{"id":476,"date":"2011-03-28T05:02:25","date_gmt":"2011-03-28T10:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=476"},"modified":"2011-03-28T05:02:25","modified_gmt":"2011-03-28T10:02:25","slug":"album-review-nektar-a-tab-in-the-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/03\/28\/album-review-nektar-a-tab-in-the-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Nektar – A Tab in the Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Having come of age in the 1970s, I was familiar with Nektar<\/strong> \u2013 the band name, not the music itself \u2013 by two means. First, three-inch-square reproductions of their back catalogue items were often reproduced on vinyl inner sleeves, in those \u201cyou may also enjoy\u201d ads of the era. And the records themselves I saw on nearly every visit \u2013 and there were many \u2013 to local record shops. Nektar albums were in ample supply\u2026in the cutout bins.<\/p>\n

In those days I was never overly curious about them; the album art — to the extent that it made any impression upon me \u2013 telegraphed hey-we\u2019re-a-prog-band in no uncertain terms. But the spelling of their name suggested they were, I dunno<\/em>, foreign. German, maybe. I had heard Gong<\/strong> and found them<\/em> deeply boring and repetitive. France is near Germany, and they also don\u2019t speak English, I told myself. So instead I picked up a Nick Lowe<\/strong> LP, or maybe The Who By Numbers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to present day. The boutique\/archival label It\u2019s About Music is re-releasing Nektar albums and filling them to the brim with bonus tracks. So it\u2019s time, finally, for a listen to Nektar. And by the way, they weren\u2019t German, but they almost<\/em> were: while Nektar was a quartet of English blokes, they were headquartered in Germany, and it was there that they enjoyed most of their success.<\/p>\n

In keeping with those heady days of the early 70s, the band titled their second long player A Tab in the Ocean<\/em>. Comprising but four tracks, the album is an exemplar of what we might call meat-n-potatoes prog. The long tracks wind through distinct movements; stabbing organ is omnipresent; the percussion features bits of syncopation, and there\u2019s some sort of lyrical theme throughout. But A Tab in the Ocean<\/em> isn\u2019t terribly ambitious musically. Each of the tracks features a few \u2013 very few, in fact \u2013 musical ideas, and said ideas are stretched across the length of each one.<\/p>\n

Throughout A Tab in the Ocean<\/em>, this group of UK expats manages again and again to sound German; perhaps it\u2019s the repetitive, relatively simple musical themes. Maybe it\u2019s the aiming-for-dramatic arrangements. But to these ears they sound infinitely more like Grobschnitt<\/strong> <\/a>than, say, Yes<\/strong>. The musicians are accomplished, but if they\u2019re virtuosos, they\u2019re shy about displaying their skills.<\/p>\n

The tracks get progressively shorter as the disc unfolds. \u201cDesolation Valley\/ Waves\u201d is built around a very Pink Floyd<\/strong> (circa 1971) sounding organ part. But where the Floyd visited multiple interesting places in their songs (see \u201cEmbryo\u201d or a live bootleg version of \u201cCymbaline\u201d), Nektar comes up with one or two cool ideas and settles for those.<\/p>\n

On \u201cCrying in the Dark\u201d Nektar moves closer to straightforward second-tier heavy 70s rock, not unlike Foghat<\/strong>, Head East<\/strong> or Kansas<\/strong>. Subtle touches of the prog aesthetic appear briefly, but they\u2019re not pursued. \u201cKing of Twilight\u201d is the closest thing to what 70s progressive rock enthusiasts might be looking for. A martial drum part (by way of Gustav Holst<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cMars, the Bringer of War\u201d \u2013 how\u2019s that for a well-worn\/worn-out influence?) roots a song that does feature some interesting vocal harmonies.<\/p>\n

In total, A Tab in the Ocean<\/em> is worth a listen, but it doesn\u2019t rank among the great undiscovered works of its era.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: there\u2019s this bonus disc. Subtitled \u201cIn the Beginning (The Boston Tapes),\u201d it\u2019s worth the price of admission all on its own. Recorded stateside in 1970 \u2013 notably, before sessions for their first album as Nektar \u2013 the set finds the band turning out a decidedly non-prog sound. Closer in many ways to Derek & the Dominoes<\/strong> or Beck, Bogert & Appice<\/strong>, songs like \u201cOur Love Will Last Forever\u201d are exemplars of sturdy, early 70s rock with a pop sensibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo You Believe in Magic\u201d (not the Lovin\u2019 Spoonful<\/strong> hit) sounds a bit like Marmalade <\/strong>and other acts from the ambitious end of the late-60s UK pop spectrum. \u201cCandlelight\u201d features Deep Purple<\/strong>-styled organ and fiery guitar work of the sort mysteriously absent from A Tab in the Ocean<\/em>. The mid-section of \u201cGooday\u201d suggests that the band might have been spinning Joe Cocker<\/strong>\u2019s cover\/reinvention of the Beatles<\/strong>\u2019 \u201cWith a Little Help From My Friends.\u201d And the intertwining lead guitar on that track suggest an approach not wholly dissimilar to the Allman Brothers. <\/strong>But the disc\u2019s highlight is the powerhouse \u201cThe Life I\u2019ve Been Leading;\u201d it hints at a direction the band might have pursued, one quite different from the path they actually chose.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a sweeping, almost gospel feel to some of the songs. Even though the sessions were captured on a relatively primitive (8-track) recording console, they\u2019re full of texture. The songs, the performances, the playing\u2026they\u2019re all superior in almost every way to the sorta-prog style Nektar would soon adopt.<\/p>\n

Apparently the band thought so as well. After A Tab in the Ocean<\/em>, their next effort (1973\u2019s …Sounds Like This<\/em>) resurrected three of the “Boston Tapes” songs in re-recorded versions. Thanks to inclusion of this bonus disc of previously unavailable material — which can lay some claim to the title \u201cgreat lost album\u201d — \u00a0<\/span>A Tab in the Ocean<\/em> is \u2013 somewhat surprisingly \u2013 recommended.<\/p>\n

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