2010-03-21T18:20:36+01:00 Radio Prague http://radio.cz/en/section/music-profile/buty-the-pop-innovators-from-ostrava urn:uuid:7713a1a2-aa71-51b9-9477-8152422bf462 2010-03-21T18:20:36+01:00

The north-eastern city of Ostrava, with its mining, iron and steel industry, was once known as the steel heart of the Czech Republic. But it has also long been home to a lively arts scene. The band Buty is one of the most original as well as most popular groups from the region.

urn:uuid:08f76d9f-09bd-554c-9ad9-48731e440f6c 2010-02-21T18:00:04+01:00

The Czech folk singer Karel Kryl is the subject of this edition of Music Profile. His well-known debut album “Bratříčku, zavírej vrátka” was published six months after the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia which crushed the Prague Spring in 1968. A year later, he emigrated to Germany. He worked for Radio Free Europe in Munich, where he died in 1994. Kryl is considered one of the most important figures of the anti-communist movement.

urn:uuid:baa55e72-678c-5196-8efc-1879807b5d8e 2010-01-24T17:44:25+01:00

The Czech singer and songwriter Karel Plíhal is the subject of this edition of Music Profile. Plíhal, who comes from the Moravian town of Přerov, released his eponymous debut in 1985 and has become one of the country’s leading folk artists.

urn:uuid:aa368f4e-4745-5a56-ac80-a53607488408 2009-12-27T17:24:36+01:00

The young Czech electronic band MIDI LIDI, currently on tour promoting their second album, “Hastrmans, Tatrmans & Bubáks”, have been around since 2006. They first made their mark a year later with their debut album “Čekání na robota”. Combining intelligent beats with different samples and minimalist lyrics, MIDI LIDI’s music radiates a certain warmth, joy and, dare I say, love. The whole experience is enhanced by original video art accompanying their performances which are drawing larger and larger crowds. Besides their albums, MIDI LIDI also gained critical acclaim for their original music to the 2009 Czech film “Protektor”.

urn:uuid:4d32ae50-c773-5a30-989d-c16a935ca33f 2009-11-29T17:52:26+01:00

In 1977, a mailman, a math analyst and an actor got together to make some rather strange and wonderful music. Jablkoň, as they called the band, started off playing gigs in places around Prague that didn’t insist on specific genres. For as you’ll hear in today’s Music Profile, Jablkoň’s music rather defies easy explanation; a brand of distinctive folk blended with jazz, rock and more that’s often called world music. Except when it isn’t…

urn:uuid:cb9e874f-19e7-51af-9934-90309e23536f 2009-11-01T18:23:06+01:00

This month’s Music Profile features the Czech rock band Žlutý Pes— which translates as Yellow Dog. They have been one of the most successful and longest lasting features of the Czech musical scene.

urn:uuid:98652cb1-90ed-54ff-bf4c-cf1d4916e1d8 2009-10-04T18:21:53+02:00

This month's Music Profile will prove a treat for polyglots in particular. In this edition, we're taking a look at the back-catalogue of singer-songwriter, translator par excellence, and head of the Czech PEN club, Jiří Dědeček. For songs about postmodern romance, moneychangers, military secretaries, and the Czech town of Žatec, tune in to Music Profile.

urn:uuid:5fa3109a-8248-55e8-9c3a-e3fa549389fb 2009-09-06T18:17:48+02:00

Moravian folk music has long and rich traditions, and many artists work with its motifs in creating their own musical style. One of them is the “Walachian Bard” Vlasta Redl. He started his career in the mid 1980s in a band that was very well received, but eventually looked ever closer to the traditional Moravian music for inspiration.

urn:uuid:a727f260-a748-5725-b6f2-ce933ee8d802 2009-08-09T16:24:55+02:00

Iva Bittová is a phenomenon in contemporary Czech music – the avant-garde violinist, singer and composer has developed a music style all her own, blending the music of many cultures into what she terms her "personal folk music“ and drawing deeply on her emotions and the sounds of nature. Her vocal utterances range from traditional singing to chirping, moaning, yelps and deep throat noises that keep audiences mesmerized. Her style is not easily defined but perhaps one of the most accurate comments made about her is that she brings the human voice back to the natural world in a way that transcends barriers and touches audiences the world over.

