01	Crimson Crime 2-1-3						04:45
	02	Sky-Blue Hair						05:45
	03	Sukha						03:20
	04	The Drowning Waters						06:16
	05	The Rise And Fall Of Stella Morbida						05:34
	06	Yama						07:55
	07	Birdsong The Color Of Pyramids						02:23
	08	Autumn Swirl						06:27
	09	Al Aaraaf						09:02

Kopecky: self-titled
Kopecky
self-titled
self-produced
USA 1999

Joe Kopecky, guitar, tambourine, bells, voice;
Paul Kopecky, acoustic and electronic percussion;
William Kopecky, bass guitar, sitar, keyboards

Tracklist:
1. Crimson Crime 2-1-3 - 4:41
2. Sky-Blue Hair - 5:41
3. Sukha - 3:17
4. The Drowning Waters - 6:12
5. The Rise and Fall of Stella Morbida - 5:30
6. Yama - 7:52
7. Birdsong the Color of Pyramids - 2:19
8. Autumn Swirl - 6:23
9. Al-Aaraaf - 9:02

total time 51:15


Jack Hesse:
Ya dere hey! These guys are the local prog heroes or something. Being the only (good) progressive rock band in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area (okay, Racine), I've had a few occasions to see them live, and now I'm hooked.
Their basic sound is very rich, using lots of different sounds, but with a heavy-metal crunch and wank always within arm's reach. Bill's basslines are usually played on a fretless, lending a more melodic quality. Joe's guitar arsenal includes spickitty guitar arpeggios that (for some reason) remind me of Xaal, some spacy swooshing, to standard heavy-metal crunchery. Paul's drum parts are usually straight forward, keeping the basic beat, emphasizing rhythms, but also includes electronic pads to add a more "industrial" feel. The riffage often happens in modes other than standard Western and pentatonic stuff, giving it a dash of that Eastern (or Middle-Eastern) flavor. Not your average prog-metal approach.
And that leads to my chief complaint about this album. They create lots of interesting textures, lots of great playing, lots of neat sounds... but after the first couple songs, it doesn't do much for me. Good ideas, but I wish they would have done more with them. I like the follow-up, Serpentine Kaleidoscope much better.

Gary Varney:
While listening to their intricate Middle Eastern-seasoned instrumentals punctuated by sitar, one might guess this brotherly trio hails from somewhere a bit more exotic than... Wisconsin, of all places. Because the band weds distorted guitar to Middle-Eastern ambience, I cannot help but think of "Saudi metal" or "Sri Lanka rock" as descriptive (and admittedly clumsy) terms. But note that they cannot be categorized as "prog-metal", which implies a sound more metal than prog; Kopecky is the reverse.
Bill Kopecky is a demon on the fretless bass, which shares equal time with guitar as a lead melodic instrument. Joe's guitar tone is crisp, crunchy, and his style owes little to standard guitar-hero pyrotechnics. Electronic drums are integrated into the sound without overdoing it; Paul uses them only to color the music when necessary. His approach is refreshing: he's not your usual "boom-crash" drummer merely marking time, nor is he a Portnoyesque double-bass thrasher. His cymbal usage is creative and sometimes reminds me of Bill Bruford's intro to "One More Red Nightmare".
All compositions save one are instrumental. The structures of most are usually unpredictable, but the price of inventiveness is that it occasionally doesn't work: a couple of pieces do feel a little unresolved. With the exception of a track or two, the album's mood leans toward the darker side. "Sky-Blue Hair" is probably the best example of the signature Kopecky sound, featuring a catchy melody on the bass framed by soaring guitar effects, then interrupted by heavy tangents spiraling off in different directions. To their credit, the disquieting "Birdsong the Color of Pyramids" genuinely works - normally a narrated poem is a surefire recipe for disaster. Using the desert rather than the ocean as its setting, this piece is mildly reminiscent of The Doors' "Horse Latitudes" in its tone and delivery, but not as intense (happily, Joe's voice is Wisconsin-accent-free; otherwise the mood would have been altered). To close, the acutely atmospheric "Al-Aaraaf" leads the listener on a slowly winding sonic journey across the Sahara and up into space. Very highly recommended!

Brandon Wu:
Having heard and seen firsthand that these guys are extremely heavy in concert, I picked up their debut studio album with some trepidation. And while Kopecky is little more than a riff band, with each song introducing one or two basic motives and developing those to great extent, they're pretty good at what they do. Wedding heavy-metal crunch guitar with Eastern-sounding sitar and fretless bass work, Kopecky successfully explore territory that few bands have tried to cover before.
As stated before, the textures and influences present here are more interesting than the compositions themselves. The primary reason I like this album as much as I do is William Kopecky's fantastic fretless bass work - his melodic accents really add a flavorful character to the music, providing a nice contrast to Joseph Kopecky's often heavy-handed metallic power-chord riffing. "Sky-Blue Hair" features some very tasteful bass work in particular - bass playing that evokes a sense of the ethereal. Also, William's sitar work is cool; and though by his own admission he's somewhat of a beginner at the instrument, it nevertheless adds a neat dynamic to the music.
After extended listening, I find that the second half of the album is less memorable than the first, but in any case this is still a solid, if relatively simple, album that I would recommend to anyone interested in hearing Middle-Eastern or Northern Indian influences in their heavy prog.


