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JGuy Grungeman · 07-08-2016, 10:31 AM

Mirage by Camel

Style: Symphonic prog
Release: 1974
Length: 38 min.
Round:Symphonic prog

Believe it or not, I know the keyboardists daughter online. I've been curious about them for a while. Finally, I decided to get to more prog after bragging that I had heard 60-70 prog albums, notr including some of the subgenres. What better place to start than the band I've been most curious about?

Letting myself enjoy the music, it took a minute for me to realize this was not going to be what I expected. I was going for something more symphonic. What I get is weird electronic backgrounds andf a very upbeat tune to begin "Freefall." For five minutes, energy and Pete Pardens lead the music into a very progressive, very cool sound. But a total turnaround appears in "Supertwister." Lead by the most beautiful flute I've ever heard, this soft, soothing, almost jazzy experience really brought out the music-junkie in me. It felt like a supergroup with Mozart, Miles Davis, and Phil Collins. I was pretty sad when it ended. Next came "Nimrodel / The Procession / The White Rider ," which starts off with a very weird guitar techniquew, almost like music to an alien invasion. The flute whistled like the X-Files theme, and it ended with a crowd cheering a parade on. After that, the second movement of this strange musical story goes into a beautiful electric experience with violins to back it up. Other parts include a soft rock experience with beautiful harmonized vocals and a sound effects amalgam played to a deep, cool bass. Truly, this epic is a story in movements, like an anthology film in the form of a wonderful song.

The second side starts with something more simplistic: "Earthrise." If it gets complex later, that's cool as well. Either way, just about every moment of this album has been pretty awesome. This cute little xylophone-esque lullaby has been a great way top start off a song and the second side. And as predicted, it gets more complex. It shifts between the strange lullaby and raw energy with precise timing and excellent musical skill. I've rarely ever heard such skill in composition. I'm almost surprised this group is not a member of the big four. The final track, "Lady Fantasy," starts with a heavy amount of keyboarding, and goes into a soft, summery poem of love. Beautiful. It later goes into a hard rockin', ecstatic collage of guitar solos. And there's still seven and a half minutes to go! We exit this long, ecstatic solo and go into a softer, more sym,phonic and operatic are driven by guitars that play with the samer poetry as a violin and more of Barden's keyboards. This part transcends into a very ambient, post-ropck sound that drags emotion and quality into a whole new level. The vocal poetry begins again speaking of walking on whirlpools, sitting on sunbeams and other cryptic lines than bring a strange sense of vocal psychedelia into the mix. And so, we go into the most raw, energetic, eccentric, and heavy moment on the whole album as the guitars gleefully rock their way through a well-composes piece of grand sloppiness, ending with a short, symphonic fareell until album 3.

This grand album magnificently shifts between the sad and the happy, the soft and the hard, the energy of the sun and the serenity of the moon. In all forms, this album is musical poetry. I'm glad I can finally tell Pete's little Talullah her father was nothing short of magnificent.

Overall, this is one of the best prog albums I've ever heard. It is a collaboration of the whole of music in the form of its own kind of rock opera, a story formed of several epics with no plotline or point other than to entertain through the essence of rock music. I'm gonna have a hard time deciding wether this or Selling England will be my top spot. 100/100.

07-08-2016, 10:31 AM	#214 (permalink)
JGuy Grungeman Primo Celebate Sexiness Join Date: Apr 2014 Posts: 2,662	Mirage by Camel Style: Symphonic prog Release: 1974 Length: 38 min. Round:Symphonic prog Believe it or not, I know the keyboardists daughter online. I've been curious about them for a while. Finally, I decided to get to more prog after bragging that I had heard 60-70 prog albums, notr including some of the subgenres. What better place to start than the band I've been most curious about? Letting myself enjoy the music, it took a minute for me to realize this was not going to be what I expected. I was going for something more symphonic. What I get is weird electronic backgrounds andf a very upbeat tune to begin "Freefall." For five minutes, energy and Pete Pardens lead the music into a very progressive, very cool sound. But a total turnaround appears in "Supertwister." Lead by the most beautiful flute I've ever heard, this soft, soothing, almost jazzy experience really brought out the music-junkie in me. It felt like a supergroup with Mozart, Miles Davis, and Phil Collins. I was pretty sad when it ended. Next came "Nimrodel / The Procession / The White Rider ," which starts off with a very weird guitar techniquew, almost like music to an alien invasion. The flute whistled like the X-Files theme, and it ended with a crowd cheering a parade on. After that, the second movement of this strange musical story goes into a beautiful electric experience with violins to back it up. Other parts include a soft rock experience with beautiful harmonized vocals and a sound effects amalgam played to a deep, cool bass. Truly, this epic is a story in movements, like an anthology film in the form of a wonderful song. The second side starts with something more simplistic: "Earthrise." If it gets complex later, that's cool as well. Either way, just about every moment of this album has been pretty awesome. This cute little xylophone-esque lullaby has been a great way top start off a song and the second side. And as predicted, it gets more complex. It shifts between the strange lullaby and raw energy with precise timing and excellent musical skill. I've rarely ever heard such skill in composition. I'm almost surprised this group is not a member of the big four. The final track, "Lady Fantasy," starts with a heavy amount of keyboarding, and goes into a soft, summery poem of love. Beautiful. It later goes into a hard rockin', ecstatic collage of guitar solos. And there's still seven and a half minutes to go! We exit this long, ecstatic solo and go into a softer, more sym,phonic and operatic are driven by guitars that play with the samer poetry as a violin and more of Barden's keyboards. This part transcends into a very ambient, post-ropck sound that drags emotion and quality into a whole new level. The vocal poetry begins again speaking of walking on whirlpools, sitting on sunbeams and other cryptic lines than bring a strange sense of vocal psychedelia into the mix. And so, we go into the most raw, energetic, eccentric, and heavy moment on the whole album as the guitars gleefully rock their way through a well-composes piece of grand sloppiness, ending with a short, symphonic fareell until album 3. This grand album magnificently shifts between the sad and the happy, the soft and the hard, the energy of the sun and the serenity of the moon. In all forms, this album is musical poetry. I'm glad I can finally tell Pete's little Talullah her father was nothing short of magnificent. Overall, this is one of the best prog albums I've ever heard. It is a collaboration of the whole of music in the form of its own kind of rock opera, a story formed of several epics with no plotline or point other than to entertain through the essence of rock music. I'm gonna have a hard time deciding wether this or Selling England will be my top spot. 100/100. __________________ I'm a pretty nice troll if you ask me.