Dream Nebula
2004
Journey To The Centre Of The Eye
About This Album
The 2004 reissue of Nektar's classic debut album (originally issued in 1971) is a revelation. Like Hawkwind, Nektar walked the knife's edge between psychedelic progressive rock and an early incarnation of heavy metal. Journey to the Center of the Eye is a concept recording, traversing a decidedly sci-fi, politico path; It begins with the story of an astronaut whose ship is bound for Saturn but is hijacked by a saucer of unknown origin and taken to view the earth through the eyes of sentient alien beings. Sound dreadfully pretentious? Hardly; it is one of the more cohesive statements about the state of war and violence gripping the world at the time. Hawkwind were a British band who appealed primarily to German and, later, American sensibilities. There are the Krautrock textures inherent throughout, but more than this, it is the sheer heaviness and multi-dimensional dynamic that the band put across on a wonderful set of songs. The wailing rock guitar power on "Countenance," the menacing vocal attack on "Astronaut's Nightmare," the dueling guitar and keyboard lines (mainly organ!) on "The Nine Lifeless Daughters of the Sun," the sheer sci-fi/futurism of "Warp Oversight" (that reportedly made Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider go ga ga), and the screaming rock terror that erupts in the middle of "Burn Out My Eyes," after a beautiful, quiet instrumental intro, and preceding a gorgeously pastoral pillow walk through space.
Track List (try tracks 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,13 and 14)

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