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Thread: FEATURED CD: MCH Band - Es Reut Mich F...

  1. #1
    Moderator Poisoned Youth's Avatar
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    FEATURED CD: MCH Band - Es Reut Mich F...





    Today's featured album suggestion comes from Progmatic. Here's a nice little nugget from Czech country that goes pretty well unnoticed.


    Description from GEPR
    MCH stands for Miklas Chadima, guitar and sax player and founder of this band from Prague. Chadima was one of the most important figures of the Czechoslovakian rock scene. Since 1972 he played in several bands and as he signed the Charta 77 his activities resulted in continuous persecutions, interrogations and investigations by the Czechoslovakian secret police. On the rare occasions he was allowed to travel abroad he went to London, playing with Art Bears and This Heat. MCH Band was founded in 1982. They published several cassettes and few of their songs were published on compilations (e.g. on the RecRec Quarterly Vol.1 No.1 in 1985). After the fall of the iron curtain they recorded this double LP (one CD, distributed by Recommended No Man's Land) [Es Reut Mich F ...] in 1990. As the liner notes put it: "The Music of MCH Band can be called Prague music. We can find here the coolness of gothic cathedrals, richness of baroque palaces and the tragicomic atmosphere that is typical for Czech-German-Jewish inhabitants of Prague, stigmatised by nazi and communist terror." The band consists of four musicians (guitar/sax, keyboards, bass and drums) and they sing in Czech and German. The music is neo-classical prog., very dark and sinister, very quiet and very dramatic on the other hand. The relation to other Czech bands of the early 9ties is quite obvious (Domaci Kapela, Ser Un Pejalero). People who like Univers Zero (Heresie) should try to find this one! -- Achim Breiling




    WANTED: Sig-worthy quote.

  2. #2
    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
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    Nice record, but you're gonna get a lot of crickets on this one. It's pretty obscure.
    Steve F.

    www.waysidemusic.com
    www.cuneiformrecords.com

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    “Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin

    Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]

    "Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"

    please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.

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    Member TheH's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve F. View Post
    Nice record, but you're gonna get a lot of crickets on this one. It's pretty obscure.
    Hmm... there is a mint copy sold for 14,40 EUR at Amazon (Germany)

  4. #4
    Member nosebone's Avatar
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    I like this one.

    Imagine a jazzier, tranquilized Present recorded in a large cavernous dungeon.
    Last edited by nosebone; 09-30-2013 at 07:33 AM.
    no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone

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    For anyone who likes this band, there's a 6CD set which includes this one at a very good price available here: http://www.cdmusic.cz/inshop/scripts...rch=mch%20band

  6. #6
    Nice album, found a good copy in a used rekkid shoppe in London a few years back, almost put it back cuz it had a few scuffs (nothing serious).
    Glad I listened to that little voice in my head and brought it home, not likely to find it again.

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    Good one. Thanks Cozy.

  8. #8
    I also got only LP of this album. I am not sure whether I have ever seen CD

    It is a great album in the tradition of Czech underground bands , very much building on the sound of bands like Plastic People of the Universe , DG 307, Extempore and such...however MCH music also incorporated lot of krautrock and RIO music elements...highly recommended
    Last edited by Progmatic; 09-30-2013 at 10:20 AM.

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    Traversing The Dream 100423's Avatar
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    I've never heard of this band. I liked the clips quite a bit, but I'd have to check out more before I'd pay out for a 6 CD release of their output (though Alan's the link above it quite reasonable).

  10. #10
    I like it a lot! Great switch from raw rock to improvised sections with a feel that reminds me of Einsturzende Neubauten.
    Macht das ohr auf!

    COSMIC EYE RECORDS

  11. #11
    Member ashratom's Avatar
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    Great album, great band. This album was my introduction to the MCH Band, and it was the double LP. I bought the CD when it first arrived, and sold the LP - and I regret that now (not too many LP's I've sold that I regret, but this is one of them). The original CD was indeed obscure. I found a second copy at the SF Amoeba store for $1. I figured I might give it to a friend or something. Then I threw it up on ebay for like $5 min bid just to see if there was interest. Ended up getting $70 for it! (!?!). This was in 2001.

    Saw the MCH Band live in Prague in 1993 in a small club. One of the most mesmerizing things I've ever seen. When they got into "the zone", they could be as psychedelic as any band can be. An amazing guitarist Mr. Chadima is.

