NEKTAR

This is a superb album, up with their best work (Tab, Recycled and Remember). I stopped following them after Magic is a Child. I discovered them mid-seventies but i had always found their albums very uneven (...Sounds Like This (tracks that didn't make their first few albums perhaps?), Down To Earth (got this around 2015 after reading a review that lauded it) and Magic Is a Child.) being the worst i had come across.

I stumbled across this accidently and was totally blown away by how good it was. Look Through Me is probably the weakest track but its not awful. And there is a diverse array of style from the strightforward rock of I'm On Fire, to pure prog Love Is/The Other Side (which is clearly for the late Roye Albrighton) and ballads (Look Through Me). Most of the tracks also feature outstanding solos.

Now, don't expect the outmost progressive dexterity, or complexity, you won't find that here, but rather a solid piece of rock music with a fair amount of prog value, added by people who really know the way to do it.

Don't expect the album to run very long, either. Instead, we are left adrift somewhere inbetween nothingness and eternity, soon after a bit more than half an hour of brief, yet very pleasurable listening.

Do you think (like I do) that you may suffer the adrenaline loss, and need some more? Then you can wait for the next two instalments of the projected Mars trilogy, that are apparently already on the cooking.

Nektar were huge in Germany back in the day, with their early albums like 'A Tab in the Ocean' being rightfully regarded as classics, but for some reason they never gained the acclaim in their home country that they should have and even now are not as highly regarded as they should be, mostly because they remain an unknown entity. Although the band were by this time missing Roye Albrighton and Allan "Taff" Freeman due to their passing, there is no doubt that here we have a band determined to recreate the Seventies with harmonies, wonderful melodies and intricate playing. Recorded on June 10th, 2023, here is a band full of passion and power, and it is difficult to comprehend the ages of those involved. This is the last recorded to feature drummer Ron Howden who died a few months later at the tender age of 78, yet he is playing on this set as if he was 50 years younger. They keyboard sounds being used by Kendall are from a time gone by, and this never feels like a new release but as if it is something which has been long lost and now discovered. True, the vocals are a little quavery at time, but this is the only place where the ages come through and given that Roye was normally the lead singer perhaps it is not surprising there is some frailty in that regard.

We get material from their 2020 release 'The Other Side" all the way back to 'A Tab in the Ocean' from 1972, and that they sit happily side by side is a tribute to the quality of the songs. Their mix of symphonic prog with space rock and psychedelia is as enjoyable today as it has ever been, and this is a great introduction to the band to anyone who has yet to come across them, while those of us who have enjoyed their music for years will just sit back and smile as we relax into the world of Nektar.

I never did/never have 'disliked' the usual choice/s people make as the best Nektar album but I always preferred the live/extended/guitar work out stuff. If I tell you one of my favourite post 2000 bands is Earthless then you probably get the picture... This little gem I bought on spec as it was a double at a single price and it is still in pristine condition and sounds (allowing for slightly wooly mid 70's production) amazing. The band seemed to be more popular in Europe than the UK and even had a foothold in the USA so they were never going to challenge the prog/crossover heavyweights although those 'in the know' always rated them....infact I believe there is a famous Joy Division photo/cover where Ian Curtis is wearing a Nektar t-shirt...which is some kudos.

Anyhow this is an album of two halves...but not as in disc 1 is better than disc 2. Some tracks are what people may think of as 'classic' Nektar, stuff that would have fit easily onto the previous (Tab) album and the following (Future) release....the first 3 tracks in particular. Then you have the jammed out extended tracks (bring em on!) 1234, Preacher, Odyssey that could blow a purple heep out of the building....but these seem to be the ones that polarise opinion. The keys were always subservient to the guitar so am unsure why folk are put off by Albrightons flights of fantasy...and btw he is a damned good guitarist too... I guess it ain't 'pure prog' .....a thing the purists turn their ears up at. Am never sure why the two, especially at the time, aren't a hand in glove thing...the balanced constructs and lyrical meanderings of 'classic' Nektar and the rock out freewheeling guitar led jams. Like I said, I can live with both but am probably a fan of the latter but would never mark an album down due to it not being 100% of the stuff I prefer.

All in all it is a balance and this one weighs pretty well even.

The contributions by Bob Calvert as ringmaster are wonderful along with a plethora of cameos. Nektar are driven by harmonies, accomplished musicianship, and weird lyrics that maybe an allegory that is hidden in the meaning beyond the surface. That's Life deserves a mention for its tasty baseline and innovative structure. Nelly the Elephant is also a favourite with its plodding pace feeling like an elephant stalking towards you.

Overall Down to Earth is a decent eclectic album, if not as brilliant as Recycled, Remember the Future or Tab in the Ocean that are the masterpieces that may never be surpassed in the Nektar catalogue.

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