MODRY EFEKT – 33 (+3) - Supraphon Digipak Remastered Edition

Still in September and October 1980 the eighth (or ninth - counting the largely repeat LP Kingdom Of Life) and unfortunately last LP under the name M. Efekt was recorded as a trio. The record, titled 33, was released by Supraphon in 1981 and contained four extended and as a rule very good compositions divided into two sides of vinyl: the first part came from Hladik's pen and side B was written by Semelka. A great virtue of this music was the very traditional, for 1981, rock sound, and the return of the dominant guitar sounds - strongly limited on the previous LP. It is also worth mentioning that Martin Kratochvil - piano, Jiří Stivín - flute and the band's former bassist - Josef Kůstka - vocals took part in the recording of the record. The whole thing was opened by the excellent, decidedly progressive Třiatřicet - lasting 14 and a half minutes, a fairly stylistically changeable piece sung with Niemen-like passion, but as I mentioned - dominated by splendid, dynamic and exceptionally solid phrases of electric guitar referencing the school of Howe's and Gilmour's. Of course the somewhat cosmic (and for brief moments almost new wave) resonating synthesisers tried to dominate this music, but Hladík did not give in! And Vlado Čech's drumming as always was sensational! I don't want to be nasty, but when I think of the level of rock playing in Poland at the time, I am seized by genuine envy! The second track was the 7-minute Avignonské Slečny Z Prahy - a piece begun very gently, almost pastorally, which then turned into another soft-progressive piece in the style of Focus and Camel. Opening the second part, the almost 9-minute Občasná Pánská Jízda, except for a few feisty and rhythmically broken, shorter passages, was as a rule kept in a fairly slow rhythm and thanks to the brilliant playing of Radim Hladík again brought to mind the classic recordings of Focus, Camel and Steve Hackett's. The closing piece of the last record, Kohoutek Kamarádství Dokapává, like its predecessor was based on an almost ideal interplay of warm-sounding synthesisers and sweeping guitar parts, of which the greatest impression was made by the slowly building, perfectly played and, importantly - melodic solo in the second half of the piece. Note! On the CD version the order of the last two recordings has been swapped - even if the booklet showed otherwise! And that was already the end of the record activity (not counting a few singles) of this splendid band - once more I will repeat that it was certainly the best, most versatile - that was active in the 70s in the Eastern Bloc! I admit that I somewhat underrated Hladík's band! I listened obsessively to 2-3 early titles and the rest I rather... did not give a fig about. And only now, when I have finished listening carefully to all these albums - only now has it dawned on me how excellent this music is and at how high and, importantly - consistently even a level it stood for many years! I understand that voices will soon be raised that there is, after all, Omega (I adore them, but after 1975 it was no longer the same...), that Breakout (great, but after 1971 strongly uneven and it stopped developing), that SBB (without a single excellent record in its output; totally overrated, adored mainly in Poland, though esteemed in the world) and perhaps the Romanian Phoenix (splendid, but their output was not very impressive...). Just to finish I will add that in 1981 the band broke up, because the vocalist and the drummer Čech, always faithful to Hladík, left to found the group Lešek Semelka & S.L.S. Meanwhile in later years the lone guitarist was practically condemned to work with various, random line-ups, and the result of these efforts was a Supraphon disc made in 1983: Něžná/Záhada Jmelí (1983) - with a ballad-like and completely nondescript A side and a decent, hard rock B side. And in 1987 the Doktor/Čajovna (Supraphon, 1987), unknown to me, reached the market. Unfortunately, already in 1986 the excellent drummer (compared in his homeland to John Bonham) Vlado Čech died prematurely of alcoholism..." REVIEW BY JACEK LEŚNIEWSKI FROM A BOOK ON ROCK FROM THE FORMER EASTERN BLOC, BEGUN BUT ABANDONED AFTER HALF A YEAR (2021). A digipak edition with three bonus tracks.