R.I.P. Radim Hladík

[Progmatic]

I found this concert with Radim on youtube ...

Just amazing...

[smcfee]

Missed this due to the forum... they were a great band.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Are Asia touring again?!!

[spacefreak]

Are Asia touring again?!!

Punk rock was unforgivable not to blow such crap into oblivion...

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ Well, they came too early.

Crass should have somehow merged with Asia, you know - and the worst is that the former component would have completely played out the latter, with Wetton & co. potentially having a great time. And that's coming from me as an ardent bonafide "prog fan".

[Zappathustra]

I don't understand the pathetically low amount of responses on this one. I wasn't really listening to any prog-rock for almost 2 decades and I have missed so much music with all the re-issues coming up, Modry Efekt included, but what about everyone else? This is one of the truly great guitarists of prog, compositionally speaking but of course as a lead player too. Modry Efekt & Radim Hladik is a guitar-Oktoberfest with all this double and triple axe-attacking coming from everywhere, overflowing with emotion that never falls into sentimentality. I think Hladik was very well aware of what was going on musically on the Island, but somehow managed to take the symphonic genre a bit further. This becomes very clear in 33. What an achievement this record, taking symphonic prog into the 80's and yet sounding completely relevant.

[Progmatic]

I don't understand the pathetically low amount of responses on this one. I wasn't really listening to any prog-rock for almost 2 decades and I have missed so much music with all the re-issues coming up, Modry Efekt included, but what about everyone else? This is one of the truly great guitarists of prog, compositionally speaking but of course as a lead player too. Modry Efekt & Radim Hladik is a guitar-Oktoberfest with all this double and triple axe-attacking coming from everywhere, overflowing with emotion that never falls into sentimentality. I think Hladik was very well aware of what was going on musically on the Island, but somehow managed to take the symphonic genre a bit further. This becomes very clear in 33. What an achievement this record, taking symphonic prog into the 80's and yet sounding completely relevant.

That is nothing. Check the responses to Marian Varga's RIP thread if you want to see really pathetic low amount of responses to the passing of prog music giants. Then check responses to the death of supporting cast actor from the second rate serial from 70s for a comparison [emoji41]


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[Sputnik]

I have to confess, I didn't know who Hladik was when this thread started. It was this thread that made me explore Blue Effect and I wound up getting the complete set, which I absolutely love. So yeah, this is a great loss from Prog and for music. I'm late to the party, but I'm loving discovering his music, and I hope many continue to do so as he left an amazing legacy.

Bill

[Zappathustra]

That is nothing. Check the responses to Marian Varga's RIP thread if you want to see really pathetic low amount of responses to the passing of prog music giants. Then check responses to the death of supporting cast actor from the second rate serial from 70s for a comparison [emoji41]


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Very sad

[Zappathustra]

I have to confess, I didn't know who Hladik was when this thread started. It was this thread that made me explore Blue Effect and I wound up getting the complete set, which I absolutely love. So yeah, this is a great loss from Prog and for music. I'm late to the party, but I'm loving discovering his music, and I hope many continue to do so as he left an amazing legacy.

Bill

I say better late than ever. It's such a delight that there is still music like that to be discovered.

[Trane]

Hey, even with a bunch od highly adventurous progheads, we're always considering how so few answers on such a passing away are posted...
We don't have many eastern Europeans on board either.
Maybe if Modry Effekt had been n the titlle , maybe we could've gone to page 3...
But we got to page2, which isn't that bad.

That is nothing. Check the responses to Marian Varga's RIP thread if you want to see really pathetic low amount of responses to the passing of prog music giants. Then check responses to the death of supporting cast actor from the second rate serial from 70s for a comparison [emoji41]

TBH, if I answered to Hladik for I loved his music, but for Varga, I saw him once in concert, but never thought very much of his band's music (I once owned two albums of theirs , but got rid of them). I wasn't going to post something negative, so I figured that one more RIP or not wouldn't make a difference

[spacefreak]

Anyway, we 've got 30 pages for To the Bone. I'm optimistic for the future of prog.

