NEKTAR

With no moralistic or vindicatory pretensions, Nektar exposes their visionary concerns about the future of the planet with a proposal that is closer to electronic and symphonic sonorities to the detriment of their increasingly less raspy creations, accompanied by the substantial collaboration of Larry Fast, recognised master of synthesizers, who nourished 'Recycled' with that futuristic instrumental touch that complements the album's narrative.

Separated into two major segments for a total of eleven pieces, the first half, 'Recycled - Part 1', unfolds consistently, without pause and at an agile pace, highlighting the epic melody of the opening 'Recycled' and its follow-up 'Recycled Countdown' with Allan Freeman's keyboards and Roye Albrighton's funky riffs, the industrialised arrangements of 'Cybernetic Consumption' with Fast's supreme moog, Derek Moore's robotic narration on the apocalyptic 'Automaton Horrorscope', and the fast-paced 'Unendless Imagination?' with a huge choral arrangement in Gregorian mode and the cosmic keyboard dissolving to conclude the excellent first segment of the album.

'Recycled - Part 2', which begins by picking up the keyboards where the first half ends, slows down and includes more heterogeneous rhythms, fusing Latin American elements and jazz touches on the laid-back 'São Paulo Sunrise' and 'Costa Del Sol' with great work from Derek Moore on bass, and reinforces its futuristic vision with the final minute synth curtain of 'Marvellous Moses', before Albrighton's beautifully arpeggiated guitars lead into the album's melancholic, orchestrated finale with the sombre 'It's All Over'.

The remastered edition of 2024, almost 50 years after the release of 'Recycled', the last album of Nektar's most classic period, includes a new mix by Geoff Emerick, and two very good sounding concerts from the 1976 tour in Toronto and Long Island. A valuable addition to the band's discography.

Very good

3.5/4 stars

Beyond the introductory and digestible sixties rock of 'Astral Man', the album moves between gentle melodies like the sensitive 'Early Morning Clown' and its acoustic similarities to the song 'And You And I' (Yes), or the beautiful and crystalline 'Little Boy', and pieces complemented by arrangements adapted to the circus show, such as the trumpets, saxophones and trombones preceded by the introductions of Bob Calvert (late ex-singer of Hawkwind), occasional master of ceremonies, in the persistent half-time of 'Nelly the Elephant' or in the active 'Fidgety Queen', adorned with the brief and effective guitar slides of Roye Albrighton.

In the last section, and without departing too much from the general atmosphere of the album, the bubbly 'Oh Willy' picks up the pace (brief jazz interlude included) with a very active Ron Howden on percussion accompanied by the intense bass of Derek Moore, and the rousing 'Show Me the Way' with the rhythmic cadence that Allan Freeman's keyboards and Albrighton's riffs impose and a beautiful vocal counterpoint in between, precede 'Finale', the instrumental appendix taken from 'Nelly the Elephant' that brings the show to a close.

Down to Earth", which reached number 32 on the US Billboard 200, is a few steps below the contemporary "A Tab in the Ocean" and "Remember the Future", perhaps because of the lightness of its development at times, but it is a remarkable attempt by Nektar not to repeat themselves and to continue experimenting with different sonic structures, and that gives it a special appeal.

3/3.5 stars

Divided into two major parts and ten sections, "Remember the Future" flows in a generally gentle atmosphere, prioritising melodic and rhythmic structures with brief experimental moments, rather than their usual exuberant displays of instrumental virtuosity. After Roye Albrighton's initial lively funky guitars and the vocal chorus of "a) Images of the Past", "Part I" is highlighted by the excellent harmonies of "b) Wheel of Time" guided by Albrighton's riffs and Allan Freeman's Hammond, and the guitarist's spatial ramblings supported by the persistent wall of sound generated by Freeman's keyboards and Ron Howden's percussion on "d) Conclusion".

"Part II", while maintaining the same character as the first, has a greater musical versatility, adding elements of jazz and blues, as in the accentuated "h. Tomorrow Never Comes" or in the arpeggiated half-time of the emotive and radiant "h. Path of Light" and Albrighton's vigorous solo, pieces that converge harmonically, until reaching the final stretch of the work that returns to the initial Funky sonorities in "i) Recognition" and the counterpoint between the singer's voice and his guitar, as well as in the conclusive "j) Let It Grow", giving a very good closing to the album.

