A Life In Waves

A Tab in the Ocean mirrors Nektar's first album, but only to a certain degree. While their sound still basks in lengthy keyboard passages and fantastic lyrics, the psychedelia is traded in for a more directional and established approach, with longer tracks and a tighter progressive structure. There's an obvious cohesiveness between the guitar and keyboard tandem, with an attempt at shaping a concept through the album's five tracks. Both the title track and the 19 minutes of "King of Twilight" are Tab in the Ocean's best examples of Nektar's maturing process, with sleek instrumental runs that taper off into the lyrics as opposed to a more improvised feel that surrounded their last album. A stronger influence can be felt on Roye Albrighton's guitar playing, which is more structural, and Derek Moore's basslines are sturdier and more expressive.

On A Walk in the Shadow Garden, as on previous albums throughout his career, Spotted Peccary Music artist Rudy Adrian paints sylvan scenes with sound. A percussive trilling on “Dawn Redwood” could be the hammering of a woodpecker’s beak. Glittering chimes evoke light through tangled branches on the track “Hemlock Grove.” Such is the music of nature to Adrian, where these twin passions of a life upon the Earth have been forever forged.