JESETER

In this first album the band displays a nice collection of vintage influences, mainly performed under a heavy atmosphere, but the one thing that trully becomes clear is that Jeseter show big respect for the old scene of their country, singing in Czech and adding a personal aspect in their music.The bulk of the presented compositions are long and interesting, there are strong influences by SBB, OTA PETRINA and PROGRES 2 in an album, which comes as a mix of Heavy Rock with discreet psychedelic and more apparent symphonic and Fusion orientations.Their retro character comes in evidence not only through singing in Czech but also through using analog keyboards, as the album contains a good bunch of 70's armor like Mellotron, Hammond organ and electric piano alongside the flashy synthesizers.The powerful guitar is the basic reason of a more modern approach.Soundwise the pieces are quite great with numerous shifting climates and a good balance between rhythmic and atmospheric parts, featuring a great vocalist and rich executions.Guitar/organ-driven grooves and melancholic, symphonic interludes end up in technical, jazzy interplays or guitar solos and acoustic moments.Music is tight and well-composed with spacey performances, pounding Heavy Rock attacks and elaborate, Classical-drenched instrumentals.And the presence of the flashy keyboards and the more straight guitar plays even burst a light, symphonic-flavored Neo character for a band, which never forgets to rock with a couple of nice rockers setting up a more cheerful mood.

They started as a Yes-influenced band, but Jeseter present a more original sound in their debut, mostly influenced by the old scene of Czechoslovakia with the appropriate influences from Heavy, Symphonic and Psychedelic/Space Rock.Pretty good and recommended album.

Czechoslovakia was full of great talents, but the political system wasn't pleasant to young artists with inspirations from the US & the whole West at all. So now, when the country is completely free, the great bands from late 60s and 70s have their own followers, including Jeseter from Ostrava. Jeseter's music could sound a bit conventional, the roots of early neo-prog are really strong anyway, but there is something very special about their lyrics - the result of longtime work of Jeseter's lead vocalist Tobi - and also about the precise guitar work of Jan Gajdica, the composer of all Jeseter's tracks. As he often says, progressive rock would be nothing without a volume pedal, which is also pretty obvious from this record. Gajdica and the volume pedal make together an inseparable unit, which keeps their music very neo-proggish, as well as Robert Hejduk's touching keyboard sound. And the list could go on and on... Just count everything you like about this album and you'll get a suprising outcome - this album is an epic MASTERPIECE of the 00s neo-prog genre. Greatness, greatness and greatness again. The whole life in one album. And possibly one album in the whole life - even fifty thousand listens aren't enough for Jeseter and 'Proměna'.

Simply a breathtaking album. Czech prog at its finest.