NOVÁ SYNTÉZA 2 [AKA: NEW SYNTHESIS 2]

This was second volume of the band's co-operation with the Czech Radio Jazz Orchestra and as seen already in the addition of electric violin their approach has been here more symphonic than on the first part. Especially in the 22 minute title track we get the full range of orchestral symphonic sound including muttering male choir as well as ample brass arrangements. Everything very nicely blended with rock music though being a bit too sumptuous at times at least for my taste. This was certainly a highlight of East European symphonic rock at the time released and every lover of this sub-genre should be highly fascinated by this record. Apart from the second track which offers a nice guitar solo reminiscent of Santana's more jazzy work the rest of the album pales a bit in comparison with this opus magnum unfortunately though being still very enjoyable.

Not really essential but nevertheless a nice opportunity to get an impression of the more experimental phase of this excellent band. 3,5 stars really!

Not really a follow-up to the first Nova Synteza (New Synthesis) until the last 5 minutes of the opening epic. On the major part of he side-long track the orchestra is just supporting the band with brasses and the song is mainly rock-blues. The brasses give it a retro flavor so that it seems coming more from the 60s than the 70s. In the last five minutes it drastically changes and turns into an excellent orchestral jazz before coming back to the original rock theme for the last conclusive minute. So 3/4 of the track are Symphonic Prog and only the last quarter is JR/F.

Also the second track hasn't much jazz while the blues of the debut is completely gone. This is a progressive song on which I hear connections with some RPI of the same period or earlier. The 7+ chords around 4 minutes remind me to Camel (Song Within A Song). Then the rhythm increases, odd signatures appear util the vocalists are back to finish the song.

A 3 minutes interlude, but not a filler comes next. An impressive vocal performance. It makes me think to the Banco, again RPI of the 70s.

The closer is another quite long track of about 10 minutes. Not easy to describe, it has a retro flavor like the rest of the album and this time even without taking the brasses into account. again 7+ chords passages remind to Moonmadness, just the sound of the guitar is different. There's more improvisation in the guitar solo respect to Latimer's stuff. Later the main theme of the second track is "resurrected" like they are informing us that this is a concept album and the separations between the tracks are not relevant. The second guitar solo on the uptime section is between Latimer and Santana.

It's an album that marks the beginning of a transition for this band and has effectively a value independently from the context. It probably doesn't reach the excellence, but it can stay in any prog-rock collection. In order to avoid decreasing the overall rating of this good album I round up its 3.5 stars to 4. "Good Addition to any..." would have been more appropriate, but a sentence like this is not in the guidelines.

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This album represents the last gasp, in many ways, of the first part of the history of Modry Efekt. The big band jazz rock and blues was soon to give way for a more stripped down approach on the next album, finally paving the way for the great symphonic works of the late 70's.

Nova synteza II is the natural progression from Nova synteza, released a few years earlier. The orchestrated works of the latter is here brought to fulfillment and genius. I guess this is the way Deep Purple ought to have sounded on their Concerto for group and orchestra. The singer even imitates Ian Gillan to perfection on the title track, the bulk of the album.

For me one of the greatest thing about this album is the second track, on Modry Efekt & Radim Hladik (released the following year). Here we get the vocalized and orchetrated version, which is a treat. On the other version it is more stripped down. I don't know which version I prefer. They are both excellent, only in different ways.

Nova synteza II is a great big band jazz rock album aswell as being the last of the past, before Modry Efekt followed a somewhat different and even more gloriuos path: that of the symphonic prog rock. It is great to hear and musically very high standing. Recommended to people into orchestrated jazz rock.

During the summer of 1971 Modry Efekt entered the Polish grounds for the forth time and had series of succesful live performances.Come 1972 and Kozel leaves the band, replaced by one Josef Kustka, with whom Semelka played in the group The Cardinals.Later in the year they visited Helsinki, playing with Ten Years After and Omega, eventually being praised by the local press.Germany and the Amiga Studios was the band's next territory to visit in early 73', filming four of their songs, while during the summer they recorded the sequel album of ''Nova synteza'', featuring again the performance of the Czechoslovakian Jazz Orchestra.The album, named ''Nova synteza 2'', was released the next year on the Panton label.

Now this is Modry Efekt starring at the top of their talent.A nice and warm sound from 1971 had developed into a beautiful Prog/Jazz Opera two years later, containing different elements in a highly progressive amalgam.The 22-min. title-track is of course the absolute highlight of the album, featuring some majestic, grandiose and cinematic moments.Excellent performance by the brass section, accompanied by the great guitar work of Radim Hladik, who's style starts from jazzy flavors and ends up in Heavy/Psych riffs and runs.The track features also some nice piano themes and organ washes, as well as Semelka's rough vocals and nice, haunting choirs.It's mostly instrumental, full of proggy experiments and drawing influences from Jazz, Classical, Soul and Rock Music.Very good epic to say the least.''Je tteba obout boty a pak dlouho jit'', which opens the flipside, is more of the same, proggy Jazz Rock with a monumental brass orchestra, Hladik's in one of his best jazzy solos ever and some very dramatic instrumental parts, featuring some nervous synths at the end.A mix of commercial flavors and complex arrangements, pretty convincing as a whole.The short ''Kliste'' is a good, dramatic piece with orchestral keyboards, brass instruments and piano and focusing on Semelka's crying vocals, while the 7-min. closer ''Jedenacteho rijna'' is decent but not great, featuring some more Heavy/Psychedelic guitar jams by Hladik, a rather romantic middle part and endless trumpet interventions, but with less compact songwriting.

At this point Modry Efekt seems like red wine.The older, the better.''Nova synteza 2'' is a fine gem of jazzy Progressive Rock, where the brass instruments are used for serious reasons and the combination of harder, electric moments with cinematic sounds works pretty nice.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.