NHU  (1978,  39.21)  ***½/½ Na Terra do Verde Chan A Titritada Friky & Alexo Doente Hay un Tren A Trancas e Barrancas

Current availability:

• On CD, label unknown

From Galicia/Galiza, in the north-west of Spain, NHU were a psychedelically-inclined progressive outfit who released just the one eponymous album at the height of Spain's late-flowering prog scene. Its organ-heavy sound hasn't dated that well, to be honest, though the material's good; like so many progressive albums, there are no bad tracks per se, only varying levels of 'fairly good'. Unlike many of their contemporaries, there's absolutely no flamenco influence in NHU's sound whatsoever, their style being more early-'70s post-psych, but if you're a Spanish prog devotee, don't let that put you off. Highlights? Hard to say, although opener Na Terra Do Verde Chan catches the ear quite nicely.

The unknown organist plays Mellotron strings, briefly but forcefully, on Hay Un Tren, although that seems to be your lot on the 'Tron front. So; a good album without being at all outstanding. Put it on your 'prog wants' 'B' list.

Nanook of the North  (Sweden)

		The Täby Tapes  (2001/4,  37.37)  ****/TTT
		Reaching the Shores of Arlanda Karin Boye's Grave Israel and Palestine - a Solution Nanook's Ark Phonecall St George and the Dragon Näsby Park Hey Fragile	Where Will You Go? Nanook and the Beast The Explorer Forget it Jenny, Love is Just a   Privilege for the Rich

Current availability:

• Exergy (Sweden)

Änglagård's Mattias Olsson's latest project, Nanook of the North, specialise in (you guessed it) slightly melancholy pop with a retro sort of sound and twin male/female vocals (see: Reminder, Geller et al.). The band are named after the 1922 film, an early filmic attempt at understanding other cultures rather than just wiping them out, and have been favourably compared to Björk in various online reviews. Unless I'm entirely mistaken, The Täby Tapes crept out as long ago as 2001 as a cassette-only release, although the CD took another three years to appear. The above scan gives little idea of the sumptuousness of the packaging; pictures of some of the grottier areas of Stockholm (?) in midwinter are overlaid with layers of translucent 'tracing paper' containing lyrics etc., knocking your standard CD booklet into a cocked hat (so what exactly is a 'cocked hat' anyway, and why would you wish to knock anything into it?). The album has some highly eccentric lyrics in places; what's all that stuff in Reaching The Shores Of Arlanda about "Mattias, play your omnichord", anyway? The odd stuff just adds to the album's appeal for me; who wants 'normal'? Well, most people, I suppose, but I can still dream, can't I?

Anyway, the mysterious "Nanook" (not Mattias, for what it's worth) plays 'Tron throughout, with the most overt parts being the flutes on Nanook's Ark, Phonecall and St George And The Dragon, the strings on Where Will You Go? and a brief choir part on Nanook And The Beast. Mattias assures me that there are also various vibes and 'Tron piano parts, not to mention the oboe in Hey Fragile. Apparently, the 'distant orchestra' on Nanook's Ark comprises multiple 'Tron overdubs, including flutes, strings, cello, oboe, vibes, church organ and choir, amongst others. Anyway, the album itself is probably not for prog fundamentalists (you know who you are), but if you've heard and liked any of the man's other projects, you'll probably like this.

Narnia  (UK)

Aslan is Not a Tame Lion  (1974,  36.32)  ***/TTT You'd Better Believe it Muddy Ground The Juggler Agapé To a Fountain Miracle of Birth In the Forest Boogie for Narnia Living Water

Current availability:

• Audio Archives (UK)

Narnia were a one-shot female-fronted UK outfit, operating in the lightweight, folky end of the progressive spectrum, with a Christian bent to a few tracks, notably Miracle Of Birth and In The Forest; hardly surprising, given their whole C.S. Lewis thing, I suppose. I don't personally find the music especially enthralling, but if you like the quieter, simpler type of '70s stuff, you may be into it.

Keyboard man Peter Banks (no relation to the ex-Yes/Flash guitarist) plays Mellotron on four tracks, with solid strings throughout their cover of Tom Paxton's You'd Better Believe It and Muddy Ground, with flutes and strings on Agapé and To A Fountain, making this quite a 'Tron album, on the quiet. As I said, don't expect anything wildly exciting, but it's all competent enough, and the Mellotron stuff's worth hearing.

