A Tab In the Ocean - NEKTAR***

A Tab In The Ocean/Desolation Valley-Waves/Crying In The Dark/King Of Twilight

A Tab In the Ocean was the follow up album from the British progressive band Nektar formed in Germany. They specialised in lengthy space-rock jams and would soon achieve a degree of commercial success in the States. (US:141)

“A Tab In The Ocean sees Nektar incorporate a few symphonic elements into their space-rock model, particularly in the synthesiser work on the title track. It also has some fascinating studio effects, such as the strange echo effect on the vocals to King Of Twilight. This is a great early prog album which proved that in Nektar could stand proud next to the likes of Genesis and Gentle Giant.”

“Drifting space rock instrumental breaks and trippy vocal stylings still dominate parts of the album, yet as a whole I'd say that it falls midway between the sub-genres of psychedelic/space rock and heavy prog.”

“If you want to get lost in some really good psych prog, I don't think you could go wrong with this. Even the shorter tracks have something to bring to the table.”

“Nektar are a rather unknown act and with good reason. They were an average rock band that wanted to explore progressive movements without actually having the talent to do so, or even actually exploring, but instead jog aimlessly along on the title track and hope the second side filler won’t be noticed.”

“This time around, many of the spacey Krautrock experiments had been abandoned, concentrating more on great prog rock. The album starts with the truly wonderful side length title track, with plenty of wonderful instrumental passages, as well as vocals which tend to be short.”

“The songs here are varied. Lightly distorted organ is omnipresent. The epic minutes Tab In The Ocean is made of aggressive symphonic keyboards and electric guitar full of distortion, that is near metal sometimes. Waves has mellow bits with pure electric guitar sounds. King Of Twilight has some aggressive guitar parts, and there is a unique repetitive fast single note keyboards pattern.”

“What an amazing musical accomplishment. I think this is the only band to conflate practically all musical genres into a cohesive entity. The title track is an opus of astronomical proportions. This is heavy and mind bending.”