Pražský Výběr – Běr

Supraphon Release Information

One of the most fascinating Czech rock albums of the 1990s.

Fifteen years after making the previous disc, Straka v hrsti, listened to by their fans on copied tapes, and a decade from the beginning of the band’s official concerts, Čok, Kocáb, Kryšpín and Pavlíček got together again in the Sono studio (a splendid sound conjured up by Karlík and Cimfe) to record a dozen new songs. The traditional co-creators, Kocáb and Pavlíček, offered merely in part the traditional Pražský Výběr eccentric material, with their musical and human experience, as well as co-operation with the lyricist Vlasta Třešňák, shifting things into an ironic or slightly melancholic post-revolution seriousness.

Many may recall the video-supplemented hit Melem nemelem, všechno semelem, yet listening to the album as a whole is highly recommended: from the introductory, almost Southern bluesy Tož vem to ďas through the collectively heartfelt Ach jo, jak já jsem línej to the final Pavlíček guitar bonanza Stín, it contains more than fifty minutes of wonderful music. The live recording of Melem, nemelem…, made during last year’s concert tour, serves as proof that Pražský Výběr’s 1997 pieces are still vital and well worth rediscovering on the new Supraphon CD reedition.