[Progmatic]

Hey, even with a bunch od highly adventurous progheads, we're always considering how so few answers on such a passing away are posted...
We don't have many eastern Europeans on board either.
Maybe if Modry Effekt had been n the titlle , maybe we could've gone to page 3...
But we got to page2, which isn't that bad.




TBH, if I answered to Hladik for I loved his music, but for Varga, I saw him once in concert, but never thought very much of his band's music (I once owned two albums of theirs , but got rid of them). I wasn't going to post something negative, so I figured that one more RIP or not wouldn't make a difference

I can see your point. If you do not like Nice, ELP, Truimvirat then you may have difficulties to appreciate Collegium Musicum. They represent a phase of prog music that did not aged that well. Yet it does not mean that those musicians contribution should be ignored


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[Trane]

I can see your point. If you do not like Nice, ELP, Truimvirat then you may have difficulties to appreciate Collegium Musicum. They represent a phase of prog music that did not aged that well. Yet it does not mean that those musicians contribution should be ignored

Absolutely, but....



TBH, I thought Varga was an After Crying member

I never saw Collegium Musicum, but I did have their live album on loan.

[Progmatic]

Absolutely, but....



TBH, I thought Varga was an After Crying member

I never saw Collegium Musicum, but I did have their live album on loan.

Got it. I think you mixed him with Janos Varga. Btw Collegium Musicum's best work is Konvegencie. You can sample it on YouTube.


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[Trane]

Got it. I think you mixed him with Janos Varga.

I knew there had to be an explanation

[Kai]

The thread got to page 2 - albeit with the help of OT discussion. I think that's the best you can expect these days from a subject like this. There probably aren't that many really active writers who even knew about him. I admit to not writing very readily on threads about artists or albums I know about, if there is nothing new to say. I did write about Hladík and Modrý Efekt and Radim Hladík in my own blog back in December.

Still, I have to admit being surprised that the response to Varga's RIP thread was so anemic. When I was first exploring Czechoslovakian prog, he and Hladík seemed liked the two complementary giants of the official scene: the Czech guitar god and the Slovak keyboard wizard. Yet I far prefer Hladík's contributions. The three M Efekt albums are, along with Progres 2's Dialog s vesmírem, the best progressive albums the country has produced, while Stāle tie dni is Varga's only consistently great album (all IMO, of course). Nevertheless, bought men were brilliant, creative and imaginative musicians, and I am sad that they are gone.

[Poisoned Youth]

I say better late than ever. It's such a delight that there is still music like that to be discovered.

FWIW, I didn't post in this thread when first started but was affected by the news. He was a great musician and will be missed. Thanks for "resurrecting" this thread.

[Trane]

The thread got to page 2 - albeit with the help of OT discussion. I think that's the best you can expect these days from a subject like this. There probably aren't that many really active writers who even knew about him. I admit to not writing very readily on threads about artists or albums I know about, if there is nothing new to say. I did write about Hladík and Modrý Efekt and Radim Hladík in my own blog back in December.

Still, I have to admit being surprised that the response to Varga's RIP thread was so anemic. When I was first exploring Czechoslovakian prog, he and Hladík seemed liked the two complementary giants of the official scene: the Czech guitar god and the Slovak keyboard wizard. Yet I far prefer Hladík's contributions. The three M Efekt albums are, along with Progres 2's Dialog s vesmírem, the best progressive albums the country has produced, while Stāle tie dni is Varga's only consistently great album (all IMO, of course). Nevertheless, bought men were brilliant, creative and imaginative musicians, and I am sad that they are gone.

Hladik's thread had reached age 2 without the side discussion

However, once again, if the OP doesn't mention the group's name in the title, the thread is bound for failure .

I had investigated Czechoslovak 70's prog a fair amount of time ago and still own some Modry, Fermata (my faves), Flamengo, and Plastic People

from later days, I still have some Us ZJe Doma, Narajama, Jolly Joker, and a Metamorphosis

[Trane]

I guess I should try to re-liven Varga's RIP thread by posting on it, but then again, I opened an RIP thread last week about Canadian 70's classic rock band Streetheart's lead singer Kenny Shields's passing away, and none of the 10 (or sumthin') Canucks on site responded at all.