  12. #12
    Traversing The Dream 100423's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ashratom View Post
    Saw the MCH Band live in Prague in 1993 in a small club. One of the most mesmerizing things I've ever seen. When they got into "the zone", they could be as psychedelic as any band can be. An amazing guitarist Mr. Chadima is.
    Very cool. I can envision this band being very dynamic live.

  13. #13
    Member Jay.Dee's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ashratom View Post
    Saw the MCH Band live in Prague in 1993 in a small club. One of the most mesmerizing things I've ever seen. When they got into "the zone", they could be as psychedelic as any band can be. An amazing guitarist Mr. Chadima is.
    I have been spinning for a longer while their live album recorded at two gigs (late 2002 and early 2003), and mesmerizing seems to me a fitting description of their sound. I have heard a fair share of dark wave/industrial-tinged chamber rock acts, but none was as jammy as this one. It creates a wonderful tension between "gothic" structures and bursting them improvisations.



    Those two gigs were part of the band's 20th anniversary celebrations and there were eight guests from the previous lineups joining the core quartet to provide a two-disc worth overview of their 80s and 90s material. And it's all ridiculously good.

  14. #14
    They were always great. Their latest release, Katerino something from 2007, is less raw but also very, very good. One of the seminal Czech underground bands, IMO - and that was/is an extensive scene.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  15. #15
    Member Jay.Dee's Avatar
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    I know (and like) Plastic People of the Universe and I am familiar with Už Jsme Doma. Plus, if folk-rock counts, I dig various projects of Iva Bittová as well as Jablkoň & Svěcený.

    What should I look for?
    Last edited by Jay.Dee; 07-22-2019 at 10:01 AM.

  16. #16
    Member TheH's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jay.Dee View Post
    I know (and like) Plastic People of the Universe and I am familiar with Už Jsme Doma. Plus, if folk-rock counts, I dig various projects of Iva Bittová as well as Jablkoň & Svěcený.

    What should I look for?
    Hokr!
    Flamengo
    Progres2
    Modry Efekt
    Last edited by TheH; 07-22-2019 at 11:01 AM.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by TheH View Post
    Hokr!
    Flamengo
    Progres2
    Modry Efekt
    Modry Éfekt became a significant name in 70s East bloc rock and thus don't really fit the picture here, as were (albeit to somewhat lesser extent) P2. However, Flamengo's Kure V Hodinkach from 1971 remains one of the most important influences on the later underground scene and somehow set the standard of aggressive, vaguely jazz-informed and often punky rock music somewhat akin to post-psychedelic, early progressive.

    But the 'proper' (i.e. clandestine or covert, fundamentally non-mercantile/institutional) underground scene emerged fully with the onset of DG307, The Plastic People of the Universe and Extemporé. The 80s saw a blossoming of such groups with Urfaust, Ser Un Peyalero, the MCH, Dunaj, Uz Jsme Dôma, Stromboli and Domacî Kapêla. Of particular importance were Prazsky Vyber, who indeed started in the latter half of the 70s as a progressive, experimental jazz-rock group featuring Michael Kocab and the young but outstanding guitarist Michael Pavlicek (who'd been in bands like Bohemia and played with numerous veterans of Czech rock).

    Acts like Hokr, Oswald Schneider and Narajama keep at it still today.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  18. #18
    This thread too has been given a one-star rating. It's due to the lack of quality analysis on the core matter at hand, it's certainly not an anonymous protest against the very inclusion of a name or topic which doesn't concern them personally.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  19. #19
    Member Sputnik's Avatar
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    Interesting, never heard of these guys. Kind of a Zeuhl vibe on that first track. Not bad, though neither of the tracks develop much and I started losing interest after a while. That album cover could be none more black!

    Bill

  20. #20
    Member Jay.Dee's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheH View Post
    Hokr!
    Flamengo
    Progres2
    Modry Efekt
    Quote Originally Posted by Scrotum Scissor View Post
    But the 'proper' (i.e. clandestine or covert, fundamentally non-mercantile/institutional) underground scene emerged fully with the onset of DG307, The Plastic People of the Universe and Extemporé. The 80s saw a blossoming of such groups with Urfaust, Ser Un Peyalero, the MCH, Dunaj, Uz Jsme Dôma, Stromboli and Domacî Kapêla. Of particular importance were Prazsky Vyber, who indeed started in the latter half of the 70s as a progressive, experimental jazz-rock group featuring Michael Kocab and the young but outstanding guitarist Michael Pavlicek (who'd been in bands like Bohemia and played with numerous veterans of Czech rock).

    Acts like Hokr, Oswald Schneider and Narajama keep at it still today.
    Thanks, guys! I'll do my homework and report back my findings.

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