Review of Remember the Future by Nektar
“Remember the Future” was the fourth studio album by Nektar, drugged-up Brits turned honorary Germans, who by 1973 had fully embedded themselves into the country’s vibrant bohemian rock scene. It marked their first real breakthrough on home turf, in an early-70s scene still largely dominated by pop.
No wonder this project was the breakthrough for Nektar: an album deliberately conceived as one continuous story, split into just two tracks to suit the vinyl’s two sides, it carries a level of complexity and range that, in my personal journey through prog rock, remains close to unrivaled.
“We’d play about 12 hours a day, record everything roughly, then listen back… There was a little Gasthaus next door, and we’d have a bratwurst there and discuss concepts” – Mo Moore to Prog
Very much in line with the image of the 70s prog rock scene, Nektar were no strangers to drugs, mentioning in multiple interviews their use of Captagon, a type of speed, to keep recording sessions going to extreme lengths, with the longest reportedly clocking in at 72 hours. All of it coming together in a 36-minute piece of surrealism and activism.
“Bluebird projects his thoughts into the little boy’s brain. He’s saying, ‘Remember the future is always going to be there, so you better look after it”
The overarching theme of Remember the Future seems to center on climate activism, though it presents it through a fantasy/sci-fi lens in the character of Bluebird, a fictional extraterrestrial who travels to Earth to warn humankind of a tragic future shaped by climate change. He does this by communicating with a blind boy, or more precisely, by projecting his thoughts and images into the boy’s mind. The album’s title itself stems from the message:
“Remember the future is always going to be there, so you better look after it.”
But what truly makes this album feel unrivaled, or at least iconic to me, is its melodic sound. It is still very much prog rock, but with far more flavour than many of the genre’s more popular projects. The key figure behind that sound, in my view, is Roye Albrighton, the band’s vocalist and guitarist. Not to do the rest of the band any injustice, but one of my biggest pet peeves with prog rock has always been its vocal style: too many singers fall into the same high-pitched delivery, the kind that either threatens to shatter my wine glasses or kills my enthusiasm within ten minutes.
Combine that with Albrighton’s incredible guitar work, ranging from expressive, emotional passages with deft use of the Wah-Wah effect to moments where his guitar effortlessly shifts into overdrive, taking over the entire soundscape, and it is clear why this album feels so alive and distinctive. A not so fun fact comes from Mo Moore, who recalled:
When we mixed it in London, the speakers were out of phase and the guitar on that version almost disappeared. We immediately flew to Copenhagen for the start of the Frank Zappa Tour through Europe. On our way through Germany from Scandinavia, Roye and I left the band in Hamburg and flew to Koeln to Dieter Dierks studio where we met Barry Hammond and we re-mixed the album and then flew out to meet the band in Frankfurt.
Which, we can all agree, would have absolutely destroyed the album and kept Nektar from breaking through into the British market.
Reading about the creation of Remember the Future gives you an even greater respect for how focused and invested the entire crew of Nektar were in bringing the album to life. As Bandmember Mo Moore recalled:
“It took on a life of its own in the studio. We had the basic music done and recorded it the first day live. We wrote most of the lyrics in the studio as Mick and I pieced the story of the album together. We had booked the studio for a week, 24 hours a day so we decided to use all of the hours we had. We did a set up of the equipment and got all of the sounds, then a 15-hour session a 36-hour session, and a 72-hour session, including the mixing, and it was done.”
Though the album’s impact owes much to Roye Albrighton, it would not have been the same without the driving basslines of Derek ‘Mo’ Moore, which keep the funk-rock momentum alive, Allan ‘Taff’ Freeman, whose keyboard work quietly creates the perfect sci-fi soundscape, and the powerhouse drumming of Ron Howden, who not only lays down a solid rhythm but also crafts natural spaces, silences, and transitions that help this single-song album float effortlessly in a sea spiked with LSD.
Nektar were ahead of their time, in their activism, their ambition and their speed-fuelled determination to create something bigger than themselves. That they did it in 36 minutes, in a week, on Captagon and bratwurst, makes it all the more remarkable. If you have not heard it, clear your schedule.