"Remember the Future", undoubtedly one of the most representative works in the career of the Hamburg-based Englishmen, reached position 19 in the US Billboard charts, being, if not the biggest, one of Nektar's biggest commercial successes.

Very good.

3.5/4 stars

And with "...Sounds Like This", their third album (1973), the English band based in Germany seems to want to exorcise all that rock energy in an extensive work starring Albrighton's haemorrhagic and rocky guitar dissertations, with Allan Freeman's keyboards remaining more as an important support with shy solo participations, as well as those of Derek Moore's solvent bass, and therefore moving away from the structured and lysergic style more identifiable of Nektar.

In the raw and rudimentary approach of the album, initially recorded live and then retouched and reformulated in the studio, lies its greatest attraction, with pieces marked by instrumental improvisation, and where both the arpeggiated and boxed guitar opening of "Good Day" and its persistent choral refrain, the wink to the beatlenian "Norwegian Wood" in the emotional "New Day Dawning", the bluesy "What Ya Gonna Do? "and Albrighton's vocal and guitar counterpoint stand out, as do the extended lucubrations of the funky "1-2-3-4" with the very active Ron Howden on drums accompanying the once again unleashed Albrighton, the thunderous and unbridled distorted guitar solo on the demanding "Do You Believe in Magic?", and the also lengthy and bluesy "Odyssey", with Howden's drum solo included, and a final section of increasing intensity, to bring the work to a close.

"...Sounds Like This" moves away from the progressive canons, and is rather an interesting sample of corrosive and primitive classic rock, something that Nektar would not repeat in the following years.

3/3.5 stars

Although there are thirteen enunciative themes that compose it, "Journey to the Centre of the Eye" is in reality a huge single suite that beyond the wandering and abstract lucubrations of the experimental "Prelude" and "Warp Oversight", it flows solvently, using the experimental "Prelude" and "Warp Oversight", it flows solvently through Allan Freeman's intriguing keyboards and melotrons shared with Derek Moore, the latter also responsible for an extremely deep bass, interacting with Roye Albrighton's distortion and effects-laden guitar riffs as in the rising instrumental intensity of "Countenance"; as well as in solidly structured sections such as the hopeless and dramatic "Astronauts Nightmare", the two parts of the sinuous "The Dream Nebula", the anguished "Burn Out my Eyes" or the dense and conclusive "Death of the Mind" overflown by the intensity of the omnipresent melotron, pieces that also count on the megaphonic and stunned singing of Albrighton in cosmic mode and the determined drums of Ron Howden.

"Journey to the Centre of the Eye", despite its rudimentary production work, is an excellent debut album that did not achieve all the repercussion and recognition it deserved, partly because of Nektar's geographical distance from the epicentre of the movement and partly because of the proliferation of excellent bands of the genre that made it difficult to gain a place in the general consideration of the time.

4 stars

The eponymous "A Tab in the Ocean" is the centrepiece of the album, an extensive development of overflowing introduction in which Alan Freeman's organ and Roye Albrighton's raspy guitar riffs look forceful and very hard- rocking, and gradually incorporates Ron Howden's marching percussion, Derek Moore's thick bass and Albrighton's megaphonic voice in a psychedelic mode very much in the Floydian vein, thus building a vigorous instrumental wall tinged with arpeggiated guitar passages, and whose final section recreates the introductory melody giving an epic closure to the piece. A gem.

And the mid-tempo, jazzy and calm "Desolation Valley/ Waves" with Albrighton's whispering vocals and the wandering, at times intimate tones of the guitars and keyboards, gives way to the invigorated energy of "Crying in the Dark" and Albrighton's impetuous guitar solos as protagonists, and to the intensity of "King of Twilght" with the band's chorus softening the growing and powerful instrumentation until its abrupt end.

"A Tab in the Ocean", one of Nektar's seminal works, is an excellent album that was probably overshadowed in part by many of the legendary contemporary progressive rock epics released in the same year, 1972.

