NOVÁ SYNTÉZA 2 [AKA: NEW SYNTHESIS 2]

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.