Customer Reviews

Nexus

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This album is great. Argent was not headed in the wrong direction, it just wasn't a commerical success...Music From the Spheres is a fantastic song, well worth the price of the CD. It may be their best song, if it isn't it is probably only second to Hold Your Head Up. Unless something on a release after this is better (I've heard that Circus is excellent)...I haven't heard the subsequent releases but of all of the prior ones I think this album is the best overall. Closely followed by All Together and Ring of Hands... Besides Music from the Spheres, Thunder and Lightning and Keeper of the Flame are noteworthy tracks here . Coming of Kohoutek/Once Around the Sun starts of this brilliant album. It will not turn off progrock lovers. Not one bit. Lots of cool synths and good sound quality. If you aren't a progrock fan, maybe this isn't for you, else, go for it!

I'd say a 4 rating is rather generous for this album but 2 or 3 of the songs on it rate a 5. All I ever knew about Argent until I bought Nexus on 8 track around 28 years ago was the song "Hold your Head up". I had a little extra money and took a chance on "Nexus". There are some great keyboards here, especially on "Thunder & Lightning". "Gonna Meet My Maker" is also worth getting this CD for. In fact, for years all I've had is the album. I didn't find the CD till now. The picture on the album is better, but what the hey, you can't have everything. "Music From the Spheres" has a beautiful ending, the keyboard playing by Argent is stupendous. Listen to this song when your driving around in the winter, on a cold sunny day near sunset, with snow around but not on the roads. It's a winner.

Released in 1974, this album moved Argent closer to the realm of progressive rock. Stylistically, the nine pieces fuse elements of the progressive rock style (virtuosity, classical form and structure) with thunderous hard rock to make a very enjoyable listening experience. The first three instrumental tracks form a lengthy suite that features the Hammond organ work of superb keyboardist Rod Argent, along with sweeping pipe organ parts, some excellent mellotron and piano work, and the use of loads of synthesizers (they sound mostly like moog synthesizers). In fact, synthesizers are used extensively throughout the entire album. The guitarist alternately uses clean tones and slightly distorted tones, and can be characterized as a fairly heavy player while the rhythm section is tight and extremely heavy. The quiet, mellotron-drenched ballad Love was written by Russ Ballard and provides a nice contrast to the opening prog extravaganza and really is a very nice composition. The remaining five tracks range from tightly arranged, sophisticated progressive hard rock pieces (Music of the Spheres, Keeper of the Flame, and A Man for all Reasons) to hard rock pieces complete with an aggressive, "hard rock" vocal style (Thunder and Lightning and Gonna' Meet my Maker). Of these five tracks, the 8'07" Music of the Spheres features a ripping, jazz inflected electric piano solo with superb contributions by the other band members and is a personal favorite. Other great tracks include Keeper of the Flame and A Man for all Reasons, which both feature more prog than hard rock. The follow-up to Nexus was the Circus album released in 1975, which exhibits slightly more of the progressive rock style than Nexus. For those folks that like Nexus, Song for America (Kansas, 1975) and Hemispheres (Rush, 1978) might also prove enjoyable.

I'm only 16 and can appreciate this album. The musicianship in this band is not only great, but also the songwriting. One of my favourites is Music From the Spheres and Coming of Kohoutek. Any Argent fan needs this.

Track Listings
Side One
1. The Coming of Kohoutek - Argent, Argent, Rob
2. Once Around the Sun - Argent, Argent, Rob
3. Infinite Wanderer - Argent, Argent, Rob
4. Love - Argent, Ballard, Russ
5. Music from the Spheres - Argent, Argent, Rod
Side Two
1. Thunder and Lightning - Argent, Ballard, Russ
2. Keeper of the Flame - Argent, Argent, Rob
3. A Man for All Reasons - Argent, Ballard, Russ
4. Gonna Meet My Maker - Argent, Ballard, Russ

Sony Japan has just released the entire Argent Epic Records seven-disc catalog ("Counterpoints" was on a different label) in remastered, mini-LP sleeve format.

The 2008 Sony DSD-processed remastering trumps all previous releases, including the BGO, Edsel, Koch & Acadia-label CD's, not to mention the pathetic-sounding Collectables and Wounded Bird discs.

It is wonderful to finally have the primary Argent repertoire in dynamically-matched sound, as all the different releases (from the plethora of labels mentioned above) had varying audio levels, not to mention quality.

And, as always, the `sleeves themselves are fabulous, all being faithful replicas of the original gatefold LP record covers (except for "Nexus", which was a single-pocket LP design).

Unfortunately, however, Sony did not include two non-album tracks, "Kingdom", and "Closer To Heaven", which appeared on the "All Together Now" 2001-Koch & 2007-Acadia releases.

Curiously, though, Koch & Acadia also included as "bonus" tracks, songs that originally belonged to other Argent albums. These all appear in their proper place on the 2008 Japan releases.

Here are the links to the 2008 `sleeves:

Argent
Ring Of Hands
All Together Now
In Deep
Nexus
Encore
Circus

WHAT IS A JAPAN "MINI-LP-SLEEVE" CD?

Have you ever lamented the loss of one of the 20th Century's great art forms, the 12" vinyl LP jacket? Then "mini-LP-sleeve" CD's may be for you.

Mini-sleeve CDs are manufactured in Japan under license. The disc is packaged inside a 135MM X 135MM cardboard precision-miniature replica of the original classic vinyl-LP album. Also, anything contained in the original LP, such as gatefolds, booklets, lyric sheets, posters, printed LP sleeves, stickers, embosses, special LP cover paper/inks/textures and/or die cuts, are precisely replicated and included. An English-language lyric sheet is always included, even if the original LP did not have printed lyrics.

Then, there's the sonic quality: Often (but not always), mini-sleeves have dedicated remastering (20-Bit, 24-Bit, DSD, K2/K2HD, and/or HDCD), and can often (but not always) be superior to the audio on the same title anywhere else in the world. There also may be bonus tracks unavailable elsewhere.

Each Japan mini-sleeve has an "obi" ("oh-bee"), a removable Japan-language promotional strip. The obi lists the Japan street date of that particular release, the catalog number, the mastering info, and often the original album's release date. Bonus tracks are only listed on the obi, maintaining the integrity of the original LP artwork. The obi's are collectable, and should not be discarded.

All mini-sleeve releases are limited edition, but re-pressings/re-issues are becoming more common (again, not always). The enthusiasm of mini-sleeve collecting must be tempered, however, with avoiding fake mini-sleeves manufactured in Russia and distributed throughout the world, primarily on eBay. They are inferior in quality, worthless in collectable value, a total waste of money, and should be avoided at all costs.

The LP arrived dirty and scratched. It is too difficult to return (though that was offered by amazon); to much trouble to find packaging, etc.

To be a progressive rock band or not to be a progressive rock band? This was the question haunting Argent from the band's inception. With Rod Argent's classical keyboard leanings alongside guitarist Russ Ballard's commercial R&B rockers, the band actually pulled off this rather schizioid musical personality for a few years. But by '74's Nexus, it was clear that this group was due for a musical nervous breakdown. With Rod Argent lugging mellotrons and synths into the studio (ala Rick Wakeman) for the multi-part The Coming Of Kohoutek, one can almost picture Ballard sprinting for the back door. As expected, Ballard quit after this album, giving Rod Argent the green light to take the band even deeper into prog-rock nirvana. But after two commercially unsuccessful prog-like albums, Circus and Counterpoints (both unavailable on CD) Rod decided to call it a day and put the whole Argent controversy to rest once and for all. The music world of that era could now rest easy.