Camel- The Snow Goose

After Mirage, the classic Camel lineup of Laitimer, Feurgeson, Bardens, and Ward wanted to tackle their most ambitious project yet. The Snow Goose is based on the novel of the same name by Paul Gallico, a romance novel set in world war two that's evidently very popular in Britain. However, the band decided to make a completely instrumental work. In essence, it's a rock opera without a spoken story (a rock ballet, perhaps?), leaving the listener to be absorbed by Barden's Keyboards and Laitimer's guitars and flute.

With 16 small tracks, it would be pointless to try and do my usual by-the-song style review for The Snow Goose. This album has a very beautiful, serene feel to it. From the opening of "The Great Marsh" forward, this album if planted firmly in the steamy, ethereal keyboards from Pete Bardens. With warm Hammonds and icy grand pianos, the emotional depth of the work is firmly planted here. The flute work here is also great, especially on "Rhayader", layering on further emotion. The guitar stays mostly in the background, but when they come out the action is wonderfully advanced. Its often acoustic in nature. As for the rhythm section, they don't really get a whole lot to do.

This album is a textbook example of symphonic prog, with a good deal of classical influence while still managing to remain firmly in the rock camp. Packed with virtuoso playing and lots of heart, The Snow Goose offers a lot of stuff for the proghead to love. Try to find a live version online- it's a lot more aggressive and has it's own distinct feel!

Everything here blends together, and it's a great piece of symphonic prog work. Grade: A

5 Great Pink Floyd Philisophical Moments

There are just so many Pink Floyd songs with deeply intellectual bent. More than just about any Prog artist, the Floyd are always ones to make you think a bit. Here are 5 of the best examples.

"Echoes" (Meddle)
Seeing as its parent album was a dress rehearsal for the greatness ahead, its fitting that its side long crowning achievement is also. Echoes has many themes about isolation, degradation of society by time, and just going through life without really living it. A perfect piece to all of the existentialism to follow suit.

"Time" (Dark Side of the Moon)
The message is pretty strait forward, and has been done over and over again in all forms of the arts, but it's a true as ever. Make the most of your time so you don't end up looking back and regretting things.

"Brain Damage" (Dark Side of the Moon)
This song is narrated by a lunatic, going through how he's not himself and not everything adds up within his head. If we think hard enough, however, we realize there's a bit of a madman in every one of us, and they really aren't that mad after all. Great little piratical joke by Waters here.

The Animals Album

I've already outlined a lot of the philosophy going on here in my review of the album, but there's just so much depth here. It's defiantly the most cynical and abrasive Floyd album, jamming us all into negative stereotypes and picking them apart.

"The Trial" (The Wall)

The culmination of the middle of the road rock opera this album is defiantly drives home some points. More or less, they're all variations of "Be an individual, but don't shun the rest of society."

Yes-Relayer

It's been ages since I've done a Yes album on here. Let's fix that. Due to the major personality clashes within the band, Rick Wakeman decided to leave Yes after the prior album, Tales from Topographic Oceans, leaving the much more permanent fixtures of Anderson, Howe, Squire, and White to find a new keyboardist. The lucky individual turned out to be Patrick Moraz, a Swiss keyboardist. In 1974, the band created Relayer, yet another album with all of those Yes touches, but with its own little quirks.

This album has a side-long epic on the A side, called "The Gates of Delirium." Anderson supplies lyrics with a lot clearer message than regular, and this track is clearly a war epic. The song starts out with a two minute keyboard workout. Moraz' style is a bit more modest than Wakeman's, but is just as good. Then the vocal comes in, and all of the Yes elements come together in good old fashion. Squire does the best at leaving an impression in here, but they keyboard Bridges do a fine job also. There are many movements during this song, and they all have a 4/4 or 6/4 time signature and similar chord structures, but the melody varies vastly. After about the 8:00 mark, Anderson stops, and the song goes into an instrumental powerhouse. Howe really does the shining here, and his ever adaptable guitar has one of a few career highs here. The style of this section is all about going for a massive wall of sound. At the 15 minute mark, everything screeches to a halt and becomes a slow, "after the battle" type song. This section was originally a separate song called "Soon." Anderson sings some sappy vocals, and it all draws to a close. While it ends with a whimper, the beginning sure is a bang.

