Nattura - Magic Key (Japan Remastered, SHM-CD) (1972/2020)

Seminal Prog band from Iceland, led by its founding members guitarist Bjorgvin Gislason and bassist Sigurdur Arnason.They came together in late-60's with Rafn Haraldsson on drums and later Jonas Jonsson, Sigurdur Runar Jonsson and Petur Kristjansson (future Svanfríður) on flute, violin/keyboards and vocals respectively.They became very popular, playing in local clubs, but this core lasted only until 1971.Gislason and Arnason remained the only members and a new formation was gathered with drummer Olafur Gardarsson, guitarist Johann Johansson and percussionist Askell Masson.In 1972 a couple of more line-up changes occured, Masson and Johansson were out and female singer Shady Owens as well as keyboardist Karl Sighvatsson joined Nattura.They traveled to London and in October 72' they recorded their debut ''Magic key'' at the Orange Studios, released independently later in the year.

Nattura played the typical cross-styled Psychedelic Rock many acts in the country at the time loved to play, they added some complex instrumental tricks, poppy sensibilities and a few harder edges and eventually came up with an interesting sound, which was fairly rooted in a typical guitar/organ-driven model, yet bursts some mood for personal ideas and more emphatic arrangements.You can hear influences from DEEP PURPLE, CURVED AIR and CZAR in the process, that means electrified riffs, lots of organ instrumentals, psychedelic tunes and superb female vocals are all present in a tasteful music full of solos and light jams, starting from sharp and energetic rhythms and pyrotechnics and ending up in more harmonic or soft textures.The album is a bit incosistent despite some fine ideas and decent songwriting, some pieces are standard Heavy/Hard Rock with unsurprising moments and do not sit very well next to the refined or more demanding compositions.Love the short and almost GENESIS-sounding title track with its lyrical and naughty atmosphere, while ''Butterfly'' is a magnificent instrumental with dramatic keyboard developments, excellent KAIPA-styled guitars and soft piano lines, very Scandinavian sounding regarding its progressive content.The more hard-rockin' tunes are still enjoyable, but fail to deliver some sort of originality, a few electric explosions along with the unexpected organ and synth leaks are some of the better moments of these pieces.