Album Artwork
Cover art by Helmut Wenske
The album cover was painted by Hanau-born Helmut Wenske, a porcelain painter who later worked as a decorator at a Hanau department store, painting giant façade posters. He would go on to decorative and erotic works for striptease bars and other establishments in Hanau's red light district, though that is not why we are talking about him.
Wenske eventually signed a contract to become the in-house graphic artist for Bellaphon, the parent label of Bacillus Records, where he crossed paths with Nektar. Over the course of their collaboration he produced artwork for five of the band's album covers, including A Tab in the Ocean and ...Sounds Like This, to name a few. But it would be his work for Remember the Future that became his finest.
What a powerhouse of a prog-rock album cover this is. Wenske deploys his sci-fi surrealist oil painting style to its maximum potential, cramming the canvas with dreamlike distortions that somehow balance the space-rock intensity of the music with the album's more serene nature theme. Fairy-like creatures with beautiful butterfly wings populate the foreground, while strange, long-legged multi-eyed beings slither through the background. Trees and landscapes are scattered throughout, and the longer you look, the more creatures, details and hidden worlds reveal themselves. It is the kind of cover that is truly impossible to explain; you simply have to see it.
It is not hard to imagine the lasting influence Wenske's work had on the visual language of progressive rock and beyond. Personally, covers like Plini's Handmade Cities EP come to mind as a modern echo of that same spirit, where intricate, layered artwork invites the listener into a world that feels as expansive as the music itself.
Fun fact: the iconic Bluebird character that sits at the heart of Remember the Future was never actually part of the brief. Wenske was handed nothing more than the album title and set loose, painting his surrealist sci-fi world the way he always did. When Nektar finally saw the finished artwork they could not believe what they were looking at. Tucked into the back cover was a winged blue man, a character the band had already independently dreamed up and named Bluebird. Nobody asked for it, nobody planned it, Wenske simply painted him into existence without ever knowing he was there.
Featured Tracks
editorial
1 rating
This is a very important album to me.
It is an album that further opened my eyes to the world of progressive rock after listening to it for only two months.
I listened to Nektar before I did to King Crimson, Yes, Rush, Gentle Giant, Gong, the list goes on. From the first snippet I heard of ‘Let It Grow’ in a YouTube video, I loved this album. In the 48 hours after, I listened to it at least 10 times (I’m not exaggerating), bought a vinyl copy of it, and tought myself the whole thing on drums. Only a year later, in late January of this year, I decided to dive deeper into Nektar’s discography, and what an amazing journey that was. At the same time, @Blibloblublub was diving head-first into the world of music and I am so happy that I shared this album with him, because it became his favourite album for a few months before he finally gave in and listened to Radiohead after I told him to do so many times.
The album makes me so damn happy everytime I put it on. It’s just a complete joy and I know every melody by heart. The whole thing feels so human. The not completely in time drums, the slightly distorted organ, and the wrong notes here and there add to the charm of the album. It has a very warm feeling too. Last winter, I was spinning it non-stop and I swear, it warms me up a little!
No second is wasted, the transitions are amazing and don’t get me started on the songs themselves. They are some of the most catchy, groovy, cleverly written and beautiful songs I know. Especially ‘Questions and Answers’ off the second half. And oh my god what a perfect closer ‘Let it Grow’ is. It’s so goddamn funky and the solos are mind-blowing. The album opens excellently as well with the catchy and innocent ‘Images of the Past’, an absoloute jam.
The musicianship is on point. Every member of the band plays their instrument very well and as a band they fit unbelievably well together. Roye Albrighton probably is one of my favourite guitarists ever. He is a key component of Nektar’s signature sound and I adore is playing style. I love his lush and dreamy arpeggios and that wacka-wacka funky stuff, really fucking amazing player. And he is such a great singer as well! He really sings beautifully. I love how he can make a song so beautiful and epic sounding with the melodies he sings, an example for what I mean can be heard on ‘Recycled’.
Overall, this is one of prog’s finest moments for sure. It is creative, very beautiful and groovy while still being concise and is definitely worth a listen.