Přístav, many times winners of Porta and other folk festivals, are not prolific with new albums. In 2001 they made their debut with the recording Prašná cesta (Dirt Road), in 2008 they brought out Papírový drak (Paper Kite) and as recently as in 2017 their third disc PřiHrátky. This average of eight years between LP recordings has one advantage. In between the group plays intensively, work on themselves and so a certain progress should be visible in each new album. Theoretically this should be the case and fortunately with Přístav it is. And just as with the previous disc I stated that Přístav is becoming steadily more convincing, with this new one that feeling has deepened.
I can see progress mainly on two levels. While in musical terms Přístav left little to criticise already years ago (their convincing win in the interpretive competition in the final of Trampská Porta in 2004 is one of many pieces of evidence), I had some reservations about their repertoire of their own work. That is not to say that everything is absolutely fine now. “Rhyming” Brusel and Uzel is as if taken from one of the least successful lyrics of Roman Horký (and the whole of the song Panda is in my view on the borders of being embarrassing), in the otherwise sweet Královně hraček (Queen of Toys) in an important place the accent runs away (“princi duPAček”), but in general the dodgy and completely unsuccessful passages are far fewer. On the other hand in the songs there are a number of good lyrical ideas, references and jokes, whether “bridge over troubled water of our love” (Mosty – Bridges) or “krok–sun–krok” in the waltz Svatební (Wedding). Aleš Hrbek as the author of the vast majority of the lyrics has matured, which is true of the group as a whole.
A second shift, gradual in the history of the group, but clear thanks to the gaps between albums, is in style. Přístav, which I previously saw as a purely ‘tramping’ group [a specific Czech subgenre of folk music associated with songs played by hikers, often around the camp fire], follows on from the Brno tradition of the genre, on its website now calls itself a tramping/folk group. Not that tramping songs are completely absent from the new album (he nostalgic Epilog is also musically ideal for the genre), but at a minimum the contemporary folk music of Přístav is inclined toward pop in the widest sense of the word. An important part of the instrumentation has for several years been, alongside the two guitars and double bass, also keyboards, played by Jitka Buriánková, a lady with experience in several jazz groups. Otherwise the fact that Přístav did not come to grief in their cover version of a Norah Jones hit (Sunrise, here as Svítá) is also positive news. On the other hand what Přístav has kept from its tramping past is the swing rhythm in a number of songs and above all the wonderful choruses (Dopis – Letter, Suki). The nice sound of the guitar (especially the solo playing of Vít Buriánek) is taken for granted and the voices of the individual vocalists (that is mainly Martina Hrbková and Aleš Macků) are also pleasant listening.
Přístav on its PřiHrátky offers a pleasing song, comprehensible to a wide audience. They are sometimes simple, intended for “pure spirits” (Vánoční – Christmas), they are sweet songs (Svatební, Královna hraček), but that is all part and parcel of this genre and tradition. What is more these songs are not stupid and in terms of folk some of them have an imaginative structure and arrangement (Dopis). Přístav is part of the mainstream of acoustic folk, but it is among the best of it. And not just in Brno.
Přístav – PřiHrátky. Self-published 2017. 12 songs. Running time: 42:20
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