its delivery. But, once he gets going he'll occasionally get into some runs or some cool chord progressions. At 10:20 there is a slowdown and break for transition into a slightly different motif for Lubos to take another try at the lead. His playing approach definitely treads more into the territory of John McLauglin and Larry Coryell, though my brain keeps hearing Jan Hammer more than any guitarist. I like the way Emil Viklický keeps prodding the soloists (not just Lubos) with his keyboard interjections-- pushing them to go further than they might without him. In the fifteenth minute there is a complete deconstruction of the rhythm track while Lubos and Emil continue to play around a bit, then in the first half of the 16th minute the band returns to the opening RTF-like motif as Rudolf takes us out with his soprano sax. (31.25/35)

B1. "Paprsek Ranního Slunce (The Early Sunray)" (4:40) countrified jazz rock that sounds like Jay Beckenstien's SPYRO GYRA merged with the OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS and DIXIE DREGS. Impressive guitar play begins around the two-minute mark and then seamlessly leads the band into a cool Mahavishnu-like motif switch. Now, this is great J-R Fusion! At least until it shifts back to BOB JAMES "Angela" territory at the four minute mark. Luckily it ends with some more of those impressive keyboard-and-electric guitar machine gun runs. (8.875/10)

B2. "Noční Motýl (Night-Butterfly)" (7:50) electric guitar harmonics open this, reinforced with electric piano play--which soon occupies two tracks, the two electric pianos using completely different settings. The more piano-sounding ep begins taking the lead from the guitar with some classical-like runs, but then, in the fourth minute a deep, pulsing, muddy foundation is committed to by the full rhythm section, which sets Emil Viklický off on a Fender Rhodes tirade before heavily-effected (Moog-sounding) electric guitar joins in and pushes his way to the front. A Moog synthesizer enters and begins competing with Lubos for the lead, dueling and playing off one another with a ferocity comparable to (yet never quite achieving the heights of) that of John McLaughlin and Jan Hammer. This doesn't last very long before the band devolves into a rich, Fender-dominated sound field for a lovely finish. Definitely a top three song for me. (13.75/15)

B3. "Apoteóza (Apotheosis)" (2:55) more Mahavishnu Orchestra-inspired Jazz-Rock Fusion that includes another presence of the Moog synthesizer. (8.875/10)

B4. "Ráno (Morning Part II)" (4:05) what starts out as a kind of a loose, unstructured unwinding for all of the instrumentalists turns into a simple conga solo for the fadeout finish. (8.66667/10)

Total Time: 36:55

B+/four stars; an excellent addition to any prog lover's music collection--especially if you like the dynamic Jazz-Rock Fusion of early versions/experimentations of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Larry Coryell, and Return To Forever.