4/4.5 stars

Throwing the usual curveball by delivering a completely different album that came before, NEKTAR seemed to be all about contrast. Was the band from England or Germany? Was it a space rock band? A prog one? Or hard rock? Well, the truth was somewhere in between for all of these matters with the ingredients simply being shuffled around on each album so that a different style dominated. While on "?Sounds Like This" NEKTAR focused on a loose heavier rock style that tamped down the prog and space rock attributes, REMEMBER THE FUTURE found the band attempting to balance the world of progressive rock with the easier pop musical sounds that included strong melodic hooks, more streamlined rock characteristics and in the case of this album, heavy doses of funk.

The opening "Part I" of the album long title track imitated previous album's intro tactics of a trippy intro but it doesn't take long until the music breaks into a major funk style making you think you've somehow slipped into an Earth, Wind & Fire album. The track wends and winds its way through four different segments that drift from the funk laden grooves to the hard rock guitar oriented tracks accompanied by the classic organ runs however the guitar riffs which seem to rely on a single memorable hook sound more like something that The Edgar Winter Band would've conjured up. As usual the band excels with the trippy intermissions that provide the interstitial connective tissue to bind the different suites together and these are the parts i find the most authentic in the style of the classic psychedelic space rock NEKTAR and provide the needed connection to its past.

The clear attempt to develop more accessible pop aspects seemed to be the band's modus operandi and as a transition album (along with its predecessor) into the world of more straight forward pop rock (which would emerge on the following "Down To Earth.") The album was clearly more inspired by popular pop rock bands as The Beatles and more soulful bands like Spooky Tooth than the world of Yes, Genesis and the band's previously most apparent influence, Pink Floyd. Despite the lengthy track the tracks were clearly shorter radio hit quality musical quality stitched into a larger tapestry of a concept. The two tracks really are indistinguishable as to where one begins and the other ends but more mainstream approach keeps it all humming along in a rather standard rock format for the era.

While this is considered one of NEKTAR's best albums, i have to say that i'm not very impressed by REMEMBER THE FUTURE for many reasons. While competent, it seems the band was trying to hard to balance its prog creds with a more accessible mainstream style and in the end the prog seems extremely watered down while the pop aspects sound extremely forced and dragged out. Add to that for a concept album with so many suites that supposedly narrate a larger theme, the music really doesn't vary that much and the monotony of a constant funk guitar sequence for the majority of the album is way too repetitive. Add to that the production is a bit flat even on the newer remastered versions so the original must've sounded particularly underwhelming.

It's certainly not a bad album and an entertaining listen but i find the claims of its status as NEKTAR's answer to Yes' "Tales From Topographic Oceans" or ELP's "Brain Salad Surgery" to be woefully exaggerated. Certainly a major step up from the dreadfully boring "?Sounds Like This" but a far cry from the magnanimous nature of the debut "Journey To The Centre Of The Eye" or the following "A Tab In The Ocean." The next (and last) decent prog album from NEKTAR wouldn't come until the 1975 "Recycled" and although REMEMBER THE FUTURE is most certainly a prog album, it just lacks so much of the vitality that its more varied prog albums exuded. Sure there are moments where the Pink Floyd space rock seeps in and the hard rock has its field day but overall this album would've benefited from a more robust infusion of creative mojo that just wasn't firing on all cylinders. A decent attempt but not an album i choose to revisit often.

This must've been a real shock for NEKTAR fans during the day after two stellar prog albums that focused on tight-knit lengthy composiitons with alternating trippy psychedelic space rock along with heavier prog rock complexities. Sort of going the way of Uriah Heep that delivered a few proggy albums before jumping on the hard rock bandwagon, ?SOUNDS LIKE THIS delivered fairly basic hard rock songs that focused on extended improvisational jams. The album was recorded live in a single session and to be honest it really sounds like it. Sounding more like an early garage rock band of the 60s that started to dabble in the world of proto-prog, this third release was originally a double album which featured nine tracks at nearly 75 minutes playing time.

The album starts out poorly with "Good Day" and immediately establishes the band as a rather dumbed down version of itself with repetitive guitar riffing with some funk styles added and the occasional guitar soloing. Sounds of folk, country rock and the occasional space rock finds their way into the overall mix. After two albums of extremely brilliant instrumental interplay that didn't miss a beat, all of a sudden NEKTAR sounded sloppy as if they all woke up one morning and went right to the studio to record this album. The overall impression it leaves me is that if this was what they sounded like live then i would've felt ripped off. The album is filled with moments that just rub me the wrong way. An ill-fated attempt of throwing The Beatles' "Norwegian Wood" into the opening track just sounds plain awful. The track "1-2-3-4" sounds like a stupid nursery rhyme set to hard rock only with the skillset of a grade school troupe.

