plastic people of the universe
 

I have never heard their music as such but i always mean to.If anyone has please discuss:

The Plastic People of the Universe
The Plastic People of the Universe (PPU) was a Prague (Czech) rock band. It was the main representative of the Prague underground culture (1968-1989). This avantgarde group went against the grain of the communist regime and due to its non-conformism often suffered serious problems such as arrests. Their song lyrics were very often poetic, at the beginning taken almost exclusively from Egon Bondy's poetry and later also from other non-conformist poets.
Bassist Milan Hlavsa formed the band which was heavily influenced by Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground in 1968. Czech art historian and cultural critic Ivan Jirous became their manager/artistic director, fulfilling a similar role the one Andy Warhol had with the The Velvet Underground.
In 1968, under rule of Communist Party leader Alexander Dubček, Czechoslovakia was undergoing the Prague Spring, a thawing of hard totalitarian control. In August, Soviet and other Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia to overthrow Dubček and reinstate hard-line communist rule, called nomalization process. Less than a month after the invasion, Plastic People of the Universe was formed.
The consolidated Czech communist government revoked the band's musicians license in 1970. In 1974, thousands of students traveled from Prague to the town of Ceske Budejovice to visit "the Plastics" performance. Stopped brutally by police, they were sent back to Prague in cattle cars, and several students were arrested. The band was forced underground until the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Unable to perform openly, an entire underground cultural movement formed around the band during the 1970s.
In 1976 "the Plastics" were arrested and put on trial by the Communist government to make an example. They were convicted of "Organized Disturbance of the Peace" and sentenced to terms in prison ranging from 8 to 18 months. It was in protest of these arrests that led playwright Václav Havel and others to write the Charter 77.
Despite their clashes with the government, the musicians never considerated themselves activists and always claimed that they wanted only to play their music.

I enjoy their music a great deal. It's definitely prog rock in its way, but done the right way. There are a lot of groups from Eastern Europe that had a particular melodic sensibility in their music that no other regions had at the time, and it is very interesting. I know a few people who don't like them, but most people I know find something rewarding in their music. I got to see them about 6 or 7 years ago, and they were still as cool as ever and put on a great show. I have about 4 of their albums and I enjoy them all.
The fact that they had to work in secret makes these recordings all the more amazing.

I don't know them, soundsthey sound like they could either be very, very good or very, very bad. Although Messr Clone seems to think the former.

But they're probably not going to beat Les Rallizes Denudes really, are they?

Apples and oranges.
Plastic People are without a doubt prog rock, though not tight-assed and dry by any means. It's not the full on freak-out high volume rock action of Rallizes, and if you hate all prog rock you will hate them. If like me you believe that prog rock can be great if done right (like about 6% of the time, give or take), try them out.
Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned is a good place to start.

I remember seeing them on a documentary on tv a bit over a year ago. They sounded good and I wanted to look into them more but could never find anything.

One of the members became a pretty big political figure in the country they were from

Prog is great when done well. Done badly so often. I like the fact that someone had the good sense to call some prog 'kraut', which makes recognising the good prog a lot easier. I'm in the process of downloading some plastic people, I'll report back later.

How exciting for you.

I wonder if Mr clone and Mr Glice have ever listened to these gentlemen's music.The description given on this article doesn't really make you think that much about their music till you listen to it:
Moğollar

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Current 'Mogollar' line-up (from left to right): Cahit Berkay, Taner Özgür, Serhat Ersöz, Engin Yörükoğlu


Moğollar is one of the pioneer bands in Turkish rock music for about 30 years and one of the founders of Turkish ethno rock music (or Anatolian rock music). The major goal of the band is to prove that folk music has a multi-layered soul and folk music's dynamism is very close to pop music's dynamism. The band members (Aziz Azmet, Cahit Berkay, Taner Ongur, Engin Yorukoglu and Murat Ses) tried to fuse the technical aspects of pop music with the melodies of ancient Anatolian folk music in late 1960s and early 1970s.
Cahit Berkay, Taner Öngür and Engin Yörükoğlu reformed the band in 1993, and were joined by keyboard player Serhat Ersöz. Murat Ses is dealing with other projects and is still pursuing an extraordinary international career.
The group won the Grand Prix du Disque of the Charles Cros Academy (previously won by such groups as Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix) in 1971.
Murat Ses (the group's keyboardist, arranger and composer) work and composition Ağrı Dağı Efsanesi (The Legend of Mount Ararat) was inspired by ancient legends of 'the Flood' in different cultures. In live versions over ten minutes he made use of diverse FX possibilities of his time to tell a sonic story with his keyboards

First time i had heard their music was by clicking on a link on this goldmine of a website:
http://www.weirdsville.com/

I heard one track of theirs on a compilation actually... very good. I can't remember which track it was, but the whole compilation is very good.

And you'll all be happy to hear that I downloaded some plastic people... and it is, indeed, of prime quality. I seem to remember one of their LP's being in a nearby-ish record store, I think I will buy it. There's a wonderful approach to freakout solos with them, the whole band playing steady and taking it in turns to have a proper Velvetsy twatting of instruments and then finding their way back to the melody.

I am of liking this. Yes.

They'll soon be downloaded and i'll hunt down some of their records.Thanks for that!

It is really, really good actually, I'm really enjoying it. Thanks for the recommendation Savage Clone and the inspiration porkmarras.

You must spread your ass before giving your cock again to blah blah...

For some reason it's reminding me of Datblygu. I really like Datblygu, and I would heartily recommend that everyone get some, especially the first album 'Pyst'. I assume the Brits are aware of them, and also assume the Americans are not - is this the truth? I ask you.

That's going on my diary now.

i think i read that Vaclav Havel even sang on one (or more?) of their songs.
i heard once a song of theirs that was good (not so proggy actually... the velvet underground influence was there, though), but never got the chance to listen to them again...

oh and i've a few mp3's from Mogollar, and there are some songs that i really love (from psychedelic pop songs to instrumentals)... i will certainly buy one of their albums one day...

i remember you already created a thread about them on the old board.

Sorry, I'd like to re-emphasise how appreciative I am of people turning me on to this band. It's the best album I've heard on recommendation since... well, a local band, but other than that it would be... Ooh, Xasthur. Yes, that good.

And I want someone, somewhere, to admit that Datblygu are better than most things that aren't the fall.

MMm... 1 controversially yes, 2 Yes and 3 dear God yes.

But then I don't think MBV aren't all that, only a bit of that, and probably not as much that as, say, loop, Spacemen 3 or Slowdive.

Shit G you frontin'? Ain't no beats is the shit next to the RZA's shit, getsme?

Here's the first track that i've ever heard by Mogollar.I recorded and converted it from a stream so the quality might not be exceptional but it is good enough.At first listen i thought it was gobsmackingly beautiful and i never tire of it:
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=50DDF63665DCFA28

cheers for uping that.

in the spirit of this thread i'd like to recommend the yugoslav band diciplina kicme, their 80s output anyway. i'll upload something later.