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Killer progressive hard rock band that has been hiding out in the Czech Republic. Votchi is a classically trained septet HEAVILY influenced by Deep Purple and Jethro Tull with more than a smattering of Yes and Uriah Heep tossed in for good measure. Imagine Ian Anderson sitting in on the Burn sessions and you'll get the idea of the direction these guys are heading in. These guys really lay the hammer down and are as tight as can be at the same time. Vocalist Petr Kutheil has great range while flautist Libor Barto goes for that spitty Anderson style of playing. Great twin guitar breaks challenge a roaring Hammond organ attack. Like our own Black Bonzo, Votchi squarely captures the hard rock sounds of the 70s and infuses them with more than enough progressive trimmings. If these guys get exposure outside of their homeland - watch out! Highly recommended.
- The Laser's Edge
Votchi - New Religion
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Chronique rédigée par Proggi parue le 29.12.2008 15:08:31
Autant la Pologne nous offre bon nombre de groupes de Rock ou Métal Progressif, autant la République Tchèque reste discrète sur ce sujet. C'est de Prague, capitale de la République Tchèque, que nous vient "Votchi". Cette formation existe depuis 1999, a sorti son premier CD, 'Scary Woman' en 2002, puis 'Unicorn' en 2004, et enfin 'New Religion', objet de cette chronique, en 2008. Votchi n'est pas à proprement parler un groupe de débutants et n'est pas inconnu du monde du Rock. Ils ont en effet tourné avec Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep ou Colosseum.
"Votchi" est composé de 7 musiciens dont les talents sont assez intéressants, voire étonnants. Si quatre d'entre eux sont diplômés du conservatoire de musique de Prague, dont Mirek Mûzik (ça ne s'invente pas) qui s'est spécialisé dans la composition (il joue des claviers et chante), on s'étonnera un peu plus de trouver Libor Barto, flûtiste, issu de la faculté de Mathématiques et de Physique de Prague. Et que dire de Petr Kutheil, qui a chanté dans des comédies musicales, mais aussi dans l'opéra Don Giovanni de Mozart ?
"New Religion" ouvre avec le morceau titre, sorte de melting-pot des influences du groupe. Définir le style de "Votchi" est difficile tant sa musique est variée. "New Religion" en est l'exemple type : vous y trouverez du Blind Guardian (les chœurs du refrain), du Jethro Tull (l'utilisation de la flûte traversière), du Pain of Salvation période Be (que l'on retrouvera de façon encore plus marquée dans "Keep on…") avec la flûte à bec, mais aussi du Kansas et du … Votchi bien évidemment.
Comme chaque titre a sa personnalité et donc, son intérêt, l'album 'New Religion' attire immanquablement l'attention. 13 titres relativement courts le composent, dont 2 chantés en Tchèque avec une invitée, Bara Basikova. Un instrumental avec voix, "Circle" clôt le CD de brillante manière. Pour les nostalgiques des années 80, une petite surprise est offerte avec la reprise de "Maria Magdalena" de la chanteuse allemande Sandra, composé par son mari Michael Cretu dans une version on ne peut plus arrangée à la sauce Votchi, un peu Hard-Rock électronique (ça existe… ?) et d'une excellente facture.
Les amateurs de Hard-Rock (Votchi revendique l'appartenance à ce style) s'y retrouveront. En écoutant "Melody", vous pourrez penser que Jorn Lande (période Ark) a fait une pige pour le groupe. Et si vous posez une oreille sur l'excellent "Rainbow", vous croirez à un cover de Kansas (c'est à s'y méprendre). Et tout ceci n'est pas dit dans le but de vous faire croire à une suite de plagiats, mais bien pour vous décrire un album dont le niveau rattrape parfois celui de ses influences, nuance…
Bref, ce disque m'a demandé du temps, de nombreuses écoutes, pour en faire l'inventaire. Beaucoup de bonnes choses, d'excellentes interventions du guitariste soliste (les soli de "Rainbow" et de "Circle"), une orchestration de haut niveau et surtout, des compositions solides et pleines de vie. Certes, ce disque n'est pas le plus original de l'année, mais il a le mérite d'être très bien fait. Voilà un CD qui ravira les amateurs des groupes cités tout au long de cette chronique, et beaucoup d'autres à n'en pas douter.
Pistes
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01. New Religion - 05:47
02. Money - 04:45
03. Keep On... - 04:20
04. Melody - 04:33
05. Rainbow - 05:53
06. Dragon Babe - 03:06
07. One Day - 03:24
08. Nejdou - 05:15
09. Viva Freedom - 02:57
10. Maria Magdalena - 03:57
11. Ztrácím - 03:51
12. Drací Krídla - 03:06
13. Circle - 03:11
Formation
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Petr Kutheil : Chant
Libor Barto : Flûtes
Mirek Mužík : Chant, Claviers
Michal Hladùvka : Guitare
Márty Smejkal : Guitare
Pavel Bartoš : Basse
Tomáš Stloukal : Batterie
Bara Basikova : Chant
- MusicWaves.fr
De nuevo, otra extraordinaria banda languideciendo en la obscuridad. Esta banda checa de progresivo duro blusero es todo un caso. Guiada por el hammond potente de Miroslav Muzik con frecuentes intervenciones de flauta y una voz aguardientosa, la música de Votchi nos recuerda por momentos a Uriah Heep, en otras a Deep Purple y por supuesto, de vez en cuando a Jethro Tull. Nada demasiado complicado ni virtuoso, solo música con mucho feeling y buenos riffs, lo suficiente como para estar buscando frecuentemente este cd en la creciente repisa del material que nos llega.
