Camel- Mirage

Briefly, an announcement. Since Italy and France tied in the recent poll, I’ve decided they both win. Each will have a featured month of strictly Italian or French artists towards the end of the year. There will also be a month celebrating prog's 40th anniversary in October.

Camel is one of my favorite prog bands. Their style of symphonic rock is laid back and often veers into a soundtrack-like mode. While some people hold this against the band, I find this quality relaxing and very listenable. Mirage, released in 1974, shows the band in top form, as the first of a power trio, followed by The Snow Goose (1975) and Moonmadness (1976)

Camel evolved out of an earlier band called The Brew. The classic lineup consisted of Andrew Latimer on guitar/vocals/flute, Peter Bardens on keyboards, Doug Ferguson on bass, and Andy Ward on drums. After playing their way through clubs they released a self titled debut in 1973. Latimer and Bardens did most of the writing and led most of the musical direction. After Mirage as the sophmore effort, Camel started to pick up some notoriety, and The Snow Goose broke them internationally. Their success was always moderate, not great. Camel was sometimes mistakenly associated with Camel cigarettes.

Mirage kicks off with one of the greatest songs of all time, “Freefall”. What a masterpiece this is. After fading in, the bass starts hammering away, then guitar and drums join in. After a while, we hit a chorus, sung spaceily by Latimer. The guitar here is heroic and powerfull. “Freefall” moves through other movements that sweep and drive, until returning to the chorus. Then it all comes to a rock n’ roll ending. Fantastic stuff. It’s followed by “Supertwister”, which is a nice little instrumental flute solo. It’s not very technically advanced or anything, but creates a great mystic mood. This is Camel at their most signature soundtrack-like mood. “Nimrodel/ The Procession/ The White Rider” follows it, and it’s a three part suite. Nimrodel consists of Bardens playing some keyboards with quite an electronic tacky sound. The Procession is… Marching music! It strikes me as something you’d expect from the Sultan’s grand parade. Most of this track’s 9:18 length, however, is The White Rider, which has lyrics about the Lord of The Rings (Most specifically Gandalf.) Sort of a hybrid between the prior two songs, this movement is relaxing yet engaging. After it ends, time for Side B.

Next up comes an instrumental, “Earthrise”. This song also follows that spacey, soundtrack like pattern, going through intense movements with keyboard and guitar. “Earthrise” showcases the cohesion of all the players most effectively, and is perhaps the least minimalistic song on Mirage due to the movements constantly changing. Finally, the album’s Tour De Force arrives, “Lady Fantasy” At 12:45, this song takes it’s time working through the sections. This song is Camel’s best known, but I consider it Mirage’s weakest due to too much quiet noodleing around in the middle without going anywhere for a while. The opening has great keyboard work, and a fantastic vocal, after which a hard rock movement also proves itself quite good. Laitmer stars in many parts with his strong guitar work. There’s a part in the middle where mere guitar hum occupies way too much space. The final movements come back in full force, similar to the openers, and close Mirage off with gusto.

Some themes repeat over the course of Mirage. Many of the songs have a brief intro, move into other movements, and cycle back to it. There’s quite a bit of hard-soft-hard progressions also. Camel’s strength lies in Laitmer’s guitar and their ability to create a heavily atmospheric mood, without even the slightest hint of excess.

While there are some very small faults, Mirage’s strengths are overwhelming and creative. One of symphonic prog’s best albums, I give it a Grade of A.