Chris Neal  (Australia)

Winds of Isis  (1974,  41.39)  ***½/TTTT Prelude Into the Valley of the Ancients - a Glimpse of Isis Full Moon Lightning - the Field Test Ritual Eternal - Initiation of the Searcher The Legend   From the Castle the Winds Arose...   Through the Corridors of Time, Including the March of the Undead - Temptation to Turn Back   Carnival of the People - a Brief Respite   Nightmare - Isis Unveiled   Dance of the Astral Shadows - Beyond the Point of No Return   Flight From the Unknown   Ashes to Ashes

Current availability:

• Poor House (Japan)

These days Chris Neal seems to be mainly a composer of film scores, but three decades ago, he produced one of Australia's first symphonic progressive albums. Winds of Isis is instrumental, with more than a hint of psych-throwback to it, and an unusual melodic approach, quite possibly influenced by his interest in film music and probably Hollywood musicals, too. He's more of a keyboard player than anything else, although he plays most of the instruments on the album, proving himself a capable guitarist and drummer. He lists all equipment on the back cover, which reads like a wish-list of mid-'70s keys and effects, using various Mu-Tron devices from the States, through which he sticks just about everything in sight.

Neal's Mellotron work is well over the top, with every track heavy with very raw-sounding 'Tron; don't expect a two million buck production here... He lists choir/cellos/strings, and uses all but the cellos extensively, usually in great chordal slabs stomping all over whatever else is going on at the time; almost the first sound you hear on the album is choir chords, and he only ever lets up for a couple of minutes or so before slapping some more on. I've had to guess which parts of side two's The Legend contain 'Tron, as there's no timings for parts, so apologies if they're wrong.

All in all, a good, if unusual prog release, with very healthy doses of Mellotron, so if you don't object to something a little different, I can heartily recommend a purchase. I've no idea if Neal produced anything else in the progressive field; there seem to be several Chris Neals who've made their mark somewhere down the line, including an Abbey Road engineer, a modern country artist and a Mike and the Mechanics collaborator (collaborators usually get shot, don't they?), so Web research is extremely difficult. Anyway; worth the effort. Buy.

Nebelnest  (France)

	Nova Express  (2002,  46.53)  ****/TTTT Blackmail Stimpy Bar Redrum Cinema 1920 Nova Express
	Zepto  (2006,  46.14)  ***½/TT½ Pillars of Birth Majnuns The Old Ones The Thing in the Walls Fabric of Reality De Thriumpho Naturae Do What Thou Wilt Station 9

Current availability:

• Both titles: Cuneiform (US)

Nebelnest (or, as they seem to prefer, NeBeLNeST) released their first, self-titled album in '99, using Mellotron samples. An excellent record, sitting firmly in the Crimson/Anekdoten camp, it's a mixture of improvs and arranged pieces, well worth hearing. Three years on, they followed up with Nova Express, on Cuneiform (amusingly spelt 'CuNeiFoRM' on the spine), where the band have noticeably tightened up their style, although the overall sound remains the same. This is wild, frequently improv'd music which whips up an impressive sonic maelstrom, with all four musicians pushing themselves to the limit; I hear distinct comparisons with Britain's Guapo whose new album is, coincidentally, also out on Cuneiform.

Keyboard man Olivier Tejedor wrote to me to confirm their Mellotron use on the album, although they used samples of some sounds, too. The choirs, cellos and flutes are played via a Kurzweil, but the strings, string section and vibes (strange combination!) are 'real', with particularly powerful strings on the excellent Stimpy Bar. For the record, there are more strings on Redrum, string section and strings on the title track and what must be vibes on Cinema 1920, although they're played at the sort of speed you wouldn't normally associate with the instrument. The flute samples turn up on Nova Express, sounding remarkably realistic, I have to say, although the few seconds of 'cellos' right at the end of the album are a bit manky.

All in all, an excellent album, well worth shelling out your hard-earned for, with plenty of real 'Tron action. Mellotron highlight? Probably the choppy pitchbend work on Nova Express, where Tejedor goes completely off the rails, to the point of possibly being guilty of 'Tron torture. There's a pic of him playing their M400 on their site, although it's written in Flash, and is a complete bitch to navigate. The 'Tron is also incredibly hard to spot, being painted black and shot against a black background; watch for the shot of Tejedor sitting behind an undistinguished black box, facing the camera and wearing yellow slippers (!).

