This new box set is the latest remix of Nektar’s second album. This release includes four CDs and a Blu-Ray. Now, we get several different mixes of the main album. We also get one bonus track. That accounts for the Blu-ray (which is not a video disc, but rather audio) and the first two CDs. CDs three and four are occupied by a concert recording from 1973. This is well worth having if for no reason other than the concert recording. It should be noted that since the main album is basically the same from mix to mix, and I’ve reviewed it before, I’ve used those track reviews for the sake of consistency. There are definitely differences in sound from mix to mix. I’m not sure which is my favorite.

Ambient tones start this, and organ eventually enters to gradually begin building the piece up. After a time, the entire band joins in, creating a powerful and triumphant sounding progressive rock movement. They play with this for a while, then drop it to a very dramatic segment based mostly on the rhythm section. The group works through this new segment for a time, and it eventually resolves out to a balladic prog section that feels a lot like Pink Floyd meets the Beatles. This forms the structure of the verses. As they move this forward it eventually gains a new intensity through a more pronounced rhythm section, the group eventually explodes this out for a short time in prog fury, then they drop it back to more Floydian texture. They bring this back up to the rhythmic fury dominated segment continuing through this then creating another highly dramatic segment. This gives way to amore catchy chorus section that is punctuated by some solid jamming. After this plays through, they move to another verse segment. This explodes out into more frantic prog jamming that is trademark Nektar. This dynamic jam keeps growing and changing. It gets rather tough to keep track of all the changes, but suffice it to say that this one is a prog extravaganza. At nearly 17 minutes, this epic is just awesome!

Coming in with hard edged prog jamming, this drops to another segment that calls to mine early Pink Floyd. This also has a laid back jazzy texture that feels a bit like some of the sounds from the first Yes album. They eventually change this up to another fast paced excursion that's all Nektar. This moves toward a resolution section that again has their trademarks all over it before returning to the Floyd/protoYes segment for the next verse. This continues to evolve forward by working and reworking these various segments as it carries on. A slow half-space rock/half-jazzy segment emerges later, and eventually carries this straight into the next track.

Starting with the mellower elements left behind from the previous piece, a new, understated guitar jam takes it for a time. This section stays around a bit to long for my testes, but eventually a stomping hard-edged prog rock extravaganza takes over.

This cut, a solid, if a bit straightforward, prog rocker includes enough progressive rock excitement to win over even the hard to please prog head.

In some ways this track feels a little rough around the edges. The recording and mix seem a bit muddy at times. That said, this is quintessential Nektar, and I really love the keyboard work on the instrumental break.

Ambient tones start this, and organ eventually enters to gradually begin building the piece up. After a time, the entire band joins in, creating a powerful and triumphant sounding progressive rock movement. They play with this for a while, then drop it to a very dramatic segment based mostly on the rhythm section. The group works through this new segment for a time, and it eventually resolves out to a balladic prog section that feels a lot like Pink Floyd meets the Beatles. This forms the structure of the verses. As they move this forward it eventually gains a new intensity through a more pronounced rhythm section, the group eventually explodes this out for a short time in prog fury, then they drop it back to more Floydian texture. They bring this back up to the rhythmic fury dominated segment continuing through this then creating another highly dramatic segment. This gives way to amore catchy chorus section that is punctuated by some solid jamming. After this plays through, they move to another verse segment. This explodes out into more frantic prog jamming that is trademark Nektar. This dynamic jam keeps growing and changing. It gets rather tough to keep track of all the changes, but suffice it to say that this one is a prog extravaganza. At nearly 17 minutes, this epic is just awesome!

Coming in with hard edged prog jamming, this drops to another segment that calls to mine early Pink Floyd. This also has a laid back jazzy texture that feels a bit like some of the sounds from the first Yes album. They eventually change this up to another fast paced excursion that's all Nektar. This moves toward a resolution section that again has their trademarks all over it before returning to the Floyd/protoYes segment for the next verse. This continues to evolve forward by working and reworking these various segments as it carries on. A slow half-space rock/half-jazzy segment emerges later, and eventually carries this straight into the next track.

Starting with the mellower elements left behind from the previous piece, a new, understated guitar jam takes it for a time. This section stays around a bit to long for my testes, but eventually a stomping hard-edged prog rock extravaganza takes over.

This cut, a solid, if a bit straightforward, prog rocker includes enough progressive rock excitement to win over even the hard to please prog head.

