Search - Nektar :: Journey to the Centre of the Eye

Great debut

BENJAMIN MILER | Veneta, Oregon | 03/31/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Nektar is often thrown in the Krautrock bunch, even though in reality they were a British band, but residing in Germany. Journey to the Centre of the Eye was their debut and the only weak spot of the album is the rather flat production, but the musical quality more than makes up for the shortcoming. This album is a collection of songs all segued in to one another, intended to be listened to as a whole. This tended to the more psychedelic end of the prog rock spectrum, much like Pink Floyd. I can also easily recommend this album to those who like the early Eloy albums like Inside and Floating, and they too explored that similar kind of early '70s Hammond organ/guitar-oriented prog at that time. Journey to the Centre of the Eye seemed to be inspired by the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (the cover even looks like it was taken from the movie, of course it wasn't). The concept was about space travel, and the view of the universe through the eye, only to view the destruction of the Earth. Nektar had never been big Mellotron users, but this was the album that uses the most of it (it's not plastered with it), and while Allan "Taff" Freeman was the keyboardist, apparently it was bassist Derek "Mo" Moore who handled the Mellotron (the album mispelled "Mellotron" as "Melotron" with just one "l"). The rest of the band consisted of Roye Albrighton on guitar and Ron Howden on guitar. All, except the drummer handle vocal duties. It's really hard picking out my favorites, but here goes: "Astronaut's Nightmare", the strange experimental spacy piece "Warp Oversight" (which has more in common with the likes of Ash Ra Tempel here), "The Dream Nebula Part I and II", "It's All in the Mind", "Void of Vision" and "Pupil of the Eye". "Burn Out My Eyes" starts off rather mellow with some nice use of tron flute, and as it goes on, there's nice vocal harmonies. "Pupil of the Eyes" remind me of Inside and Floating-era Eloy, even Roye Albrighton (I believe) sounds like Frank Bornemann here (without the Germanic accent). But remember back in 1971, Eloy were still a politically-oriented hard rock band with Erich Shriever and Helmut Draht (with Frank Bornemann only playing guitar), and one self-entitled album on the Philips label. So I'm pretty convinced Nektar was an influence in Eloy's sound during the Inside and Floating period. Throughout, aside from the Pink Floyd-influence, another band I can't help but be reminded of is Camel, and that band had yet to exist. And while I thought the instrumental passages meandered a bit at times, and of course the production really needed a lot of help, it still proved how Nektar was one of those prog rock bands that got it right the first time (whereas such well-known groups like Yes or Genesis took about three albums to get it right). To me, this is an essential album in your prog collection."

5 stars very easily

B. E Jackson | Pennsylvania | 08/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Alright guys, I've heard underrated rock albums from the 70's that totally blew me away. Albums that brought a certain sense of atmosphere, feeling, and melody together that left me feeling completely shocked. But this one... THIS one, called Journey to the Centre of the Eye, might just be the ultimate example of an underrated record.



Every single moment of this album is devoted to a spiritual atmosphere, a magical journey (as cheesy as it sounds, it's TRUE), vocal melodies that are incredibly melodic, beautiful and touching, a WONDERFUL sense of instrumental skills that always keeps a creative flow, and just an all around near perfect album. All the songs flow perfectly into the next one, while keeping your attention at ALL times. Simply amazing.



How can an album most people have never heard be THIS good? That's probably the ultimate question mark right there. We've all heard underrated albums before, but sometimes the word "underrated" just isn't good enough. It's extremely unfair more people don't know about this album.



Alright, if you want to explore underrated progressive rock albums from the 70's, Camel's Snow Goose and Caravan's If I Could Do It All Over Again I'd Do It All Over You are the first (and best) choices. However, I believe this Nektar album should be the third album you positively NEED to check out. Wow is this baby good.



So Nektar never had any success in the States? Well, that's really a shame. If only more people were aware of this masterpiece, I can only imagine the kind of enjoyment people would get out of it.



You must be crazy if you think I'm going to list my favorite songs! They're ALL good, believe me.



Oh, and kids today think Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is a "cool" album. Well, kids today would probably feel the same way about this Nektar album, because there's some really neat guitar tricks in a few of the songs that are really exciting and innovative. Go on and buy this album as soon as you can. Hurry!"