NOVÁ SYNTÉZA [AKA: NEW SYNTHESIS]

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.

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