LIVE IN NEW YORK

When I discovered the German Progressive Rock (aka Krautrock) in the late Seventies, I kept on buying albums from Grobschnitt, Novalis, Jane and Triumvirat for weeks until I had a huge collection. I was totally hooked on the powerful, often vintage keyboard drenched sound and the flowing, often fiery guitar work. The sound of Nektar was different, on the 2-LP Live In New York ( I bought in those days) you can hear more raw and improvisional compositions, very dynamic and powerful featuring good vocals, strong interplay and lots of interesting soli on guitar and keyboards. If you want to see this band on DVD I recommend the Krautrock Meeting (the songs Just Before The Sun Will Rise, Back From Hell and the crowd pleaser Gamma Ray, recorded in late 2004) and Best Of Krautrock Vol. 1 (the track The Work Is Done, recorded in Beatclub 1971). Interesting band!

This is my favourite live lbum from Nektar. Recorded in the late mid seventies.

It starts very well with "It's All Over". A fully rock-oriented version (but this will be fortunately the case for most of the songs here). Rawer (but this is partially due to the below average recording sound). It was my favourite song from "Recycled", so no wonder... "Nektar" will remain playing on the hard side with "Good Day" (far much better than on "Sounds Like This" their first live album).

It wouldn't be a live "Nektar" album if there were some long jamming session; but again, I prefer this version of "A Day...". Almost hard-rock at times.

My favourite song is "Desolation Valley". A gorgeous jazzy-psychedelic number. There is one incredible and powerful riff which comes several times during the song and which has always blow me away (studio or live version). I am just found of this. The highlight. Deeply inspired by the early "Floyd".

Even if I quite disliked "That's Life" in its studio version on "Down To Earth", I quite like it here. Same applies to "Show Me The Way". Below average in studio and good (but shorter) here. A nice electric ballad.

"King Of Twilight" has nothing to do with a ballad. A great hard-rock song. Crazy beat, powerful bass and such a marvelous finale with so emotional vocals. Another highlight.

I have to say that "Nektar" played quite well that night. Most of the songs have a stronger attack; more rock-oriented as I have said in my intro. And I quite like it.

It's a pity that this live album almost sounds as a bootleg and that the closing number might well be fun for the band but this old rock'n'roll medley is out of purpose, IMO. It was already launched with "Woman". Another fully revival song. Due to these these remarks, I will rate this one with three stars.

This album is most memorable to me for it being my introduction to the amazing "guitar God on display" song "Good Day." It also crossed my path before I'd heard or acquired A Tab in the Ocean or Journey to the Centre of the Eye, and, so, introduced me to some of those album's songs. I was not very impressed with the sound quality (but, then, I rarely am with 1960s/70s live albums), but the song renditions are fairly true to the original studio versions. Plus, the artistry of notoriously under-rated guitarist Roye Albrighton (RIP) are on clear display hear--which I appreciate. Roye may not have been the most dynamic or soloist on lead guitar but his rhythm, timing and melodic chord picking are unsurpassed, in my humble opinion. So, check this album out if only for the effort to give Roye another listen.