A TAB IN THE OCEAN

In 1971 their second album named A Tab in the Ocean with a better and more challenging sound as their first album, giving us a blend of symphonic sound, an strong symphonic sound in my opinion, with also their nature psychedelic sound, a bit alike to their contemporary Eloy for example.

The first song is by far the best song of the album, in all the ways, musically, lyrically and everything , it has a lenght of 16 minutes, so it`s an epic and a great introduction to the album, actually the beginning of the song reminds me a lot of Genesis, i can imagine Genesis influenced Nektar in so many ways (as well to other bands) , i said this because the organ sound is quite similar to those Genesis peak moments, then the composition and complexity of the song is excellent, in fact this song pass to me so quickly despite being more than 15 minutes, that`s a fact that i adore in the songs, i truly enjoy it and like all the beautiful and enjoyable things passes fast, honestly the whole album is great, but as a single song this is the best moment of it.

That`s why i could say that the album is losing a bit of great moments and it`s decadent during the other songs (which are great as well, but not as the same level of the self titled song).

For some strange reason i remember Focus in the second song, the guitar sound , not reminding me of the best Jakermann momens, but somewhere in Mother Focus i remember it, obviously Mother Focurs was released years after A Tab in the Ocean but i knew it before, this song also has a bit and rich jazz sound , but then the song becomes faster and greater, some changes and all oriented and leade by the guitar and drums.

I think the term of space prog is not so applicable here, is a vast term which could be used by any band trying to experiment some of those sounds and noises, creating different atmospheres and passages, in this album i dont think its full of those moments, despite it`s one of the best albums of this psych /space band, we notice in some moments a clear hard rock and great use of synths over it. The last song is great to finish the album , the music and harmony vocals are great over there , so what a best end to a nice album.

Which in my opinion is not a masterpiece, but an album which everyone could enjoy and must listen, so another 4 stars for me.

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