A BENEFIT OF RADIM HLADÍK [AKA: MODRÝ EFEKT & RADIM HLADÍK]

4.5 stars. I must admit it was a little confusing when I tried to look MODRY EFEKT up on the site here a couple of years ago, only to find there was no listing for them.The confusion was cleared up when it was revealed that this band was originally called BLUE EFFECT but had to change their name to MODRY EFEKT because the Czech communist government frowned on English names. I'm not sure why Radim Hladik's name is in the title of this album along with the band's name. Radim had been the guitarist for this band from the first album on, but it seems they were giving him prominance here maybe because he is the dominating performer on this record. I do prefer this to their later albums that have vocals on them but I would rate it as my second favourite after their "Coniunctio" record.

"Boty" builds to start then it settles in with drums and guitar being the prominant instruments. A calm 3 minutes in as it turns FLOYD-like but with flute.The guitar starts to solo tastefully. It kicks in before 6 minutes and the guitar starts to light it up. "Cajovna" sounds so good. Very relaxed as the guitar plays beautifully over top. "Skladanka" features outbursts of sound including some aggressive flute. It settles in around a minute.The flute is prominant. It's the guitar's turn 2 1/2 minutes in then the flute takes over again late.

"Ztraty A Nalezy" opens with strummed guitar, flute and what sounds like violin. Guitar and drums kick in after 2 minutes.The earlier theme is back late. "Hypertenze" has a heavy intro. It picks up after 1 1/2 minutes. The drumming is excellent here. Piano then what sounds like sax after 3 minutes. The guitar and sax are trading off. It settles after 5 minutes then starts to build around 8 minutes. It's heavy like the intro before 9 minutes. Vocal melodies arrive a minute later. Sax is back as the vocal melodies continue. Nice.

A very good album where Radim gets to lets loose on his guitar and show off his incredible talent.