Kopecky - Kopecky

Released: 1999
Label: self-released
Cat. No.: HK9881
Total Time: 51:11


Reviewed by: Stephanie Sollow, March 2001
The debut album by Kopecky is, like their more recent Serpentine Kaleidoscope, filled with very dark and often angular music. Sounds grind and churn - heavy bass, percussion, guitar in very atmospheric swirls. Percussion is at the forefront, even if it isn't necessarily the percussion instruments making the sound. Both acoustic and electronic percussion are played by Paul Kopecky, while brother Joe plays guitar, tambourine, bells, and voice on the poem recited in "Birdsong The Color Of Pyramids" written by brother William, who plays bass, sitar, and keyboards. I'd say this is the pessimistic King Crimson - the more metallic King Crimson - if the more recent edition is the point of comparison.

The sonic mix is rich, whereby with repeated listening, little things you didn't hear on one play-through, you pick up on the next - shimmering cymbal accents here and there for example. Being mainly instrumentalists, Kopecky are able to let the arrangements fill in where a vocalist might be, making the music very dynamic. There's a movie to which this would make the perfect sound track, but it would have to be a very avant-garde, abstract, collage like film. Or maybe arty sequences like...well, like Miami Vice used to, say. Only it would have to be much grittier than that, more realistic. This though comes to me especially during the metallic hard "The Drowning Waters." In fact, for those metal-heads who like the energy and aggro of metal without a vocalist getting in the way, you'll find a lot to like in this track. One might want to mention Liquid Tension Experiment here - those sinewy bass lines of Levin are often echoed here.

There's a bass line during "Sky-Blue Hair" that so reminds me of the music once used in an American Airlines commercial, which I believe was Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue." It is a fat and warm bass sound, emanating from some place very deep.

Picking out favourite bits is hard, as there are so many. The percussion that opens "The Rise And Fall Of Stella Morbida" is cool, which is soon joined by keys, keening guitar...there is something martial and medieval about the rhythm. Again, I'd have to point to prog metal by way of comparison, though it's not your oh-so-stereotypical-now chugga-chugga. It takes that chugga-chugga and lets the keys and guitar do some wonderful soloing over it - subtle though they are. Actually, thinking of medieval music made me think of Henry V and the music Patrick Doyle composed for the Branaugh version of the tale and the galloping and epic swells of the theme music - that same tone and style is here.

"Sukha" and "Yama" bear some kinship in being sitar lead tracks, and both go from acoustic to rock, "Yama" being a bit more metal - here a lot like Liquid Tension Experiment I think. Mainly the bass, and for LTE it was Levin that was the standout (not to dis' the others, of course), and so that bubbly and liquid bass has become the signature LTE sound for me. But that's not to say that Joe's getting short changed here, as we get to hear from him an acidic guitar solo - Paul's percussion holding everything together.

"Birdsong The Color Of Pyramids" is very dark, very gloomy -- evoking a chilly, desolate place, where one's only companion the harsh, bright moon. "Autumn Swirl" is a bit playful, guitar singing in an almost happy singsong. With the dark bass bubbling underneath, there is a suggestion that all is not as up as it would appear. "Al Aaraaf" continues in a middle-eastern vein as "Sukha" and "Yama" before it, but with a different approach. This is smooth and silky, wind instrument-like keys (nothing so specific as anyone instrument) that take the lead over heartbeat like percussion. The phrase "midnight at the oasis" comes to mind, but you won't find a coy Maria Muldaur here, but rather a feeling of the calm before the storm - the camels are restless, suspecting that with dawn something terrible comes. This sense of danger is created by the interesting guitar phrases, which pumps so rhythmically and yet leisurely, you could say they swirl. -- not quite like the drone of a digeridoo, but if you think about circular breathing and apply it to the guitar phrase, that's what I'm getting at.

All in all, this is a great debut album from the brothers Kopecky that deserves further exploration.

