▼ List of Favorite Prog Bands
Such Sweet, Sweet Nektar
Things were beginning to get very serious; guitarists, drummers, bassists and keyboard players were now accomplished geniuses. With that said, I now present Nektar. 
My first experience with Nektar was with the album >"Remember the Future." I bought this album out of curiosity for $1.99 on the cut-out rack at Music Millennium in 1974. As it turned out, it was one of the best buys of my life. The album itself is technically pure with fantastic performances by each band member. Lead guitarist Roye Albrighton was a 6-string wizard and a decent singer. This album spent a lot of time on my turntable in 1974. However, an excerpt from the second side of the album often referred to as "Lonely Roads" is incredible and beautiful, but also contains a section that strongly resembles an obscure Pink Floyd tune called "The Embryo." Still, "Remember the Future" is a marvelous experience and seeing it live could only have been breathtaking.
Each song on this excellent album seems to get better and better as each track plays on. "I Can See You" is my favorite. It begins with a sort of melancholy arpeggio that sounds as if it bends more new age than rock. The song appears to be based off a series of minor and 7th chords, and is profoundly deep in its emotive presentation. 
Excellently performed, it features a chorus of soft vocals that builds to a hard crescendo of a hammering lead guitar. The finale, "Let it Grow", feels like half-Motown, half rock, but has a distinct trail of notes, and follows a purposeful riff. Again, live, this whole piece would be a monster of a set.
1974 was my year of discovery for many barely known prog rock bands, but Nektar was so good that I just had to keep buying their albums. Interestingly enough, Nektar was among the very few bands that offered up a lighting technician on their album credits. Mick Brockett toured with the band providing that ever-popular '70s water-light ambiance on projection screen. "Down to Earth",featured more raw and gutsy tunes but retained the Nektar recipe of spacey detours and awesome composing ability. "Nelly the Elephant" is a particular standout. As a guitarist, Roye Albrighton is supreme and has a unique style that can be picked out of a crowd. His particular flavor is heavy on quick strumming and long chord jams then blasting into fire-eating leads. Roye's tech skills were dynamo then and have only improved over the years.
"Journey to the Centre of the Eye" was outstanding, and in my honest opinion, the classiest work ever from the band. I always felt that the album was a powerful debut in 1971. A strong bit of psychedelia mixed with hard rock and innovative songwriting skills, the entire foundation of "Centre" was a long and glorious statement on the limitless boundaries of progressive rock. This album offers many memorable pieces and passages. My favorites are: "Astronaut's Nightmare", "Countenance", "Burn Out My Eyes", and "The Dream Nebula 1 & 2".
White hot and live was Sunday Night at London Roundhouse." This LP was an impeccable live performance and decent recording. 
Side one is recorded live at the Roundhouse, and side two is a studio jam session. It's hard for me to decide which side is better, but I generally opt for side two for "Mundetango" & "Oop's (Unidentified Flying Abstract):. The guitar solo on "Oop's" is superfine, and it sounds like the band was having a great time. This performance came about as it was Derek "Mo" Moore's birthday, and they had a birthday jam session at the Chipping Norton studios.
For me, the most disappointing Nektar LP of all was their "Live in New York." Performance-wise, it was excellent. Sound quality-wise, it was pure garbage, probably a half step above most bootlegs out there. Plus, being a 2-record set-and at the time-only available as an import which brought top pricing, this was the disc equivalent to the Edsel. It was pure sadness as the album had so many of their best songs pressed as a tinny and toneless tragedy.
"Recycled" was a fair album that spawned a truly magnificent and melancholy tune called "It's All Over." Again, I bought this LP as a cut-out, but it was worth more than full price just for this song. Nektar was a serious bookmark of the '70s for me. The LP A Tab in the Ocean was another fantastic release. The title track is ethereal, backed with heavyweight guitar work and misty vocal harmonies which lend an eerie, psychedelic mood to it. The piece is a marvel of musical structures; it meanders back and forth from a hearty to enhanced anthem that's solid every step of the way. The song is one of Nektar's finest works and,Nektar was clearly one of the finest and most technically creative prog bands of the '70s hands down.
