Nektar

Hot on the heels of a string of masterful remasters, restoring the entire Nektar back catalog to the shelves for the first time in 20-plus years, original bandmembers Roye Albrighton, Taff Freeman and Ron Howden were reconvened with recently enlisted bassist Randy Dembo, to record a new album that proves their evolution is more than just a theory. From the opening drive of "Camouflage to White" to the closing mini-epic "After the Fall," Evolution may still be recognizably the Nektar of yore, albeit with a more finely honed style and vision, but the modern sound and production insure the group are well-adapted for contemporary climes. Their old fans, however, will be pleased that the band still relies on building drifting mantras, most notably across the nearly-ten-minute "Phazed By the Storm," while their signature infusion of deep bluesy riffs juxtaposed against some genuinely startling hooks remains much in evidence…

One thing you can not criticize Nektar for and that is making albums that sound the same. "Sounds Like This" was the result of a 2 day live in studio recording experiment without great gobs of editing and studio trickery.. They were pretty much just captured live and raw. The end result is still a very much psychedelic Nektar rock sound with a certain raw vibe throughout. The big problem with "Sounds Like This" was that it was sandwitched between "Tab In The Ocean" and "Remember The Future" and has forever been sadly greyed out by many in perspective. This might be really Nektar's most rock oriented album but still carries lots of progressive tendencies. This album was originally released as a double vinyl album and clocks in at about 75 mins and really does not stop from start to finish. Overall a superb album.

The problem with progressive rock artists recording live albums lies in the fact that the same feeling of wonderment, musical vastness, and escapism mustered on their studio releases is difficult to capture on-stage. Half of this dilemma plagues Nektar's Live in New York release recorded in 1977, while the rest of the album's disappointments stem from the group's removal of their early-'70s progressive sound altogether. The nine cuts that make up Live in New York fail to show the true essence of their progressive beginnings, with the songs embellishing more of a straight-ahead rock & roll style. Gone are the long keyboard wanderings, the abstract guitar trips that spiral into the rest of the musical interplay, and the fantastic ambience that was once formed by the music's overall trippiness…

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…

While the instrumental alliances that take place throughout Recycled aren't nearly as solid as on Journey to the Center of the Eye or Remember the Future, the album still harbors some of Nektar's intergalactic progressive rock penchants, although a slight decline in the band's cohesion is apparent. Guitarist Roy Albrighton lacks his usual gusto on most of the tracks, but tends to show signs of earlier days on both "Flight to Reality" and "Automatic Horrorscope." What does hold strong is Nektar's ability to conjure up a science-fiction atmosphere through the unorthodox application of percussion, guitar, and keyboards. Tracks like "Unendless Imagination" and "Cybernetic Consumption" wallow in a futuristic amalgam of strings and synth, with Larry Fast working the keyboards this time around…