 | Journey to the Centre of the Eye (1971)Genres: space rock, heavy progressive |
review by daniel
Nektar’s debut is a concept album about a man exploring outer space as well as his inner self. And learning that earth is heading towards extinction, and worth rescuing, on his way. With such a concept the music could only be space rock, right? I guess you can call it space rock since trademarks, such as the electronical “space sounds” and the general electric roughness, of that genre are present. You should not expect it to sound like Hawkwind, though. Nektar is way more diverse and sophisticated and does not rely on repetition the way Hawkwind does. The musicians are better as well. The rhythm section (Derek Moore on bass and Ron Howden on drums) are really solid and the keyboards (played by Allan Freeman) sound great as well. The mellotron is used mainly for beautiful and atmospheric background textures, while the organ sometimes challenges the guitar for the leading role. Speaking of the guitar; Roye Albrighton sure knows how to play it. He has a rough and crunchy sound that I like a lot, and he is versatile enough to be able to awaken a range of emotions (at least in this listener) as well.
I have the recently released SACD reissue of the album. I haven’t had the opportunity to listen to the SACD mix, but the ordinary stereo mix is really good with plenty of air for each instrument to “breathe”. There are two bonus tracks on the CD as well. They do not sound like the rest of the album; more like mainstream, guitar-based 70s rock (when the keyboards finally show up on “1-2-3-4” the tune has already started to fade out). They are decent enough, but they just seem out of place here.
It is a pity the vocals (performed by the guitarist) never reach the same heights as the instrumental parts. There is nothing wrong with the vocalist’s voice when he sings on his own. Unfortunately he is often supported by echoing backing vocals or poor electronic manipulation (or is it the old tin? - you really cannot tell). It might work for the concept (if you have a lively imagination you can pretend that the singer is lost in space, not in a tin), but not for the music. This is, however, not a huge flaw since about half of the album is instrumental. Further more, the vocalised parts are usually rather good, and when they are not, they never get bad enough to ruin the overall impression.
 | Remember the Future (1973)Genres: progressive rock, AOR |
review by thomas
Nektar certainly started out as a sort of space rock band often doing concept albums in one form or another. “Remember the Future” sees them still doing that (just one long piece) but the music within has changed since the previous albums. They take on a more funk-based platform here with slices of boogie and space along the way. I might add that the funky bits are in fact the most interesting on this record and should they have left out the AOR moments and replaced it with more of that innovative progressive funk they just might have done a excellent album.
The piece presented sounds very slick and smooth, with the vocals, sounding very smooth also and a little middle of the road-ish, taking a major part in the overall soundscape of quite pleasant music, but hardly never rising above the feelings of music that sounds perfectly alright though lacking spirit or essence. It’s the same story with the instruments used – always perfectly played but done in a sterile way, never standing out.
So what you get is 36 minutes of decent music with good performances from all band members and a story worthy of any space rock band out there. The real problem with this album is that when you take out the really smashing bits you’re left with 25 minutes of progressive AOR – if such a thing exists – and you get pictures in your brain of Boston, Styx and Journey in their worst settings.
