SVěT HLEDAčů

Blue Effect (as I prefer to think of Modry Efekt, seeing how that's what the band wanted to call themselves until the Czechoslovakian authorities took exception to what they saw as undue capitalist influences) play an intriguing style of mellow, jazzy progressive rock on Svět Hledačů. With not just one but two band members (Lesek Semelka and Oldřich Veselý) on keyboards, the band are able to generate a shimmering, synth-drenched soundscape as a backing for the adept guitar playing of Radim Hladík. Working from a hybrid of King Crimson, the jazzier end of Canterbury, and perhaps the most experimental portions of Relayer-period Yes, the Blue Effect is a very fine effect indeed.