urn:uuid:00a64130-6a75-574d-8215-2bd85f0d5d7a 2009-07-12T18:42:24+02:00

Few hard rock bands in the Czech Republic have enjoyed the commercial success of Kabát (The Coat), originally formed in 1983, a hard and heavy band that takes no prisoners.

urn:uuid:69807778-c107-5bb5-b432-1c09d05d37f7 2009-06-14T18:03:56+02:00

This edition of Music Profile is dedicated to the great Czech rock guitarist Radim Hladík. Hladík was a founder member of two of the leading Czechoslovak bands of the late 1960s, The Matadors and Blue Effect (later known as Modrý Effect) and over the years has played with a host of musicians, including folk singer Jaroslav Hutka.

urn:uuid:c2715363-d664-5b1d-8201-625fed8dddfc 2009-05-17T19:36:18+02:00

This week’s Music Profile will introduce the Prague band Tatabojs, familiarly called “Tatáči”: they won the “best live rock band” three times, and former Education Minister Ondřej Liška has been spotted at their concerts zealously tapping his feet in time to the beat. Jan P. Muchow, an important figure on the Czech music scene, has even said that Tatabojs have the potential to fill stadiums.

urn:uuid:798d68b3-b883-506e-ac97-9f9aa8af48f9 2009-04-19T19:33:34+02:00

This week in Music Profile we bring you 20 years of Čechomor, a band that has revolutionised traditional West Slavic music and taken it to the world stage.

urn:uuid:1753a32f-0a67-59a7-8851-ecd779c271a4 2009-03-22T19:27:24+01:00

In Music Profile this week, we take a look at one of the mainstays of the Czech alternative music scene, Už Jsme Doma, who are still at the top of their game after almost 25 years.

urn:uuid:70a9cab5-182e-55c7-94b1-4c73ba028a46 2009-02-22T18:46:24+01:00

In this edition of Music Profile we explore the career of a legend of the Czech New Wave, the Prague rock band Garáž who have just released their latest album, Black.

urn:uuid:9acad947-fe76-598f-ab86-86f9ac953dfb 2009-01-25T18:41:04+01:00

This edition of Music Profile is dedicated to Eva Olmerová, whom many consider to be the greatest Czech jazz singer of all time. Some critics have labelled her “our own Bessie Smith” but there is no doubt that Eva Olmerová’s enormous talent and potential was never fully realized.

urn:uuid:a9f1183b-8310-590a-aae9-e478c64758e4 2008-12-28T17:08:17+01:00

This month’s Music Profile is dedicated to the prodigious Czech singing talent Waldemar Matuška. An excellent actor to boot, Matuška starred in, and sang on the soundtracks of, many Czechoslovak films throughout the 1970s. His career, which spans over 40 years, is still going strong today. In this edition of Music Profile, you can hear some of the highlights:

urn:uuid:6f97506c-f345-55ac-ae9c-e9112eab0c50 2008-11-30T17:14:44+01:00

In this edition of Music Profile we look back at one of the most successful Czech bands of the 1990s, the rock group Lucie. Founded by singer/guitarist Robert Kodym together with bass guitarist Petr Chovanec (P.B.CH), Lucie’s success was unrivalled, with the band filling stadiums like no other in the years following the Velvet Revolution. From the early 90s up until 2002 the band was incredibly productive. Their songs remain instantly recognisable to most Czech listeners and still get tons of radio play.

urn:uuid:eec1184c-66e4-5e12-95f7-f0fe77e5b7d2 2008-11-02T19:06:03+01:00

This edition of Music Profile is dedicated to the great 1960s Czech pop singer Petr Novák. In just a few years Novák, with the groups George and Beatovens and Flamengo, released a string of often charming singles that have come to define the optimistic Prague Spring era.

urn:uuid:f100e818-148e-55e8-ab6e-f4e3ca373a95 2008-09-07T00:00:00+02:00

Hello and welcome to another edition of Music Profile which, this month, centres upon the Prague-based rock group ‘Psí Vojáci’ (or ‘Dog Soldiers’), led by the charismatic songwriter, singer and pianist Filip Topol. Psí Vojáci started as an underground band during the Communist regime, but enjoyed probably their biggest success after its fall in 1989. From the very beginning their sound was dominated by Filip Topol’s piano as well as dark, expressive lyrics. We begin with a song called ‘Černý sedlo’ or ‘Black Saddle’.