More about Kopecky:

Track Listing: Crimson Crime 2-1-3 (4:43) / Sky-Blue Hair (5:43) / Sukha (3:18) / The Drowning Waters (6:14) / The Rise And Fall Of Stella Morbida (5:32) / Yama (7:53) / Birdsong The Color Of Pyramids (2:21) / Autumn Swirl (6:25) / Al Aaraaf (9:02)

Musicians:
Joe Kopecky - guitar, tambourine, bells, and voice
Paul Kopecky - acoustic and electronic percussion
William Kopecky - bass guitar, sitar, and keyboards
Chris Djuricic - finger cymbals

Contact:

Website: www.kopecky.8m.com
Note: will open new browser window

Email: kopecky@wi.net

Discography

Kopecky (1999)
Serpentine Kaleidoscope (2000)
Orion (2001)






Kopecky [USA]
Updated 3/22/02

Discography
Kopecky (99)
Serpentine Kaleidoscope (00) Progressive World review
Orion - A Live Performance (01, Live)


Reviews
Kopecky - Paul (drums), William (bass/sitar/keys) and Joe (guitar/voice) Kopecky

Sorry to jump right to the ending first, but I just gotta say it right up front ... these guys are spectacular! Unless you're a "Progressive Purist" who feels that Metal-styled guitar playing automatically makes a band "not Prog", you should go to the Kopecky web site and order at least one of their CD's immediately. You'll want the rest of them once you've heard it!

So now that you already know the ending, here's the story to go with it. The Kopeckys are three brothers from Wisconsin who joined forces in 1996 after becoming disenchanted with the other musicians they had been working with. Music must run in their genes, because each of them is a virtuoso in his chosen instrument. Most bands with this much power and drive in a 3-piece guitar/bass/drums format I would normally pidgeonhole as "Metal" or "ProgMetal" and be done with it. But this would be inaccurate and misleading in Kopecky's case. Their music is very complex and changes a lot in texture, even within songs. This is what keeps them interesting as a (almost) purely instrumental band.

Joe's guitar work is complex, intricate and has a sound that can only be described as bone-crushing, reminiscent of John Petrucci's (Dream Theater) metal-styled guitar. But he can also lay back and get mellow for some cuts, or just for a few measures. The metal styling, however, is one of the touchstones of Kopecky's sound that they keep coming back to.

William's fretless bass work is, in a word, amazing. In the quieter passages, he reminds me of Eberhard Weber, bassist for Kate Bush. When the going gets meatier, a better comparison would be Jeff Berlin. But William can also make that bass do things I've never heard anywhere before, like the rubbery percolations in "Magic Room" on Serpentine Kaleidoscope. "Sky-Blue Hair" from Kopecky is mostly a bass song too, but you'll have to keep reminding yourself you're listening to a bass, it's so much more melodic than most "bass songs" ever are. Oh, yeah ... just for variety, he also plays Sitar which figures prominently into several cuts, and also keyboards.

I hate to keep mentioning Dream Theater, but Paul's drumming accuracy and texture I can only compare to Mike Portnoy's, especially on DT's Awake CD. The drumming is precise and crisp and it meshes and interplays very carefully with the notes coming from the other instruments. The whole band is about interplay between musicians ... no flashy solos here, Kopecky gives new meaning to the word ensemble. On many independent Prog releases, the recording quality ranges from amateurish to awful. Happily, this is not true of the Kopecky studio CDs. Both of the studio albums are impeccably recorded and mixed. They have great presence, and are so clean and crisp that you can pick out every note and drum hit with no muddiness or stepping on each other. These guys are real pros.

Other reviewers have dwelt upon the differences between their first album, Kopecky, and the second, Serpentine Kaleidoscope. While it is true that the second album is a bit more mature than the first, both are amazing pieces of work. This becomes even clearer on their third release, Orion, a live album recorded in a concert at Orion Studios in Baltimore, Maryland on April Fool's Day of 2000. This album contains (almost) equal second helpings of songs from both studio albums, and also a "sneak preview" of a new song ("Temptation's Screaming-Ground") from their upcoming third studio album. It's a testament to the uniform quality of their music that this hangs together as an album quite well in spite of using material spread across three albums. The sound quality is so good that it rivals their studio albums. It's incredible to hear what three guys can do onstage without studio tricks like overdubs. This is such a high quality release, and such a good overview of Kopecky's music, I would recommend this as a good starting point if you want to hear Kopecky's music. Middle-Eastern-flavored psychedelic Prog-Metal? Something like that. You owe it to yourself to hear this band for yourself. As I said in the first sentence, order a Kopecky CD now if you like your prog crunchy.

The latest news from Kopecky is their relationship with Par Lindh. Joe and William played as guitarist and bassist for the Swedish prog master at NEARFest 2000. After this, William went to play with The Par Lindh Project on their latest tour, and he is now a full member of the Project, working with them on their next studio album. But that's not all ... the tables turn once again, and Par Lindh will be playing as "guest keyboardist" with the brothers Kopecky at Baja Prog 2002, where they will be playing songs by both Kopecky and Par Lindh. -- Fred Trafton