JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EYE

"Journey to the Centre of the Eye" is Nektar's debut and although I adored their trilogy of classics, "A Tab in the Ocean", "Remember The Future", and "Recycled", albums that were released with less inspired studio albums between them, I was not as taken with the debut. To begin with the debut is extremely psychedelic and not as rocking, with less memorable riffs and very little vocals. The psychedelic spaceyness is akin to the type of material on the first two studio releases for Pink Floyd. This album though is better than the Pink Floyd early releases as it does not wallow in silly lyrics or the plain weirdness of Barrett's mind. If this were a Pink Floyd album it would favour better than their "Saucerful of Secrets". However, the main problem I have with the debut is it seems to flow by quickly and at the end of it I can't remember a single track, and nothing resonated with me. Even though I played it a few more times for this review it still had no impact on me personally and I was very disappointed after loving the albums to follow, the next one being a masterpiece.

I am really fond of most of Nektar's material and some of it I would favour highly among the greatest prog rock of the 70s. However, this debut leaves me cold as it feels emotionless and just psychedelic for the sake of it. It is a Krautrock sound that is generated and I would rather Neu! or Faust if I want to indulge in Kraut. The band completely changed after this debut and produced some incredible albums with great riffs and melodies. This album is a beginning for Nektar with a seamless track broken into parts though I have no idea where one starts and another ends, and nothing jumped out apart from some excellent guitar riffs and melodies towards the end. By then I have lost interest and I am afraid this album barely rates 3 stars from this reviewer.

Though it deserves recognition for the musicianship which is accomplished and daring for its time so it is at least good enough or a listen. I can't comprehend the strange concept either. It is such a worthless concept when it is incomprehensible. The album liner notes state what it is all about but the music itself gives very little away. according to the liner notes it is the tale of a rocket departing planet Earth before a nuclear war breaks out. The occupants encounter bizarre galaxies never seen before by the eye of man; a state where time and space are immaterial. However "The all seeing eye", as seen on the album cover and in "2001: A Space Odyssey", is the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe. In other words psychobabble for the 'searching for spiritual answers' acid rock generation. I think the whole sound and concept is very outdated and the band lack the maturity to pull it off as some of the great psych acts have done.

I hate to rate Nektar so low when they produced the masterpieces to follow. I know that some reviewers gave it high ratings as it obviously resonated them in some way, but it is a very odd album with an over indulgence in repetitive acid fuelled ambience, and will not appeal to everyone. It really is a product of its time but is not quite good enough to stand the test of time by today's standards. I would just like to state emphatically that this album is definitely not the place to start for Nektar. You would be far better off grabbing the aforementioned albums as they are Nektar at their best.