By the time the second album begins it gets even worse with tracks like "A Day In The Life Of A Preacher" sounding like a harder rock version of The Grateful Dead. Roy Albrighton's vocals which sounded crisp and in top form on the brilliant earlier albums suddenly sounds strained and tired. And this is for the album's long and tiring entirety. If the band's intent was to sound as awful as they possibly could then they truly succeeded as to my ears i find little redeeming value on ?SOUNDS LIKE THIS. While the 70s delivered some of the best hard rock ever to have been recorded, the songs on this album just sound plain boring and lack any characteristics that make them memorable or even tolerable. This was a decisive album upon its release and remains so to this day with yours truly falling on the side that finds this album rather torturous.

I listen to this from time to time just to see if there's something i've been missing but every time i give this album a chance to sink in in some positive way, i'm literally bored to tears and find this to be one of the most non-innovative and generic hard rock albums of the entire 70s. None of the musicians excel in any particular way and the entire album feels like its forced. Add to that the production and mixing resulted in a heavier than expected sound effect and it all sounds so unstructured that there's really no backbone to the album. A single album's worth would've been bad enough but to extend this to four sides of a vinyl LP adds insult to injury. At least bands like Uriah Heep crafted beautiful hard rock albums after their early prog years but that's not the case with NEKTAR. To my ears this sounds like a long lost NEKTAR album that was recorded way before the brilliant debut "Journey To The Centre Of The Eye" almost like a demo. Ironically the album cover is my favorite of their entire canon but i only get a 1 star enjoyment value out of this. For fans and collectors only. I keep this in my collection really for the eye candy album cover art alone.

The album is primarily dominated by the legendary title track which swallowed up the entire A-side of the original vinyl release. Upon first exposure you will be fooled into believing the album is a continuation of the cosmic space ride that was the debut with a psychedelic splurge of electronic sounds that sound like NEKTAR has gone all Tangerine Dream on you but from the distance an organ melody creeps in then steals the show with the opening motif that delivers a brash mix of Genesis inspired organ runs courtesy of Allan Freeman, a more robust guitar playing style of Role Albrighton along with a bantering bass groove from Derek Moore. In addition Rowe Howden also adds his more upbeat percussive driving which when taken together signify a shift into a much heavier style of rock however NEKTAR retained enough of the space rock to keep the psychedelic trippiness alive and well. The near 17-minute title track undergoes many journeys into a style that makes you think of what The Who would sound like if they went full-on progressive.

As the title track morphs into seemingly different tracks nestled in its overarching theme of spiking the entire planet's water systems with consciousness expanding LSD, the band emulates various British bands including Atomic Rooster, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Fuzzy Duck, Wishbone Ash and countless others. As far as German comparisons are concerned Frumpy, Murphy Blend or Birth Control probably come as close as it gets. The track remains bold, dynamic and goes through various motifs that remain melodic and modular and ultimately ends with the same melodic riffing session that started it all. The highlights of the album are by far the title track and the closing "King Of Twilight" with the middle section not quite reaching the same heights. The dual purpose "Desolation Valley / Waves" does its best to emulate the prog perfection of the title track but comes off as a bit mopier however the trippy transition between "Desolation" and "Waves" is notable for its ripping guitar heaviness and organ stab excesses. Likewise "Crying In The Dark" features a rather average blues rock style with organ excess and overall seems a little generic in comparison.

Despite the lull in the middle, the transition between the tracks is extremely inviting and the way "Crying In The Dark" morphs into "King Of Twilight" is utterly brilliant. The album ends beautifully with utterly gorgeous "King Of Twilight" which offers the catchiest pop hooks on the entire album and also showcases some of the most dynamic instrumental interplay. The track features some of the most original guitar and organ playing that play off of each other nicely. The vocal harmonies are also on par with the debut's Moody Blues meets The Beatles vocal dynamics. The brilliant mix of styles that craft myriad variations in how the basic melody is played showcased NEKTAR's true gift of crafting some of the most brilliant heavy prog of the era and then without any time for fussing around the track and album just simply ends the shouting of "FREE!"

