1997

I won’t go into the entire history of this band – Google can help you do that. Suffice to say these guys grew up behind the Iron Curtain in Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia. They were determined to make music under a regime that was threatened by such sentiments, and they paid a great price. This album represents a Hollywood-like ending to a painful story. The live recording captures the band’s return to their homeland at the invitation of the nation’s president Vaclav Havel, where they would set up on stage in the same hall of Prague Castle where the Communists once held conferences. This is real life-drama stuff.

The opening roar of the crowd gives weight to the significance of this event, and the band immediately launched into “Podivuhodný mandarin” from their pivotal 1978 release ‘Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned’. These guys will never be accused of being too technically proficient or of showboating, but I was really surprised at how tight they sound compared to their original recordings back in the seventies and eighties. I guess that shows what rehearsing on a stage instead of in hiding from Soviet police will do to improve one’s sound. The lyrics are in Czech so I don’t know exactly what this song is about, but in general the band didn’t spend much time writing vicious protest or anti- establishment songs back in the day: their songs tended to lean more toward celebration of life, and of those people who touched their lives. Musically this is a rather simple tempo accented with horns, piano, and some funky guitar in the finest Mothers of Invention tradition. These guys were always big Frank Zappa fans, and the reverse was also true..

I believe “Dvacet” is Czech for the number 20, so I suppose this short track is meant to represent the twentieth anniversary of the Chapter 77 movement that was launched in Prague in the wake of the crackdown on, and imprisonment of the Plastic People and other non-conformists by Soviet police in late 1976. This was the event that led to the imprisonment of five Plastics members, including their leader Milan Hlavsa who would spend the next several years behind bars. The music is closer to the band’s earlier sound with dissonant chords, tortured horns, and an overall haphazard feel.

“Zácpa” is a bit more of the same, although there is a persistent and hypnotic beat here (accented by tasty bass) that provides a constant thread behind the meandering piano and again the excellent guitar. This is also from the ‘Egon Bondy’ album.

Next up is the high point of the album, the almost dirge-like “Toxika”. This track reveals the band’s debt to the Velvet Underground with its dramatic tempo and tightly-scripted horn and piano flourishes. Janíček is a bit more restrained on guitar, but again lays down that slightly funky feel that Zappa seemed to be so fond of. The overall feel of this song is one of a band that is very much in a tightly symbiotic groove, and is digging the he!l out of themselves and their sound. This would have been great to see live.

The band slows down considerably after that with “Okolo okna”, an avant and experimental instrumental; and “Spofa blues”, a bizarre blues-meets-the-Gypsies kind of thing from the band’s very early days that has to be heard to appreciate.

“Prší, prší” is a song that has appeared on a number of Plastics recordings, and this is probably the most polished version I’ve heard so far. The prominent instrument is Jiří Kabeš’ viola, and again the lyrics are in Czech so I’ve no idea what story they are telling. But the viola is a bit seductive, the tempo is sort of mysterious and trancelike, and overall this one pays obvious homage to the influence of Zappa on their music. “Nikdo” is another string-driven thing. I’m not sure if this is new or from an older album, but if it’s the latter I’m not sure which album or era it came from.

The tempo picks up with the short and heavily guitar-driven “Elegie” from ‘Egon Bondy’, followed by “Šel pro krev”, another track from the early days of the band.

Not sure where “Vrátí se“ came from either, but judging from the discordant guitar and erratic horns I would say this is from the mid-seventies period of the band, before they took a more folkish/jazz turn. “Kanárek” slows down the pace a bit and shows this jazzier side of the band that emerged from their later works. “Špatná vìc” is kind of interesting because it comes from the band’s 1984 recording ‘Hovezí porázka’, which was never actually released until Globus Records took at interest in the band following the Soviet collapse in the late eighties.

The closing track is also the longest, the ten-minute plus “Magické noci”, another early band recording that also appeared on the ‘Ach to státu hanobení’ CD. This pretty much wraps up the band’s various trademark sounds into one lengthy jam session: brackish horns, great guitars, a persistent and heavy tempo accented by a persistent and rather aggressive bass, and plenty of improvising. The regular and loud responses from the audience make it clear they are enjoying the show. A great ending to an inspirational album.

This is one instance where I would recommend starting at the end if you don’t know anything about this band. This albums showcases the tightest sound I’ve ever heard out of the band, and the historical journey through the band’s catalog gives a nice cross-view of their various incarnations over the years. Plus this is by far the easiest Plastics recording to actually find.

If you are the kind of person who gets choked up and misty-eyed over emotional feel- good stories, this album is for you. If you simply like really eclectic avant-garde music whose players have a tendency to wander off into improvisation land, this album is for you too. If you’ve never heard of these guys you’re not alone, but they are worth checking out for the fascinating piece of history they represent. I’m tempted to give this five stars, but I think that emotions aside it pretty much fits the definition of four, so let’s do that for now.

peace