Nektar: Journey To The Centre Of The Eye 1971

Nektar (German for Nectar) is an English progressive rock band originally based in Germany.
The band formed in Hamburg, Germany in 1969. The founding members were Englishmen Roye Albrighton on guitars and lead vocals, Allan "Taff" Freeman on keyboards, Derek "Mo" Moore on bass, Ron Howden on drums and artists Mick Brockett and Keith Walters on lights and "special effects".                                                                               

Though the concept of non-performing bandmembers was not unprecedented (i.e. lyricist Keith Reid in

Procol Harum), it was considered unusual that a third of Nektar's lineup had no role in performing or writing their music.
Throughout their early existence the band's songwriting was credited to all six members on the album sleeves, but BMI records show that the music was written by the four performing members (Albrighton, Freeman, Moore and Howden). Mick Brockett did however co-write the lyrics with "Mo" Moore, and invented or contributed to the original album titles.                                                                              

The band's debut album, Journey to the Centre of the Eye (1971), consisted of a single song running over 40 minutes, with the last 100 seconds of the first side repeated at the beginning of the second side

to maintain continuity. It was a concept album, following an astronaut who is given overwhelming knowledge by extraterrestrials, with sonic textures reminiscent of psychedelic rock. The follow-up, A Tab in the Ocean (1972), drew on more conventional rock and blues influences. Walters had left by the time of their third album, the heavily improvised live-in-the-studio double LP ...Sounds Like This (1973), though the band would continue to use his art in their shows and album designs for a time. A cult following grew for the band, based largely on word of mouth. 

 

Nektar's U.S. release, Remember the Future (1973), propelled the band briefly into mass popularity. A concept album revisiting Journey to the Centre of the Eye's theme of extraterrestrials granting a human

enlightenment, but with a blind boy as the protagonist. It demonstrated a much more melodic sound than previous albums and shot into the Top 20 album charts in the U.S.. The follow-up, Down to Earth (1974), was another concept album (this time with a circus theme); it also sold well, breaking into the Top 40 album charts and including their only song to chart on the Billboard singles charts, "Astral Man". The next album, Recycled (1975), was stylistically close to bands like Gentle Giant and carried on the band's close connection with progressive rock.

                                                                          

Albrighton left the band in December 1976, just prior to the studio sessions for Nektar's first major-label release, Magic Is a Child (1977). The remaining members were joined by guitarist/vocalist Dave

Nelson at this point. The album was more eclectic, although with shorter songs and fairly straightforward rhythms. Lyrically the album covered a wide range of subjects from Norse mythology and magic to more down to earth subjects like railroads and truck drivers. In 1978 the band dissolved; however in 1979 Albrighton and Freeman reformed the band with bassist Carmine Rojas and drummer Dave Prater and released a new album, Man in the Moon (1980), before the band dissolved once again in 1982. 

                                                                              

Journey to the Centre of the Eye is the debut album from English progressive rock band Nektar that came out in November 1971. Though formally divided into 13 tracks, the entire album consists of a single continuous piece of music, with some musical themes which are repeated throughout the work. Because of its narrative nature, it has been called a rock opera and/or dense concept album. The story follows an astronaut who, while on a voyage to Saturn, encounters aliens who take him to their galaxy, where he is suffused with knowledge and wisdom. It is usually interpreted as a commentary on the nuclear arms race.

                                                                          

[  AllMusic Review by Mike DeGagne  [-]

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, Nektar 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" and "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. Nektar's freewheeling sound is best felt on Journey 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.]

On 26 July 2016, Roye Albrighton died after an unspecified illness, at the age of 67.

Studio albums

1971     Journey to the Centre of the Eye     
1972     A Tab in the Ocean     
1973     ...Sounds Like This     
1973    Remember the Future     
1974     Down to Earth     
1975     Recycled     
1977     Magic Is a Child
1980     Man in the Moon
2001     The Prodigal Son     
2004     Evolution     
2008     Book of Days     
2012     A Spoonful of Time     
2013     Time Machine     
2018     Megalomania (released by New Nektar)     
2020     The Other Side  

 

 Nektar ‎– Journey To The Centre Of The Eye
Label: Bacillus Records ‎– 289·09·007, Bellaphon ‎– 289·09·007
Format: CD, Album, Reissue (03 Aug 1987)
Country: Germany
Released: 1971
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock, Prog Rock  

 

Side one

01. Prelude    1:25
02. Astronaut's Nightmare    6:27
03. Countenance    3:33
04. The Nine Lifeless Daughters of the Sun    2:55
05. Warp Oversight    4:10
06. The Dream Nebula I    2:14

Side two

07. The Dream Nebula II    2:26
08. It's All in the Mind    3:22
09. Burn Out My Eyes    7:50
10. Void of Vision    2:02
11. Pupil of the Eye    2:47
12. Look Inside Yourself    0:54
13. Death of the Mind    1:57

Personnel

 

Roye Albrighton - guitars, vocals
Mick Brockett - liquid lights
Allan "Taff" Freeman - Mellotron, pianos, organ, vocals
Ron Howden - drums, percussion
Derek "Mo" Moore - Mellotron, bass, vocals
Keith Walters - static slides
Dieter Dierks - additional piano

MP3 @ 320 Size:  100 MB
Flac  Size:  266 MB