NOVÁ SYNTÉZA [AKA: NEW SYNTHESIS]

Blood,Sweat & Tears meets Purple!

Radim Hladik's band Modry Efekt was certainly one of the most important progressive bands in former Czechoslovakia as mentioned already in their biography. This record contains what could be called an equivalent to Deep Purple's work together with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra two years before with the difference that here we're dealing with a Jazz Orchestra. And though usually I'm not that much a fan of big band sound I've to say this experiment had worked out quite successfully. Probably because unlike with Purple's it was really a "new synthesis" between rock and big band jazz music. Especially on the long title track one gets the impression of listening to a type of "Glenn Miller in Rock". I've received both of these two rare albums together with some bonus songs (not with English titles, so I guess different ones than listed here) luckily in a MP3-pack. I found them a quite enjoyable listen though I've to say not as interesting as the extra material from their other albums.

Nova Synteza is without any doubts a very good album but I'd hesitate to call it an essential one. Anyway recommended to lovers of brass music and fans of this band. I'd add an extra half star!

New Synthesis is the translation of Nova Synteza. Initially I thought to be listening to the Hungarian After Crying as the opener "Ma Hra (My Gane)" is full of trumpet and brasses so very similar to the usual sound of that band. It's a complex track with several sections that's very far from the blues of the debut and the jazz of the follow-up. It's a sort of symphonic prog with some jazz-fusion accents near to the final just before the brasses are back. The orchestral arrangement has the sound of the big jazz orchestras, nothing to do with ELP. Effectively it's the "Cekoslovakian Jazz Orchestra" guested in this album.

"Smer Jihovichod (Direction East)" Is again orchestral with the main role played by the trumpet. The soft parts in which the brasses stop to leave the scene to the strings can remind to Soft Machine's "Land Of Cockayne", but not so soft. There's more rock, specially in the uptime central part of the song which features a good guitar solo.

Still orchestral with "Popínavý břečťan (Rambling Ivy)" it's tendentially more blues, with the lead guitar alternated to the brasses. It sounds a bit spy-movie but is not bad. Suddenly, in the middle of the track, there's a swing section lead by bass with a jazz-blues guitar solo followed by a part made only by bass and drums. An excellent moment.

"Blues Modrého efektu (Blue Effect's Blues)" Is as the title says a standard blues on which guitar and sax alternate their efforts.

"Nove Synteza" starts like ELP's "New Orleans". Not so weird, of course. It quickly turns to be jazz-blues for few time after which there's a long drums solo followed by a part more rock. The kind of blues-rock that one could have expected to find at Woodstock. This song is continuously about to take off, but it doesn't do it and this is a bit frustrating. Also when the musics seem to be stopping and turning to psychedelic, there's some disappointment. It remains close to be psych without really trying to change to something different. However this is an interesting part, but not interesting enough to make an epic of this 15 minutes track. At minute 10:30 it effectively ends to be replaced again by the Hendrix- like guitar sound. Another stop, then trumpets and claps to allow an orchestral blues to close the album.

It's an enjoyable disc, but it represents a little step back respect to "Conjuctio". 3 stars to this one, too.

One of the most popular Czech Rock bands with links to almost every known Prog/Jazz Rock from the country, The Blue Effect from Praga were formed in 1968 by guitarist Radim Hladik and singer Vladimír Mi?ík, both coming from Matadors.The line-up included also bassist Jiri Kozel, drummer Vlado Cech and guitarist Milos Svoboda, who quit the next year.In 1970 they released their Psych/Blues Rock-influenced debut ''Meditace'' on Supraphon along with the Jazz Rock album ''Coniunctio'' in collaboration with Jazz Q.It was around the time when Misik left to join Flamengo, replaced by singer/keyboardist Le?ek Semelka.Renamed to Modry Efekt they released their second work ''Nova Synteza'' in 1971 on Panton label with the help of the Czechoslovakian Jazz Orchestra.