Three years on, and Zepto is, essentially, more of the same, which is both a good and a bad thing. Good because it's a good sound, and bad because it seems the band haven't progressed very much in seven or eight years. I'm sure they'd argue that they have, but to the casual observer, Nebelnest and Zepto really aren't that different, with all three of their albums being semi-improvised instrumental jazzy Crimsonesque stuff with more than a dash of RIO. Fabric Of Reality is the one track where they step outside the box, being a quiet, if unsettling piece, dominated by Tejedor's deliberately screechy violin glissandos, and no Mellotron. Assuming Tejedor's using the same setup as on Nova Express, there are 'Tron strings on most tracks, with the odd flute sample thrown in and what I take to be his string section tapes on Majnuns, although I couldn't hear the vibes anywhere.

So; Nebelnest may possibly be beginning to hit the law of diminishing returns after three albums, although all three are perfectly good. Their debut may just be the best of the lot, but if you want real 'Tron, you'll want both Nova Express and Zepto.

Official site

Nebulosa  (Sweden)

	Nebulosa  (1977,  43.21)  ***½/TT
	Dagen Gryr Strezz-Rock Mörka Tankar Digital Det Vackra Folket Undergång Ensam Nödrop	Mittpelarna Tryckvåg Ödestrand Verklighetsflykt Apokalyps

Current availability:

• On CD, label unknown

Nebulosa were your typical prog one-off from the '70s, Swedish division this time, rather than the usual Italian. Nebulosa is a reasonable enough album, although the band seemed to have trouble deciding what exactly they wanted to play, making for a slightly disjointed end product. Even in Sweden, 1977 wasn't exactly the height of the progressive movement, either, so it's not especially surprising the band didn't get to record again. Much of the album's material is actually very good, with the near-seven minute Undergång being a highlight, although the white-boy funk of Nödrop and Mittpelarna really don't work in the context of the rest of the album.

Thomas Kascó's Mellotron doesn't rear its head until the choirs on track four, Digital, after which he can't seem to stop using it for the next few tracks, with particularly heavy use on Undergång, with an almost constant strings backdrop, plus flutes and choirs. Faint flutes on Verklighetsflykt are the only other use on the album, but with three 'Tron-heavy tracks, this is borderline 'worth it for the 'Tron' territory. A reasonably good album, which appears to be available in a limited edition with a 'hand-painted sleeve', which appears to be a splash of paint in various colours over the design you can see above, which isn't quite the same thing.

Nektar  (UK)

	Journey to the Centre of the Eye  (1971,  42.51)  ****/TTT
	Prelude Astronaut's Nightmare Countenance The Nine Lifeless Daughters of the Sun Warp Oversight The Dream Nebula The Dream Nebula Part II It's All in the Mind	Burn Out My Eyes Void of Vision Pupil of the Eye Look Inside Yourself Death of the Mind

	A Tab in the Ocean  (1972,  36.19)  ****½/T½ A Tab in the Ocean Desolation Valley Waves Cryin' in the Dark King of Twilight
	Down to Earth  (1974,  36.57)  **½/T½ Astral Man Nelly the Elephant Early Morning Clown That's Life Fidgety Queen Oh Willy Little Boy Show Me the Way Finale

Current availability:

• All titles: Bellaphon (Germany)

Nektar are often mistakenly lumped in with the German progressive scene, or, more bizarrely, 'Krautrock'. A British band, they, like many of their contemporaries, found an audience in Germany; unlike their contemporaries, they effectively emigrated, signing to the prestigious Bacillus label and recording there too. Journey to the Centre of the Eye is proto-spacerock, with the layers of delay effects and tripped-out lyrics that the emerging genre demanded. It tells the story of an astronaut intercepted by aliens and shown a better way to live. Or something. An obvious drug metaphor, the plot borrows heavily from Clarke/Kubrick's recently-released '2001: A Space Odyssey', although the lyrics can probably be dismissed, the music being the more important half of the equation. There's several tracks of 'Tron, played by both keyboard man Allan "Taff" Freeman and bassist Derek "Mo" Moore, to good effect. All the tracks run into each other, and without a lyric sheet I've had to guess at which tracks contain 'Tron; apologies for any mistakes.