Definitely one of the highlights of 70s prog although uneven in its entirely. The band's transition into the hard rock arena was well executed and succeeded in keeping just enough of the space rock to make it unique. The faster tempos emphasized the dynamic skills of the musicians and all of the vocals are pitch perfect throughout the entire album's run. While the middle part is not in the least bit unlistenable, the gorgeous perfection of the title track and closing "King Of Twilight" unfortunately steals the middle section's oxygen supply. Best of all the album really went for the prog jugular with hairpin turns within musical motifs that offered crazy time signature workouts and all the pomp and awe of classic prog without missing a beat of the melodic flow. The band remained on a high point for the next few albums and although this album didn't exactly find them international fame quite yet, the passing decades have perched as their crowning achievement. Personally this is just a step below the debut in my world due to the straggling middle section but it's definitely a tour de force that deserves its status as prog classic.

Despite having formed in Germany in the midst of the emerging Krautrock scene, NEKTAR looked as much back to its homeland for its influences as it did to the lysergic musical expressions that were awash all around. This first album was an amazing continuous journey of spacey prog that excelled in both guitar and organ dominance. The album was a veritable cosmic travelogue in concept album form that narrated the journey of a rocket that leaves Earth on a course to Saturn in order to escape the inevitability of a nuclear war. While en route the ship is intercepted by extraterrestrial beings that are perplexed by humanity's war driven civilization and invite the space travelers to witness their more peaceful world in another galaxy. After accepting the invitation to the ET's home world, they undergo a a journey into the unknown only to return back to Earth in an enlightened state.

The musical developments correspond to the journey itself as the lyrical output delivers the concept. Some even consider the album a rock opera of sort. While the space rock lysergia of Pink Floyd's "Sauceful of Secrets" was clearly a primary impetus for the trippy abstract qualities, NEKTAR fortified the escapist electronica and cosmic psychedelia with melodic songwriting and conventional rock influences reminiscent of The Moody Blues coupled with vocal harmonies that were right out of The Beatles' playbook. The intricate mix of the surreal and the catchy ear worms delivered the perfect mix of prog, psychedelic rock and progressive electronic in perfect tandem. The album was only 42 minutes long but showcased the journey in a series of 13 tracks that more or less provided a continuous stream of consciousness. The variations in guitar styles, drumming patterns and bass grooves offered a near perfect space rock journey that remains one of the 70s best tripped out prog rock offerings.

The opening "Prelude" sets the stage with a series of freaky electronic sound effects while the spooky organ slinks in and cements itself as a primary player throughout the album's run. The flirtation with the Floydian "Saucerful of Secrrets" detachment is quickly supplanted by a melodic space rock groove that commences with "Astronaut's Nightmare." The brooding organ and pulsating bass line together accompany passionate vocal performances delivered by all the band members and plenty of proggy hairpin turns to keep things from becoming too lethargic. While not quite to the level of prog rock experienced on the following "A Tab In The Ocean," JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EYE certainly has its moments of prog excesses but keeps things restrained enough so the cosmic space rock flow isn't breeched. The top notch interplay of the fluky guitar, drum and organ parts adds a whole level of excitability to the melodic processions. The intermission track "War Oversight" embarks on a cosmic journey into the avant-garde sounding more like a 20th century classical composer.

The compositions themselves are extremely well thought out with a clever use of dynamics, tempos and reverberation as an effective tool. Extended jamming emerges in the middle of the tracks which eke out maximum potential and was also a very effective way of capturing the spirit of a well crafted space rock sound. This would be the closest NEKTAR ever came to sounding like a true Krautrock band and although some may have thrown the band into the mix due to its connection to the German prog scene, NEKTAR was really a prog space rock band that happened to coincide with bands like A.R. & Machines, Faust, Frumpy and Lucifer's Friend. While usually overlooked in favor of the band's following albums that were more conventional in their approach to prog, this early space rock journey debut album has been my favorite NEKTAR album for quite some time and although not absolutely perfect with a few hiccoughs here and there, the album is one of those magical prog journeys that stands on its own even outside of the band's own canon.

4.5 stars rounded up as this has come to be one of my most favorite space rock albums of the entire 70s