KOLEJNICE DUNÍ

This collection of tracks come from various source between 77 and 82 (this is the eighth chapter in the Globus International series on the PPOTU) and but does not include the album Passion Play, the album following the "famous" Egon Bundy's Happy Hearts Club Banned , which was the only album of theirs that managed to sneak through the Iron Curtain and get a release in France (only there, unfortunately). The group was still enduring police repression and some members spent up to 18 months in the Party's jails, while their manager will spend more than 8 years of his life in there for his RnR beliefs. Led by the powerful and scary-looking (a completely broken and deformed nose gracing the centre of this hairy shagged face) saxman Vrastislav Brabenec and the no less impressive and hairy (but less ugly) violin player Jiri Kabes.

Leading off is the 28 minutes-long 100 Bodies (a recount of a Warsaw Pact massacre ending the Spring Of Prague and we are in a typical minimal Velvet Underground and Can groove where the band improvises over a slowly evolving beat, even if the "song" has four different stages and sometimes interesting chord changes. The 20-mins Dopis Magorovi is much the same as its predecessor with some really insane digressions into madness, notably through the piano and the violin, but also through the myriad of artistes fighting the regime in one way or another. There is even one line yelled by anarchist and avant-garde script and playwright (and future president by popular acclaim after the communist regime fell) Vaclav Havel. An absolutely astounding track!

The following 8-min+ Phil Esposito track is a weird (even stupid) vocal montage depicting the Philadelphia Flyers hockey player and his exploits in beating up the Czechoslovak team in the final of the 76 Canada Cup over quasi-African musical chaos and chants. While rather funny and amusing at first, this track will not stand much repeated listening without hitting your nerves. Between the Czech team won that cup and the writing of this silly if hilarious track, I suppose that they made it 2 - 0. After such a silly session, Metastaze (you'd think these guys had a jail wish, uh ;-) is an absolute delight with the delicate and inventive drum beat being surfed upon by the brass instruments and a jumpy bass, the whole thing having a delightful Eastern Gypsy-jazz flavour without being overpowering, but dying in an ugly sax death throe. Probably one of the band's best moments in their long provocative career, but this track was certainly more challenging than "derangesome".

The short title track is another track reminiscent of those many groups (past but mostly future) that made a specialty of that Gypsy-Jazz or Jazz-Manouche. The closing Socialne Blizci (social XXX) is yet another piece like the preceding two, and by now, the group was in full swing into its proggiest years.

This collection is certainly one of the country/continent's most important release as it is the not-so silent witness of the fight against totalitarianism and this comes from one of the most politically-engaged groups ever: Plastic People Of The Universe. Essential and outstanding stuff.