Review: Reliéf -
A 5-Track Demo CD
 By Ian Reynolds
Tracks: Lord Will Answer Thee / Leaves in The Wind / One Glad And Joyful Day / The Acts Of Jesus / Ain’t Coming Home Personnel: Tomas Dvorak - mandolin, Zbynek Bures - banjo (guitar on track 3), Jin Holoubek - guitar, Pavel Peroutka - bass Having been entranced by Monogram earlier this year I was relishing the prospect of hearing the latest Czech offering to reach our sceptered isle, this time by an outfit by the name of Reliéf. (No, I don’t know how to pronounce it, either. If I was managing a group whose names look like countdown conundrums I’d be tempted to call them the Spell Czechs, but it’s because I think that way that I’m sitting here in this hovel). So what’s in a name? I don’t care what they’re called. This is great stuff! Zbynek Bures, bass player with Monogram in their recent UK tour, is showcased here as a competent banjo player and an excellent song-writer. In his writing, he pays a great deal of attention to the top line. Without (on the most part) resorting to ingenious chord structures, he weaves delicate and complicated melodies around simple, clean arrangements. The result is arresting. But without a doubt, the icing on this most appetising of cakes is the vocals. Three and four part harmonies abound, and I’m reminded of some of the first ‘sacred songs’ I heard: He Will Set Your Fields on Fire and I Come To The Garden Alone. They sing with the sound of bluegrass, the precise arrangement and delivery of barbershop, and the added, perfect ingredient of ‘muscle shoals’ (Listen to Paul Simon’s There Goes Rymin’ Simon and you hear what I mean... )
One Glad and Joyful Day is a classic waiting to happen. Have fun trying to work out the vocal parts. Three of the tracks on this 5 number promotion CD that runs for just a tad over 11 minutes are ‘gospel’ songs that non-Christians might feel would be more appropriately published in a ‘Praise and Worship’ context. (No prizes for guessing which three). But these are excellent examples of the genre, tastefully delivered and no doubt heart-felt. The others are top drawer songs that may well find their way onto the session circuit up here in the dear old NW of E. Ain’t Comin’ Home is a real crowd pleaser. So I haven’t got a bad word to say about this CD. Which doesn’t mean I don’t have the odd query. I wonder what their target market is? And if I was old Z.B., I’d be wanting my fair share, if someone like Doyle Lawson was suddenly to pick up on, say, One Glad and Joyful Day. I just wonder what the agenda is with these exceptionally gifted young guys. I mean, are they doing it for God (they look depressingly like choir boys in their shirt and tie cover shots) or are they just out to entertain? I’m not being funny - is the music simply an evangelistic tool for these guys or what? Are they singing gospel because it’s another indication of authenticity, like the stretched harmonies, the cross picked guitar or the pure Scruggs licks? Should have asked them whilst they were here. You can’t buy it, but it is definitely a ‘get-your-hands-on-a-copy' proposition. Tasteful, well produced, deftly played and beautifully sung. They’re coming over - I wonder when?
© Ian Reynolds, Blackley, Manchester
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