Nektar's next album, A Tab in the Ocean, blatantly continued the drug theme of its predecessor; the band have admitted that they found many of their ideas while tripping, and this album's title was inspired by the idea of lacing the world's oceans with acid. Ahem. It's a great album in that spacerock/prog crossover region, especially the side-long title track, although the only 'Tron to be heard is on final track King Of Twilight, a more straightforward rocker (relatively). Amusingly, this song was covered on a b-side by Iron Maiden a decade later, showing their prog roots for all the world to see. I'd stick with the original, if I were you...

Their third release was the rather self-indulgent double Sounds Like This, much of which was jammed live in the studio, and sounds like it. They went back to a more heavily-arranged style for the excellent Remember the Future (beware the crap remixed CD!), following that with the rather inessential Live at the Roundhouse. For their sixth album, they dug out the Mellotron again; sadly, Down to Earth is one of the worst albums of their career, carrying none of the band's sonic trademarks, and being based around a rather naff 'circus' concept for no particularly good reason. Hawkwind fans often obtain copies for Robert Calvert's cameo as the ringmaster, but I have to say the album as a whole is a great disappointment, and the 'Tron use is sparse and uninteresting to boot.

So; A Tab in the Ocean's a definite musically, though not for the 'Tron, Journey to the Centre of the Eye's a definite for the 'Tron, though not so much for the music, and Down to Earth isn't a definite for anything. Nektar's best non-'Tron work are the aforementioned Remember the Future and the superb Recycled (****½), presumably recorded as an apology for Down to Earth.

Official site

Nervous  (UK)

	About Everything  (2000,  58.56)  ***/T
	Dying Each Day Best Days Granny Ate the Buttons Waters May Run (Troublesome & Deep) Bulldog Sophie Red Shark Reach Out for Love	7 in the Morning 48 Hours Rougher Ground Where is the Summer

Current availability:

• Out of print

Nervous released one album, Son of the Great Outdoors, in 1996 to little acclaim, then spent many months in '98 working on the follow-up for Grapevine, About Everything (or Nervous About Everything, I suppose). By this time, they had ex-Cardiac Bill "William D." Drake on board, who rang me up and asked if they could use my Mellotron. Well, you don't tend to say 'no' to anyone involved with Cardiacs (well you don't, do you?), so I duly delivered it to the basement studio they'd had rented for them, where it stayed for several months, alongside a bevy of other analogue gear, including a Wurlitzer, a late-period Hammond and Leo Sayer's old Rhodes Suitcase 88. My poor 'Tron was ailing at the time (this was just before it broke down completely during the recording of the Spratleys Japs album), and I believe they sampled it at some point, so I've no idea how many of the 'Tron tracks here are 'real', and how many are samples, so I'll treat them all as real.

What I don't actually know is whether or not this album ever obtained a proper release; I've had a 4-track promo for a while, then found this full-length version for a quid recently, sans inlay, so the image is the promo's sleeve with the 'promo' bit removed. Maybe there never actually was a cover? As a result, the 'release date' info is no more than an educated guess, either. I'm afraid to say the album itself is not fantastically interesting (sorry chaps), being country-flavoured pop, however unlikely that sounds coming from a London-based outfit. The songs aren't bad, but it looks like we'll never know how they would've fared in the marketplace. The one track that really leapt out at me was Bulldog, which turned out to be The Beatles' 'Hey Bulldog' anyway.

Bill played my 'Tron on a good few tracks during the sessions, but I suspect most of them ended up on the cutting-room floor (I believe there were 30+ on the go at one point). The very first sound you hear on the album is an introductory flute part, kept up right through Dying Each Day, and it's possible there's more 'Tron buried in the mix; the choirs on Waters May Run (Troublesome & Deep) only really become apparent at the end of the song. Various string parts throughout the album sound like samples, but who knows? Anyway, your chances of actually running into a copy of this are fairly slight, I'd have thought. If you do, don't pay too much, but it's at the very least an interesting curio.

Nessie  (Belgium)

Head in the Sand  (1979,  39.45)  **½/½ Too Much Money Looking in Your Eyes A Song of War Lightning Stars Spanish Singer Unreal Body It's a New Day Dawning Head in the Sand

Current availability:

• Japanese CD

Nessie's first album, The Tree (**½) is a distinctly average set, being rather cheesy nearly-prog, languishing in an unfortunate slough of despond somewhere between symphonic prog and mainstream pop/rock. Head in the Sand starts off as if it's going to be a better proposition, despite the appalling vocals (anonymous as all four members are credited; very sensible too), but by track four it's descended into tedium, Lightning Stars being dull pop-boogie. It gets worse, but you probably don't need the gory details.