''Nova Synteza'' shows Modry Efekt taking a more artistic approach on their music, leaving the psych influences of their debut for a much more Jazz-oriented sound, inspired obviously by their co-performance with Jazz Q Praha on ''Coniunctio''.This sounds actually like a Brass Orchestra backing up a pure rock band, where there is enough space for both extreme guitar solos with a powerful sound as well as intense and frenetic brass sections.The compositions are long and as the album unfolds Hladik shows an incredible jazzy background on his guitar solos, while the Jirí Kozel offers also some freestyle jazzy bass lines supported by the smooth drumming of Cech.The Czechoslovakian Jazz Orchestra seems often the leading force of the album.Tons of melodic introductions and jazzy interventions performed by a great mass of brass instrumentalists.There are also some light organ waves to be found sporadically, but the Blues influences is still apparent at moments, while the intense use of brass instruments adds a dose of Soul in some orchestrations.

Not a fully developed sound, but a step towards the right direction from these Czech masterminds.Hladik's incredible guitar performance is alone a good reason to reach this work, which has been reissued with some bonus tracks from the group's early years.Recommended.

Nova synteza is my fourth album by Modry Efekt and it takes me right into the big band side of rock/prog/jazz. Being a fan of pompous, overblown (meant in every possibly positive wa) and highly ambitious experimentations in the merging of genres, I like this. Echoes of other contemporaries such as Centipede, CCS, New Trolls (circa Concerto grosso) and Deep Purple's Concerto for group and orcehstra resound in the music displayed on Nova synteza.

The album opens in grand fashion with a slumbering organ and goes straight into furios orchestrated jazz-rock. It is, as a whole, a very cohesive album and gives the listener the sense of listening to a classical piece or suit, albeit strewn with rock and blues. The fact that the music sometimes resemble the soundtracks of action movies from the same era makes it, in my opinion, all the more amusing and interesting..

I think that Nova synteza is a very good album and I do enjoy it every time I return to it. I just find that the music is not as memorable as on later albums and I prefer, actually, the coming Modry Efekt, being more focused on the band itself and the sounds, imagery and soundscapes they are so capable of producing. They seem to drown, sometimes, in the orchestrated arena.

In short, Nova synteza is a very enjoyable listening experience and represents the past, before the future, the ever so great, came into being. Musically it is a treat but it sticks to your (i.e. my) mind as an album, not as individual tracks, which is a shame. A truly great album provides both. Three solid stars and hats off to the bold attempt.

An obscure, yet well recorded album from 1971, from behind the Iron Curtain, full of fierce jazz rock with an orchestra of copper instruments to back it up. Who wouldn't enjoy that? As it turns out; the fans of Blue Effect (Modry Efect) that prefer the string of eclectic prog masterpieces the band would launch in 1974. I think this album (and its follow-up) deserve to be seen in their own light though. Blue Effect and the Czechoslovak Radio Jazz Orchestra offer an instrumental brass-rock record with some touches of heavy psych, blues rock, progressive, soundtrack music, jazz-rock and bit a of swing. The whole recording is rather loud & intense and sounds like it was recorded live in the studio. Guitar player Radim Hlad'k is already showing great promise in a Jan Akkerman style of Les Paul guitar playing. The first four tracks sound pretty much like composed and arranged pieces, whereas the album ends with jam-band vibe tracks. The music reminds me of the instrumental parts of The Chicago Transit Authority, Colosseum and perhaps a bit of Uriah Heep's Salisbury album. Other reviewers would suggest that the albums lacks moments that are memorable and I would agree, but what remains is a very energetic, unique and ambitious progressive rock project from (what is nowadays) The Czech Republic. Recently there's a re-print of remastered vinyls (combining Nova Syntheza 1 & 2) on a double vinyl on the Supraphon label and I can warmly recommend this release. As these vinyls of Blue Effect are hard to attain, we can only hope for more re-releases in the future (right now the excellent 'Svitani' album is also available).