Nektar
's debut album was one of their finest releases, saturated with abstract
psychedelia
and a wonderful science-fiction motif that is magnified through the rigorous but dazzling Mellotron of
Allan Freeman
and
Roye Albrighton
's nomadic guitar playing. Throughout
Journey
's 13 cuts,
introduced their own sort of instrumental surrealism that radiated from both the vocals and from the intermingling of the haphazard drum and string work. With the synthesizer churning and boiling in front of
Howden
's percussive attack and
Mick Brockett
's "liquid lights," tracks like
"Astronaut's Nightmare,"
"It's All in the Mind,"
and both
"Dream Nebula"
cuts teeter back and forth from mind-numbing, laid-back melodies to excitable, open-ended excursions of fantastical
progressive rock
. Just as
Hawkwind
was exploring the depths of outer space with their progressive tendencies on most of their albums,
Journey to the Centre of the Eye
musically probed the inner universe of the mind and body with its very own conceptual field trip.
"Burn Out My Eyes"
"Warp Oversight"
are let loose with buzz-saw vocals and hazy, undefined guitar chords which converge and fade into background rhythms, while the 54 seconds of
"Look Inside Yourself"
is a short, illusory voyage that ends too soon.
's freewheeling sound is best felt on
and on their next three releases, as by the end of the decade, their progressive moods and
ambient
-like suites started to get harder and take on more of a mainstream feel. ~ Mike DeGagne