Henri Leruth is credited with 'Tron, although all the strings are produced by an over-loud string machine. There's a definite (male voice?) choir chord pedalled in near the beginning of opener Too Much Money, and some very background choirs on Looking In Your Eyes, but that really seems to be it. Nessie are one of those obscure bands that collectors are on the lookout for, but I can tell you now; this is not a long-lost prog gem, it's tediously mainstream, with the merest glimmer of interest on about two tracks. Avoid.

Netherworld  (US)

In the Following Half-Light  (1981,  44.04/54.31)  ****/TTT½ (TTTT) Too Hard to Forget Son of Sam Straight Into Infinity Maybe if They Burn Me Isle of Man A Matter of Time Sargasso I-II-III [reissue CD adds: Cumulo Nimbus]

Current availability:

• Musea (France)

Despite forming in 1975, it took Netherworld until 1981 to release their only album, In the Following Half-Light; the usual story of not getting the breaks when prog was popular, then soldiering on for years before finally releasing a self-funded LP, now highly collectable. Their sound is rather like a more American Genesis, with a few 'later' influences creeping in here and there, possibly comparable to an updated Lift. No one track is especially outstanding, but the overall effect is excellent, although Netherworld were never really going to be frontrunners.

Randy Wilson played Mellotron on most tracks, mostly strings, with male voice choir on Sargasso. Good use throughout, particularly on Isle Of Man and A Matter Of Time, with those strings right at the front of the mix. I've seen a quote from the band where they remark on what they called their 'God Sound', which was a mixture of 'Tron strings and choirs, though I don't actually hear any audible evidence of it here. Given their one M400, they couldn't have produced it live, either; maybe it was more concept than reality. Incidentally, the only reason the album doesn't get a higher 'T' rating is the rather background 'Tron use on the album's earlier tracks.

Anyway, before the album's reissue by those wonderful Musea people, Greg Walker's Syn-Phonic label in the States released a double-vinyl compilation in 1992, Past-Present-Future (right), which gathered together tracks from eight bands (two per side - hoorah!), some of which remain otherwise unreleased over a decade later. Netherworld's contribution was the slightly disjointed Cumulo Nimbus, which seems to consist of three different tracks with gaps in between, tied together by a 'thunder' sample (in pre-sampler days, of course). It takes a while for the 'Tron to kick in, but when it does, it's with full-on choirs, far more in-yer-face than anywhere on ...Half-Light. This had been added to the Musea CD, bringing the disc up to nearly an hour.

On their website, the various ex-members sound hopeful that more unreleased material will be unearthed at some future stage. Let's hope so; Netherworld were a good band, if not timelessly classic, and more of this stuff would be most welcome. In the Following Half-Light is definitely worth the purchase, and Past-Present-Future's worth picking up if you can find a copy (I don't even own one myself). Worth the effort.

Official site

Neuschwanstein  (Germany)

Battlement  (1978,  39.05)  ***½/TT½ Loafer Jack Ice With Dwale Intruders and the Punishment Beyond the Bugle Battlement Zärtlicher Abschied

Current availability:

• Musea (France)

If I had a pound for the number of times I've seen Neuschwanstein described as 'exactly like Genesis; a complete clone', etc. etc... Well, excuse my ears, but I really can't hear it; Battlement's a pleasant enough album, but even after several plays the first band I think of when I put it on is Marillion. OK, so it predates them by several years, but the essentially fairly simple song structures, washes of string synth and tortured vocals remind me of none other than Aylesbury's finest (?). Good news if you like Marillion; however... To be absolutely fair, from other reviews I've read, the CD was completely remixed, and apparently sounds more like Genesis as a result. By the looks of it, they messed about with the cover art too; the original LP is far less 'yellow' than the scan I downloaded from the 'Net.

I'm probably being a little harsh here, but I wouldn't want anyone to rush out to buy it on my recommendation expecting a symphonic classic; I seem to be in a minority on this one, but it sounds more like proto-neo-prog (new category, anyone?) than yer full-on '70s thing to me. None of the tracks stand out especially, although there's some nice Mellotron here and there from keyboard player Thomas Neuroth; again, nothing to write home about, but the choirs in the oddly-titled Intruders And The Punishment are particularly effective, and there's some nice string swells in places.

Pleasant enough, but I really wouldn't put it at the top of your 'wants' list.

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