Remember Czechoslovakia ? The small country once part of the Communist Ost Block? The country that, after its Velvet Revolution and playwright-cum-president Václav Havel, broke apart into Czech Republic and Slovakia ? Well, now it’s united again. 

The events of January 18th and #OpMegaupload have spawned not only the first generation of the Czechoslovak Anonymous hivemind, that has DDOSed government agencies under the banner of #czsk ever since. Now also its youngest generation of musicians is united under one banner, that of dAdA ACTa.

[DADA ACTA] No Pavarotti - Oh No Dirty Diana by easterndaze

Ater SOPA was put off, ACTA has taken the center-stage of the struggle against an increasingly un-free and regulated Internet. Even though the Slovak and Czech governments have stopped the ratification process of ACTA to “reconsider”, the battle for the mind of the people still rages on. 

dAdA ACTa is a massive 4-CD compilation that was put together rapidly in the course of the last three weeks and features almost everyone that is significant on the Czech and Slovak experimental, electronic and underground music scenes. It is in itself an epic undertaking of immense political and musical strength: not only is it a clear sign that the producers doubt ACTA can improve their standing in any way, it is a radical proposal that they would rather beat up their European MPs than have ACTA ratified. And be sure they say it very loud and clear: the 4-CD compilation features excellent material ranging from harsh-noise through witchhouse and dubstep to triphop, psychedelic electronica and experimental poetry.

The dAdA ACTa is an initiative of the Brno-based electronic musician Michal Šuranský (going under the moniker of Jacques Kustod) and Bratislava’s visual experimentalist An Chaosdroid. Together they have united not only Czech and Slovak musicians, but also visual artists. Their message: “according to ACTA we are all criminals unless proven otherwise [at the expense of our privacy and knowledge]. We challenge ACTA to prove its intentions are honest and civilian oriented, and till not proven we will continue to consider it a threat to freedom of speech and of knowledge.”. 

Gustav Tutre & Euchrid Escrow - Digital Assange by GT&EE

We fully support that. You can download the compilation from Archive.org [cd 1, cd 2, cd 3, cd 4] and also be sure to visit the dAdA ACTa website for artist’s statements, more informations and a cool Anti-Acta arcade game :) Big Up !

A bass-heavy offering from the Meanbucket contingent, the ambassadors of modern urban dance styles from juke to bass via dub-inflected accelerated bpm. The Prague based label has been getting increasingly prolific, one of their most recent offerings is by Chicago legend Traxman from Dance Mania records. 

Their upcoming release is by the Czech Trusty&Freezer. Aside from the original track by the duo, there are also remixes by our Polish friend Dana Dramowicz, head of the Concrete Cut staple (her remix starting off with in an IDMish vein but with enough floor-shaking bass later on), here under her moniker Artfruit, DJ Sliink, Quime or Dryman.

Trusty & Freezer - Massage Creep by meanbucket

Reverend Dick from Prague love their vintage analogue synths and a certain almost innocuously and ironically dark atmosphere which they translate into their sound and visual aesthetics (since they are also visual artists, members of the activist art collective Guma Guar). Find out more in our interview and our audio interview for easterndaze’s Radio Wave show.

Here is their new video for Devil’s stone.

Reveren Dick - Devil’s stones from richardbakes on Vimeo.

and here their older one.

Reverend Dick - Alone from reverend dick on Vimeo.

Another of our 2011 recaps this time with acclaimed Czech journalist and writer Karel Veselý, author and editor of books including Hudba ohně (Fire Music: Radical Black Music From Jazz to Hip Hop and Beyond) and Kmeny.

What’s the highlight for you in Czech Republic’s music scene?
It’s nice to see people doing their own thing without the support from the big labels and also defying expectations from their fans. The highlight of 2011 in our music scene is the uncompromising hallucinogenic hip hop of Hugo Toxxx on his Legální drogy (Legal drugs) released on his own label Hypno 808.

I also very much enjoyed the Silesian electro-punk duo I Love 69 Popgeju on their long awaited debut album Let’s Gold Corridor released on vinyl byl Vole Love / Malaria records.

The newcomer of the year must be the one-man anonymous project Kittchen on his album Menu made available from his website.

One sign of the good health of the scene is the demand for vinyl and physical products in general – Kittchen was made as an album on vinyl by his fans, Floex’s second album Zorya sold out on vinyl within few weeks and the same thing happened to my books (Hudba ohne, Kmeny).

What is the low point for you in Czech Republic’s music scene?
Racism on the hip hop scene (Hrobka & Pitva, reactions to LA4’s video Nadzemí with Gypsy actors in it). The music awards (Anděl, Žebřík) dominated by major label / radio / lowest common denominator crap. People being stuck in their own music scenes without any interest in what is going on elsewhere.

Discovery-new artist of the year /in Czech Rep./?
Apocalyptic lo-fi pop of Kittchen on Menu. Prodavač (ex-Sporto) on his Duchové EP

Duchove EP by P R O D A V A C

Personal tips and wishes and plans for 2012?
That we can finally witness the world change this year. I really hope that I am wrong to predict that the fall of consumerist capitalist culture will make place for new fascism. As for me: I hope to spend less time with useless shit like making money and more with things that really matter (such as my long delayed novel and my children).

Refashioning classical music by contemporary, often electronic producers, seems to be quite popular these days, with varying results. Austria has done a similar project with recontextualisations of Haydn or Schwanensee and this time, it’s a mutual collaboration between Romania and the Czech Republic. An open call for remixes of the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák invites young or established producers to create their modern versions of the 19th century master on the occasion of his 170 birthday anniversary. 

During the whole month, aspiring Dvořák remixers should recreate any piece or fragment from his ouvre, all styles are welcome. The remixes will be uploaded here. The remixes shouldn’t be longer than 5 minutes. They will be sent in mp3 format, 320kbps, at ccbucuresti@czech.cz (via transfer.ro, wetransfer etc). All the received tracks will be subjected to the Creative Commons license.

Deadline: December 31st, 11:59pm.

The best tracks will also be broadcast on Radio Romania Cultural and the Czech Radio and the winner will receive a trip to Prague.