Ambient tones start this, and organ eventually enters to gradually begin building the piece up. After a time, the entire band joins in, creating a powerful and triumphant sounding progressive rock movement. They play with this for a while, then drop it to a very dramatic segment based mostly on the rhythm section. The group works through this new segment for a time, and it eventually resolves out to a balladic prog section that feels a lot like Pink Floyd meets the Beatles. This forms the structure of the verses. As they move this forward it eventually gains a new intensity through a more pronounced rhythm section, the group eventually explodes this out for a short time in prog fury, then they drop it back to more Floydian texture. They bring this back up to the rhythmic fury dominated segment continuing through this then creating another highly dramatic segment. This gives way to amore catchy chorus section that is punctuated by some solid jamming. After this plays through, they move to another verse segment. This explodes out into more frantic prog jamming that is trademark Nektar. This dynamic jam keeps growing and changing. It gets rather tough to keep track of all the changes, but suffice it to say that this one is a prog extravaganza. At nearly 17 minutes, this epic is just awesome!

Coming in with hard edged prog jamming, this drops to another segment that calls to mine early Pink Floyd. This also has a laid back jazzy texture that feels a bit like some of the sounds from the first Yes album. They eventually change this up to another fast paced excursion that's all Nektar. This moves toward a resolution section that again has their trademarks all over it before returning to the Floyd/protoYes segment for the next verse. This continues to evolve forward by working and reworking these various segments as it carries on. A slow half-space rock/half-jazzy segment emerges later, and eventually carries this straight into the next track.

Starting with the mellower elements left behind from the previous piece, a new, understated guitar jam takes it for a time. This section stays around a bit to long for my testes, but eventually a stomping hard-edged prog rock extravaganza takes over.

This cut, a solid, if a bit straightforward, prog rocker includes enough progressive rock excitement to win over even the hard to please prog head.

This comes in gradually with some organ and guitar. It really evolves very slowly as a balladic prog meets psychedelic tune. The vocals on this have some issues at times. Musically this works well, though.

Seeming to come directly out of the previous track, this one gets more rocking than that one. It has both mellower and more intense sections. It also works better than its predecessor for me. The faster paced jam later is so cool.

I really dig the rocking guitar that opens this tune a lot. That part of the number has more of a rock and roll vibe to it, almost calling to mind Creedence Clearwater Revival just a tiny bit. It’s still decidedly Nektar, though. This thing goes through a lot of twists and turns and really rocks with a classic Nektar sound. At almost 15 minutes long, this is the epic of this third CD. They put in some smoking hot jamming mid-track, too. This thing covers a lot of territory and really stands taller than either of the other live songs we’ve heard so far – and by a lot. It’s one heck of a ride.

The classic Nektar prog on this translates really well into live performance. The track is dynamic and powerful. At almost nine-and-a-half minutes of music, it’s shorter than the one that preceded it, but still epic in nature.

This is another potent Nektar live excursion. Again, this is very representative of Nektar’s brand of psychedelically tinged prog. It’s another powerhouse that’s brought to life via stunning life performance. At over 11-minutes long, it’s another epic piece.

More classic Nektar gets a great live performance here. This is not anything unexpected, but it is very effective.

I have always been a big fan of this Nektar classic. This performance is excellent, although the recording quality isn’t as good as some of the rest. It’s not bad. It just feels a little “less than” compared to some of the others. This version is an epic piece that runs nearly 17-and-a-half minutes. It has stuff in it I don’t ever remember hearing as part of the track. It works well and has some cool jamming at times.

This much shorter tune features more of a mainstream rock vibe on the mellower end of the spectrum. That said, it’s decidedly Nektar and very cool.

There is such a cool groove to this thing. The weird vocal section in the first half of the track is intriguing if strange. The cut works through a number of interesting twists, turns and sections.  It’s includes a drum solo (obviously the “Ron’s On” section). We get another cool classic Nektar sounding movement after “Ron’s On.”

This almost seems to come out of the previous tune. It has more of a mainstream rocking sound as it gets going. This feels like classic pop rock done Nektar style, at least at first. The jam later features some rather funky guitar and a lot of organ work. After that organ covered section, this turns to some smoking hot guitar dominated prog jamming that works so well.

Another Nektar track I’ve always loved, I like this live version. It works really well.

Thjs is a pretty standard rock and roller. It gets delivered with some Nektar style, but overall this is just classic rock and roll.