Es curioso – e injusto – que no he visto alguna reseña de esta banda en los sitios que frecuento. Deberían, habrá que hacer algo para que este excelente sexteto sea descubierto por los amantes de la buena música. Visita su página, baja algunas de sus canciones y conviértete, no te arrepentirás.
- Eufonia
Discography
CD Scary Woman - 2002 - Kmotr Records - 2 songs from this album were in rotation on Radio Beat - Czech biggest rock radio station
CD Unicorn - 2004 - Barrando Records - 2 songs from this album were in rotation on Radio Beat
You can buy our CD "Unicorn" at http://cdbaby.com/cd/votchi
CD New Religion – 2008 – Votchi & Popron Music
Photos
Bio
Our band was founded in July 1999. Our musical style reflects individual influences of the various band members; now we can say that our style comes close to progressive hard rock. The line-up has changed over the years, a few other musicians joined and left the band, but the band's core members stayed constant.
We have released three studio albums. The first album “Scary Woman” (2002) was a successful debut and the eponymous song was in rotation on the Czech biggest rock radio station “Radio Beat” for several months. There were quite a few positive press reviews.
We have won a few prestigious contests – a perfect motivation for further work.
Thanks to our regular participation in big summer music festivals and extensive touring we subsequently attracted rock fans’ attention. In 2003 we supported the legendary Whitesnake in T-Mobile Arena in Prague and we were chosen as a support act for the world-famous Colosseum in “Lucerna Music Bar”. We also played a few gigs in Germany.
In 2004 we released our second album “Unicorn”. Some of the new got regular radio play on Radio Beat again and critics gave the album very positive reviews.
In 2005 we played alongside famous Czech bands such as Blue Effect, Vladimír Mišík, Divokej Bill, we won a Radio Beat’s contest „Nadìje Beatu“ (Beat Expectations) and thanks to our success we played in a sold-out venue (Lucerna hall) alongside Blue Effect and Pražský Výbìr. At the end of the year we have reached the highest level so far: we were awarded first prize in the “Golden Nightingale” contest in the category “budding artists” and we reached the 6th position in the“bands” category. In October 2006 we supported Deep Purple in “ÈEZ Arena” in Ostrava.
It should also be mentioned that we played two gigs in the Liverpool Cavern Club; no Czech bands had played there before.
Currently there are four videoclips in rotation on TV – "Unicorn", "Demon’s Eyes", "Maria Magdalena" and "Money". In February 2007 we performed live on Czech TV in a morning show and at the end of August we toured with another famous Czech band "Czechomor" as their support act. In October 2007 we reached the 1st position in the “Gambrinus MP3 paráda” chart.
In 2008 we finished our third studio album - New Religion.
We have released two studio albums. The first album “Scary Woman” (2002) was a successful debut and the eponymous song was in rotation on the Czech biggest rock radio station “Radio Beat” for several months. There were quite a few positive press reviews. In 2002 we reached the 3rd position in a prestigious contest “Rock made in Gambrinus”. We also won the “Beatová liga” (Beat League) contest in Pilsen. Next year we won another contest “Rock Nymburk”.
Thanks to our regular participation in big summer music festivals and extensive touring we subsequently attracted rock fans’ attention. In 2003 we supported the legendary Whitesnake in “T-Mobile Arena” in Prague and we were chosen as a support act for the world-famous Colosseum in “Lucerna Music Bar”. We also played a few gigs in Germany.
In 2004 we released our second album “Unicorn”. Some of the new songs received heavy rotation on Radio Beat again and critics gave the album very positive reviews.
In 2005 we played alongside famous Czech bands such as Blue Effect, Vladimír Mišík, Divokej Bill, we won a Radio Beat’s contest „Nadìje Beatu“ (Beat Expectations) and thanks to our success we played in a sold-out venue (Lucerna hall) alongside Blue Effect and Pražský Výbìr. At the end of the year we have reached the highest level so far: we were awarded first prize in the “Golden Nightingale” contest in the category “budding artists” and we reached the 6th position in the category “bands”. In October 2006 we supported Deep Purple in “ÈEZ Arena” in Ostrava.
It should also be mentioned that we played two gigs in the Liverpool Cavern Club; no Czech bands had played there before.
Currently there are four videoclips in rotation on TV – "Unicorn", "Demon’s Eyes", "Maria Magdalena" and "Money". In February 2007 we performed live on Czech TV in a morning show and at the end of August we toured with another famous Czech band "Czechomor" as their support act. In October 2007 we reached the 1st position in the “Gambrinus MP3 paráda” chart.
In 2008 we finished our third studio album - New Religion.
Here are a few details about each of us:
Petr Kutheil, our vocalist, performs in the “Galileo”, “Hamlet”, “Romeo and Juliette” musicals, in the “Don Giovanni” opera and more.
Libor Barto, besides playing the flute, is a post gradual student of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Charles University in Prague.
Mirek Mužík is the keyboard player, vocalist and author of Votchi’s music and lyrics; he graduated from the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory in Prague (specialization: composition).
Michal Hladùvka, our guitarist, is a student of the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory in Prague, he is also a member of the “Walda&Gang” band.
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