Coming out round about now is an album that most certainly needed a significant sound upgrade from its original issue and this will certainly be achieved by this remastering and surround sound version, with no fewer than four versions of the same album, one performed live at Darmstadt presented here. Overkill? Perhaps, but it is a timely reminder of a band who despite appearances (their name) was not a German one, although formed in Hamburg in 1969 and going on to earn a gold disc there, but a British one; ironically their own country did not take them so much to their hearts. And there is a reason for this: whilst this concept album with the Jules Verne-like title was released three years before Rick Wakeman’s “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” and is a science-fiction based concept album about as astronaut’s escape from the nuclear holocaust, they were a bit late to the starting line compared to many of their contemporaries. Thus, even their most devoted fans concede that their debut album is very influenced by proto-progressive groups like early Pink Floyd and The Moody Blues, and heavier rock groups like Cream, Deep Purple (and I even heard The Who mentioned) and some of them consider it an embryonic work; others view it as their favourite Nektar album (Requiring more time to listen to a group I largely missed ‘back in the day’, I will be writing more specifically about Nektar’s music soon; I was anxious to get this initial information out to alert possible listeners to its release).
The music is a mixture of vocal tracks and instrumental passages in a symphonic prog and somewhat psychedelic vein, touching on space rock with dual mellotrons, keyboards, and echoplexed guitar amongst the lead instruments. The box set includes a Darmstadt concert over two CDs that includes new post debut material including ‘A Tab in the Ocean’, the marathon track that would appear on their 1972 sophomore album. By the way their 1972 single ‘Do You Believe in Magic?’, included within this package with its B-side, bears no relation to the Lovin’ Spoonful hit of the same name!
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