Release date: 24.01.2020
Label: Esoteric Antenna Records
Production: Nektar
Length: 66:10
Genre: progressive rock/space rock
Rating: 9/10
»The Other Side« is the first album from the American faction of the cult English prog rock band Nektar. On July 26, 2016, founding guitarist and singer Roye Albrighton, a member of almost every Nektar incarnation, died after an illness. Nearly all devotees of the English prog legends figured his death spelled the end of Nektar, but founding drummer Ron Howden and German keyboardist Klaus Henatsch decided to ‘keep the wagon rolling’, despite plenty of misgivings from fans of their music. Creative differences soon cropped up between the two, and Howden decided to move to the US, where, together with some former members, he started putting together his own version of Nektar. The German faction, joined by Albrighton’s son Che on drums and German guitarist/singer Alexander Hoffmeister, released the album »Megalomania« in 2018 under the name New Nektar. It left most of the faithful with mixed feelings, since they mainly missed a stronger focus on the classic Nektar sound and a better vocal approach, so they waited with keen interest to see what the American Nektar faction under Howden’s leadership would come up with.
Even before recording »The Other Side«, the founding drummer had set everything up on a much grander scale, managing to lure back founding bassist/keyboardist/singer Derek ‘Mo’ Moore and founding special effects wizard Mick Brockett, which thrilled plenty of nostalgics. Two more former members joined Howden’s lineup: guitarist/singer Ryche Chlanda, who was in the band briefly in 1978, and bassist Randy Dembo, who was a member of the prog rock icons between 2006 and 2008. New keyboardist Kendall Scott rounded out the lineup. The result is the surprisingly likeable »The Other Side«, an album that’s much closer to the classic Nektar sound than »Megalomania« in every respect, which is obvious right from the opening track. Chlanda and Moore successfully step in for Albrighton’s vocals, while not trying too hard to sound like the late guitarist/singer, instead cultivating a vocal approach of their own.
Most of the songs on the album were recorded in ’embryonic’ form back in 1978, i.e. when Chlanda was on vocals and guitar, which you can tell from the opening cut »I’m On Fire«, which, helped along by its ‘retro’ production and ‘old-school keyboards’, really does sound like something from the late seventies. The somewhat darker and distinctly melancholic »Drifting«, with its emphasis on symphonic arrangements and fragile guitar passages, could easily have fit on »Magic Is a Child (1977), which was in many ways the last ‘classic’ Nektar album.
The excellent epic suite »Love Is/The Other Side« is one of the highlights of »The Other Side«, vividly reflecting this cult band’s wonderful stylistic eclecticism. The first part, »Love Is«, sounds like proper art pop rock from the late seventies, while »The Other Side« is a more complex prog adventure with space rock elements and plenty of fantastic guitar solos. From there on, too, »The Other Side« delivers lots of pleasant surprises and keeps things creatively fresh, with every track radiating the newly found vigor of the new incarnation, something that was missed on »Time Machine« (2013), the last studio album with Albrighton.
»The Other Side« is the perfect band-aid for all the Nektar nostalgics who never made peace with Albrighton’s untimely death and weren’t won over by the German version of Nektar, because it’s their best album since the end of the seventies. At the same time, it’s a pleasant surprise and a shock for all those ‘doubting Thomases’ who claim that pioneering prog rock bands ‘can’t show us anything interesting anymore’. The only thing you could hold against »The Other Side« is that most of the material on it dates back to the ‘golden’ seventies, when Nektar were in peak form, so the members of the American Nektar didn’t have to ‘stretch’ themselves all that much writing new stuff. So the legendary band lives on in two different incarnations, and the more successful and ‘authentic’ one is definitely the American, or Howden, version, and not just because it has three original members in its ranks.
Review by: Peter Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. I’m on Fire
2. SkyWriter
3. Love Is / The Other Side
4. Drifting
5. Devil’s Door
6. The Light Beyond
7. Look Through Me
8. Y Can’t I B More Like U
Nektar:
Ron Howden – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Derek “Mo” Moore – bass guitar, keyboards, vocals and lyrics
Mick Brockett – special effects
Ryche Chlanda – guitar, vocals
Randy Dembo – bass guitar, bass pedals, 12-string guitar, backing vocals
Kendall Scott – keyboards