[Progbear]

Just got done listening to Svět hledačů. This may be my favorite of the band’s albums, even more so than Svitanie. “Zázrak jedné noci” might just well be the band’s best epic, and of course Hladík’s guitar is the chief reason this song is so great. I guess the reason(s) people are kind of down on this album:

a) all those woeful bonus tracks appended to the CD (come on, don’t hold the original album against that!)
b) the lack of bass guitar (after all those Gino Vannelli albums—a big guilty pleasure of mine—I’ve become somewhat accustomed to “left-hand bass.”)

Seriously, spend some time with this album. I think you’ll be well rewarded!

[Kai]

I don't need to spend more time with it, I already know it's great! It and Svitanie are my favourite Modrý Efekt releases and I don't really prefer one over the other. It's the contrast in sound that makes them so interesting. If Svitanie is sort of a Moravian Yes album with extra fusion spices, Svět hledačů has a more typical, technical and electronic sound of Eastern European bands at the time, like Progres 2 and Exodus. The lack of bass guitar, thicker synth layers and somewhat raunchier guitars give it a heavier sound on the one hand, more floating on the other. I like it a lot, it's just different from Svitanie. Melodically I think it is actually superior and more prevalent vocals make it more accessible. I often consider ”Zmoudřeni babím létem” and ”Zázrak jedné noci” as a single 20-minute epic, as they nearly segue together and generally form a kind of two-act dramatic arc.

I also like Synkopy's Sluneční hodiny, which is sort of like Oldřich Veselý's attempt to do the same on his own. Okay, his songs aren't as good and his guitarists don't have Hladík's melodic touch, but it's still a very enjoyable album in that same style.

[Progmatic]

Just got done listening to Svět hledačů. This may be my favorite of the band’s albums, even more so than Svitanie. “Zázrak jedné noci” might just well be the band’s best epic, and of course Hladík’s guitar is the chief reason this song is so great. I guess the reason(s) people are kind of down on this album:

a) all those woeful bonus tracks appended to the CD (come on, don’t hold the original album against that!)
b) the lack of bass guitar (after all those Gino Vannelli albums—a big guilty pleasure of mine—I’ve become somewhat accustomed to “left-hand bass.”)

Seriously, spend some time with this album. I think you’ll be well rewarded!

Zazrak is very Crimsonesque sounding song. Absolutely brilliant part is that the initial interplay between singer and music all done by Hladik's guitar. When I heard it first time I thought they were using some sort of keyboard trickery to achieve the desired effect.


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[Zappathustra]

Just got done listening to Svět hledačů. This may be my favorite of the band’s albums, even more so than Svitanie. “Zázrak jedné noci” might just well be the band’s best epic, and of course Hladík’s guitar is the chief reason this song is so great. I guess the reason(s) people are kind of down on this album:

a) all those woeful bonus tracks appended to the CD (come on, don’t hold the original album against that!)
b) the lack of bass guitar (after all those Gino Vannelli albums—a big guilty pleasure of mine—I’ve become somewhat accustomed to “left-hand bass.”)

Seriously, spend some time with this album. I think you’ll be well rewarded!

Although I prefer 33, this is also excellent. I love the first track Za Krokem Zen and consider it typical of Radim's style. What a huge, heavy riff in the beginning, this guy despite classical and jazz influences is deep down a rock monster, full of virility. And when he plays the lead, you know what to expect, no surprises really, but the pure force of emotion with which he delivers aims straight at the heart of the listener.

Kind of makes me wonder where the hell are personalities like Hladik in our days. There's still good music being made, but no such personalities.

[Progmatic]

Kind of makes me wonder where the hell are personalities like Hladik in our days. There's still good music being made, but no such personalities.

You better believe it. Listen to his prelude in this one...