Psychedelic, heavy, prog and more innovating sounds spanning the late 60s and the early 70s – Dan’s pick of the week: Blue Effect, (Svitanie), Jazz Q (Symbiosis), Flamengo (Kure V Hodinkách), Energit (Energit) & Miroslav Vitouš (Purple).
Blue Effect was a Czech rock band, also operating under the names M. Efekt, Modrý efekt, or the Special Blue Effect, since their formation in 1968. The band’s main and only permanent member, from its founding until his death in 2016, was guitarist Radim Hladík, formerly of the Matadors. Blue Effect changed their musical style several times, ranging from blues rock, jazz fusion, to art rock.
Mike McLatchey Exposé Online: “But while all of these covered a great amount of territory, it was really Svitanie that started the progressive rock version of the group by the addition of Synkopy’s Oldrich Vesely, who could cover the funky electric piano material while also adding Arp Solina and solo synths. This allowed the band to move into compositional territory that married both the riff styling of fusion and King Crimson with song structures that featured a lot of long off-meter thematic material as well as some highly inside melodic moments.
It made the first side of this album an instant classic, flat-out top tier material, all of this experimentation tied together by solo after solo from Radim Hladík who still to this day is one of the greatest most unheralded rock guitar players of his time. Side 2 was a side-long suite that takes a little while to get moving but eventually morphs into one of the oddest, staggered blues riffs, allowing Hladík more time to show his terrific chops.”
Wednesday, 12 November 2025 12:00 noon CET Brussels – 11 a.m. GMT London. Repeated: 16:00 & 20:00 hrs CET Brussels, 3 p.m. & 7 p.m. GMT London
Ends: 12 midnight CET Brussels, 11 p.m. GMT London.
