JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EYE

NEKTAR since the beginning of the 70s has always been considered as a typical german band and its name is always mentionned in every Krautrock discussion. Why is that?? Looking at the band members names, you won't see any Karl-Heinz, Dieter or other Helmut. We have Roye ALLBRIGHTON on guitars and vocals, Allan Freeman on keyboards, Derek Moore on bass, Ron Howden as the drummer. Hardly German sounding!!

But they were a bunch of british expats who lived at the time in Hamburg and most importantly, their music was very in the german style from then, more in the vein of bands like Grobschnitt, Jane, Eloy than experimental Krautrock. They made quite a few remarkable albums, this one JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EYE being their first .....and their best imho.

This is a'' concept''album about an intergalactic trip as the world is on the verge of a world war. Then the space ship enters another galaxy where everything is dreamy. The hero wants to know more about life and want only see with his mind until he sees a big eye in the sky where of course he will get into and learn the truth!!!!! Obviously, it was the beginning of the 70s and a lot of smoke were coming out of the recording studios back then. I am sure captain DAVE BROCK from HAWKWIND loved this story and album.

Even if there are 13 tracks on this album, the longest being only over 7mns, this ''story'' is one long musical odyssey with no interruption between songs and can be listened as a long 40ms suite. Don't forget, this is a ''concept'' album.

The music on this album is outstanding! real good prog that define perfectly the creative spirits of the time; there is a good dose of psychedelism, a zest of symphonic touch, some weird experimental passages, some good strong guitar sounding here and there, spacial athmosphere a la Hawkwind, very strong melodies too, even sometimes beatles-esque l An excellent space rock to keep it short.

There are NO weak tracks, but a few are absolutely majestic like COUNTENANCE which is a beautiful trip all by itself! ThE DREAM NEBULA will become one of their trademark song on stage. How can we resist when listening to the beautiful IT'S ALL IN THE MIND. I have read somewhere that this album sounded dated!!!!!! NO, NO!!!! it sounds and smell prog in all its splendor coming from a time where it was possible to enter a music studio, smokes in it and come up with outstanding, creative, unique sounds without the marketing manager asking you to be more radio-friendly or else!!

Those were the times!! we miss it!

An absolute masterpiece that cannot be missed by any prog lover!!!

5 STARSi

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