Side B has pair of nine-minute tracks, starting with "Sound Chaser", which gets so crazy that it more or less lacks a time signature in parts off the song. The title is apt. The keyboard work here is terrific, and very frenzied. "Sound Chaser" also has a nice bouncy rhythm, and Howe has a very nice guitar solo. The finale is called "To Be Over". This song is much slower in tempo, and is very simplistic. It almost reminds me of a lullaby at parts. There's some tacky 70's production and touches. The musicians don't stand out, and overall this is just not all that good. It fails to live up to the other two tracks on this album.

Relayer is something of a schizophrenic record. Between the chaos of the beginnings of the record sides and the sereneness of the second portions, Relayer struggles to find that consistent grove that can be seen on Close to the Edge or Fragile. However, there is a lot to like here, with a variety of strong players (especially the underrated Moraz, who unfortunately was not a good live keyboardist), just doing what feels right at the time. Each ones gets their fair share of space, and takes their performances to a great level of proficiency. After this album, Yes went on a 3 year hiatus, and all the members released solo albums.

While not the best Yes album out there, Relayer has much to offer and is an album you should have in your Prog collection. Grade: B+

Arcadium- Breathe Awhile

Here we have a lost gem from the proto-prog era. Arcadium was a British psych/prog band, and besides a single that was included as bonus tracks, this 1969 album is their only piece of work. Its lineup consisted of Miguel Sergides (12-string guitar, vocals), Graham Best (bass, vocals), Allan Ellwood (organ, vocals), Robert Ellwood (lead guitar, vocals), and John Albert Parker (drums). Breathe Awhile straddles the fence between the heavy psychedelic rock bands like Cream or Spirit and a heavier version of symphonic prog.

Things kick off with the 11 minute "I'm On My Way". It starts out with twangy, airy guitars, before heading into a long section led by distorted guitar and keyboard effects. The whole thing is a little dizzy, but captures a fairly epic feel. The vocals don't come in until 6 minutes into the song, and they're pretty typical late 60's psychedelic rock fare. Overall, the song is addictive due to its trance-like beat. Next, "Poor Lady" provides the listener with an ahead of its time short-form Prog song. The bass beat is very catchy, and this stuff would rub off and become used by many prog bands like Birth Control and Magma in years to come. The last track on side A is "Walk on the Bad Side", which is a psychedelic jam. It's good stuff, and it's a sort of prog with no classical or jazz influences.

Continuing on, "Woman of a Thousand Years" is a quick psychedelic rock track. It's a bit forgettable. "Change Me" is similar to "Poor Lady", but not quite as memorable. Afterward, the pop-prog song "It Takes a Woman" makes a nice impression. This is the only track with standout drumming, and the guitar is also very strong. The album wraps up with "Birth, Life, and Death". This track is the most progressive on the album, with some a fusion feel, and many elements in common with the heavy prog bands from '70-'72. The guitar solos here remind me a bit of Wishbone Ash on a single guitar. This one appeases both psych ad prog fans, and is defiantly a grand finale for this record.

Breathe Awhile is a solid proto-prog album. It's got lots of progressive feel, especially in the keyboard sections. You can defiantly feel the impending transition to Prog going on here. However, the production quality on the album is rather poor, sounding too claustrophobic and fuzzy. Additionally, the averageness of many B-Side tracks hold the record down. Despite this, Arcadium does an admirable job, and this album is strong enough to warrant attention.

Psychedelic and Progressive rock are like two peas in a pod, and this album displays that very effectively with much to offer. Grade: B+

Prog Rock Britania

Hey everyone. I'm really busy working on final papers and tests for school right now, so I don't have time to write a decent review or article this week. Instead, I'm going to link you to a fantastic Prog Rock Documentary the BBC recently released. It focuses a lot on Proto-Prog, and only covers Britain, but it's got a nice who's who of British Prog and I hope you enjoy it!