1971 NEKTAR JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF Prog Psych FLOYD

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              NEKTAR   

 Journey To The Center Of The Eye

\                                                                 German - Bacillus ~ BLPS 19064

Rare original 1971 first album by the mighty NEKTAR bring forth one of their absolute best albums, not released in the USA...an concept sci-fi phantasmagoria spacerock thriller in technicolor sound-sations...

Definitely one for fans of early Floyd, this album is a feast of spacey sounds in a kind of accessible Krautrock vein.

On their first album, Nektar finds and establishes their own sound. Even so, side one's lift-off, The prelude has smatterings of Floydian Saucerful of Secrets and Meddle all over it, and the title Astronaut's Nightmare would suggest things like Astronomy Domine and Set the Controls...

However, the music of Astronauts Nightmare is more akin to early Hawkwind's head-over-heels astral acidrock styles

Countenance takes us into more ambient territory, with some quite wonderful keyboard sounds and intriguing guitar/bass interplay. Reminding once again of Saucerful of Secrets - but this time the final part - in two things; the step-descending chord progression and the constant build-up aspect. You can practically hear Roger Waters vocals chiming in over the top.

"The Nine Lifeless Daughters..." comes in with a bit of a jolt, sitting more in Iron Butterfly land, but with an insistent driving riff that carries the Nektar hallmark of individuality. The piece builds towards a kind of swirling frenzy - at one point the listener is almost expecting it to slam into an anthemic Trance hook - then dissolves into "Warp Oversight", a starlit piece of texture exploration that boldly goes around black holes, and may even deliver one or two revelations and soon delivers a wonderful "heartbeat" accompanied passage that seems to foretell "Dark Side of the Moon" in a way.

Then Bam! The Dream Nebula Pt 1 crashes in, with columns of sound framing delicate and often edgy textures. The vocals are a great demonstration of the fun that can be had armed with but a single sound-on-sound tape loop, and contribute to the overall texture wonderfully.

"It's all in the Mind" carries along in similar fashion - "My mind goes round like a roundabout", "Darker than darkest night", "My mind expands to a great degree - a feeling that must be free" - and is also positively dripping with Mellotrons. Pwhoar!!!

Some really great textural experimentation is interspersed with some riff experimentation,and the build-up to the guitar solo and beyond is quite wonderful, returning to the textures and riffs from before the solo - full points for formal exploration.

"Burn Out My Eyes", a seven and a half minuter, features loads more Mellotrons, and an ice-cool slow groove that carries the song along to a passage of starts and stops. The track goes through many episodes of development that maintain the interest throughout, and not only does it never get boring, despite the complexities, it also remains engaging.

"Void of Vision" has a rather wonderful almost atonal feel to start, and the song parts are rooted in Barret-style psychedelia. The "atonal" passage is re-used as the song structure reveals itself, but where the bridge should be is a real surprise, and a lovely smattering of vocal harmonies.

These are carried into "Pupil of the Eye", such that the ending of one song and the beginning of the next are completely blurred.

"Look Inside Yourself" is a nice, short, Mellotron drenched affair - in fact,  you get two Mellotrons - what more could you want?

"Death of the Mind" shares an apocalyptic vision -- and the song is given a nod and a wink through the lyrics "Although my eyes are gently weeping " - One gets the distinct impression that this album, indeed, perhaps this song inspired the mighty Necronomicon Opus "Tips Zum Selbst Mord".

1. Prelude (1:27)
2. Astronauts nightmare (6:22)
3. Countenance (3:30)
4. The nine lifeless daughters of the sun (2:41)
5. Warp oversight (4:28)
6. The dream nebula (2:14)
7. The dream nebula part II (2:25)
8. It's all in the mind (3:22)
9. Burn out my eyes (7:48)
10. Void of vision (2:01)
11. Pupil of the eye (2:46)
12. Look inside yourself (0:53)
13. Death of the mind (2:52)

CONDITION: The laminated gatefold cover is clean "EX" (excellent) display worthy

The vinyl is all glossy, has some little minor nothing scuffs like from sliding in & out of paper sleeve and the such...VG++ visual then, playing strictly excellent 

      A cool addition to anyone's music library!

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for similar cool sounds for "head" people...

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record