Music For The Blind – Session 30 - Rock'n'Roll Journalist

Thirtieth music presentation session for the blind and visually handicapped took place this time in two locations. Prague: 24th of August 2021 in the presentation room of Czech agency SONS (Czech Blind United) and Ostrava: 18th of August 2021 in Stará aréna Ostrava theatre. You can find the background of this story in an article about the first session here.

Prague: Congratulations to Hælos, Igor Paspalj and Jazz Sabbath.

Ostrava: Congratulations to Jaimie Branch, Tábor and Health.

Prague setlist:

Tracks	Score
01 – Lonely The Brave – Bound	4
02 – Hælos – Not Earth Above (Live)	11
03 – Jazz Sabbath – Children of the Grave	8
04 – Deafheaven – In Blur	3
05 – Igor Paspalj – Eruption + Distances	8.5
06 – Audience choice #1 – Nils Lofgren – Keith Don’t Go	3.5
07 – Health & Full Of Hell – Full Of Health	0
08 – Tábor – Koma	4
09 – Jaimie Branch – Prayer For Amerikkka (Live)	1.5
10 – Šerif Konjević – Zauvijek Si Ostala U Meni	1.5
11 – Audience choice #2 – Robert Plant – A Stolen Kiss	1.5
12 – Bonus: Buckingham Nicks – Long Distance Winner	6

Lonely The Brave is one of the most talented, yet no so know, rock bands on the scene right now. I discovered them in 2014 on Rock Im Park festival in Germany. I always check the whole line-up and I must say, I fell in love with their music instantly. However not so many did they homework and there was about a dozen of us, in the really early phase of the second or third day program. I love every track on their debut album The Day’s War and I must say, I was digging every single they were releasing from their latest third album The Hope List. I was sorry to hear they parted ways with vocalist David Jakes, but Jack Bennett is doing a great job as well.

Pandemic was extremely weird period and I was really missing these events. Many songs were helping me and the cool ones were piling up. One of the greatest pieces to get my mind of the events around us was a live track Not Earth Above from British band Hælos. I discovered them, when I was preparing a weekly culture show for Czech radio Expres FM before it was cancelled because of the pandemic. I was checking all cultural events of the upcoming week without any boundaries within genres. Hælos were an instant catch. Unfortunately, there were two more “important” events that day. I was working back then also for Czech TV Seznam and I interviewed extremely respected singer Dan Bárta and legendary underground strongly anti-communist band The Plastic People of the Universe. I felt like a Hermione, when I wanted to split myself and my camera guy into three places. Sorry guys, but I did my best to spread your awesome work at least this way.

Jazz Sabbath is a project combing my past and present. Well, love for Black Sabbath is for life, but I recently started working for Czech national radio Český rozhlas Jazz. For the past couple of years I am starting to get used to jazz and the combination with Black Sabbath music is simply epic. Adam Wakeman did an awesome job.

Check our interview here

There is probably no other label, I am following as carefully as Sargent House. Especially, as I am huge fan of Emma Ruth Rundle, Chelsea Wolfe and many more. One of the coolest releases, they had recently was new album from Deafheaven. They are mainly know for modern black metal with shoegaze elements. Surprisingly their new album Infinite Granite is pure atmospheric shoegaze with simply beautiful lead single In Blue.

As I am half Yugoslavian, I do love to include an element from that region. However in the case of a guitarist Igor Paspalj, it was not related to world music elements. Well, not primarily. Igor is Bosnian and we spoke about these elements in his music, but mainly he was voted “Electric Guitarist of the Year 2020“ according to Guitar World magazine. I gladly played two tracks. Short, but epic solo in Eruption and also his own work called Distances.

Check our interview here

Audience choice #1

As the first choice from an audience, in Prague my friend Jan Szkatula, who is also providing us awesome sound system picked a track Keith Don’t Go from Nils Lofgren. In Ostrava, the choice was a live version of Threads by Portishead.

Ostrava playlist:

Tracks	Score
01 – Lonely The Brave – Bound	2.5
02 – Hælos – Not Earth Above (Live)	7
03 – Jazz Sabbath – Children of the Grave	2
04 – Deafheaven – In Blur	3.5
05 – Igor Paspalj – Distances	8
06 – Audience choice #1 – Portishead – Threads (Live)	10.5
07 – Health & Full Of Hell – Full Of Health	12
08 – Tábor – Koma	12.5
09 – Jaimie Branch – Prayer For Amerikkka	17
10 – Šerif Konjević – Zauvijek Si Ostala U Meni	3
11 – Audience choice #2 – Efendi – Mata Hari (Live)	0
12 – Bonus: Buckingham Nicks – Long Distance Winner	6

After The Break

Last time, I was asked by an audience in Ostrava to include something heavy electronic. Interestingly enough I was, not so long ago, preparing for an interview with impressive American alternative rock band Health, which has a great taste for electronic music. They were supposed to play at Colours of Ostrava festival this year and hopefully it will happen next year. I chose a song from their cooperation with Full Of Hell. This very wild piece didn’t do well in Prague, but in Ostrava, it was totally different story.

I love giving space to interesting Czech bands and this time I went for alternative atmospheric rock band Tábor, which won one of the most respected local music awards called Vinyla, with their debut album Liebe. It is quite a challenging release, as it takes some time, to adjust to its cold atmosphere, but it’s worth it. I love listening to it during my long walks in the nature. Bad weather, greyish setting works just perfectly to dive into your thoughts, past experiences and let it be filtered by dark melodies and strong lyrics.

I work for Czech national radio – Český rozhlas Jazz for about a year now and I do my best to understand Czech scene, study legends and follow the latest releases. Recently I got a recommendation from my colleague to check American trumpet player and a singer Jaimie Branch. I played her live album Fly or Die Live one day as a background and as soon the track called Prayer For Amerikkka was coming to its end, I was totally hooked. I recently prepared one hour special about her career, including a cooperation with Czech singer Markéta Irglová. During preparations I had a chance to do a short interview with Jaimie and she is as friendly, as she is talented musically. Come to Czech Republic soon Jaimie.

One hour profile about her in Czech here

As a half Yugo, I love to share some great songs within the region of ex-Yugoslavia. As they recently voted for the new king of folk in Serbia, I gladly shared a song from the new king. One of my absolutely top favorite Balkan songs is Zauvijek si ostala u meni from Šerif Konjević. Lyrics, melody but mainly the instrumental part towards the end is simply genius.

Audience choice #2

As the second audience choice, a stable guest and my good friend Vladimír chose Robert Plant for Prague audience. In Ostrava, my good friend Tom wanted to expand the variety of genres with a song called Mata Hari from a group called Efendi at Eurovision 2021.

For the bonus, I played a song from an album I honestly consider one of the best, yet quite unknown, music releases of all time. Buckingham Nicks was the first project by future Fleetwood Mac members. Their eponymous 1973 album is packed with emotional, yet mature blues rock tracks. I totally adore tracks as Crystal, Long Distance Winner and Frozen Love. While checking details about this album I came across this very strong story about the album’s cover: In 1973, Nicks spent $111 ($647 in 2020 dollars) on a white blouse for the cover shoot, but the photographer, Jimmy Wachtel, and Buckingham coerced Nicks to take her top off when shooting the cover. Nicks later recounted: “I was crying when we took that picture. And Lindsey was mad at me. He said, ‘You know, you’re just being a child. This is art.’ And I’m going, ‘This is not art. This is me taking a nude photograph with you, and I don’t dig it.’ I thought, ‘Who are you? Don’t you know me?’ … I couldn’t breathe. But I did it because I felt like a rat in a trap.”