TODAY'S ALBUM: No.15 (9th November 2011)

'Mirage' 

by Camel
(1974)

Producing several albums worth of lush and melodic music during the genre's peak years, Camel, a talented outfit who have enjoyed a career spanning thirty-plus years, were perhaps the atypical symphonic-styled progressive rock group. Unlike many of their colleagues they used both guitar and keyboards with equal measure, and their sound is probably best described as a variation on the Pink Floyd school of rock, with emotive themes and long instrumental passages a feature of much of their best work.
Formed out of the ashes of The Brew, a Guildford-based trio featuring Andrew Latimer(guitar, vocals), Doug Ferguson(bass) and Andy Ward(drums), Camel would come into being with the addition of Peter Bardens(keyboards), a former solo artist with an American-only release on his resume who had also played with Van Morrison's pop-psych group Them. After signing to MCA Records in 1972 the group issued their self-titled, London-recorded debut before supporting Wishbone Ash on a brief British tour designed to take their music to a wider audience. 'Camel', however, was not the kind of success the label were hoping for and MCA quickly lost interest in the foursome, who subsequently joined Decca Records progressive imprint Deram the following year. Deram, a label designed to look after rock groups with a more leftfield approach, seemed to take better care of their charges and, wisely pairing the group with producer David Hitchcock, who had previously overseen albums by the likes of both Genesis and Caravan, resulted in the group producing 'Mirage' in 1974, an album often ranked as one of the finest expressions of symphonic progressive music and, alongside the following years 'Moonmadness', one of the undoubted highlight of Camel's career. The fact that 'Mirage' was the first Camel album to chart in the USA, where it reached the-not-so-lofty position of 149, showed that there was an appetite for the group's music outside of their home nation, whilst also demonstrating a new found confidence in the group that was not apparent on their moody and introspective debut, an album that featured some fine individual pieces yet somehow lacked the fire and energy of 'Mirage'.
This new found streak is best exemplified on such tracks as the pacey, Bardens-penned opener 'Freefall', a track that emerges after a few seconds of mystical effects with a driving beat and fragmented guitar breaks courtesy of Latimer, and the sumptuous 'Lady Fantasy Suite', a four-part epic that breathlessly gallops through a medley of shifting tempos and time signatures. All the while underscored by a deceptively-heavy rock style, 'Mirage' equally displays the individual members impressive skills, breaking from moments of grand instrumental verve into lighter, more jocular sections without scuppering the overall symphonic feel. The group's softer, more psychedelic side also comes out on the mid-paced 'Supertwister', a song that showcases Latimer's classy flute runs floating over droplets of Bardens gently-played keyboards. Towards it's denouement 'Supertwister' briefly picks up the pace before marching band music interrupts, builds slowly, and finally makes way for another dreamy guitar solo on  'Nimrodel', a nine-minute two-parter backed with the elegiac 'The Procession' that features enough sections to fill an album, never mind a single song. However, it is the aforementioned 'Lady Fantasy Suite' that finds Camel at their most impressive, weaving an ambitious multi-part composition that, for the most, eschews the part of vocals and instead concentrates on atmosphere, delivering a scintillating twelve minutes filled with vibrant alchemistic rock.
From beginning to end 'Mirage' resolutely refuses to settle into one single mood or tempo, the foursome constantly linking together disparate sections of symphonic rock with psych-tinged medley's and bluesy embellishments whilst never losing focus of each individual pieces structure. A refined and highly-melodic brand of progressive rock, 'Mirage' is a prime example of the genre at it's most adventurous and accessible, and an album that from beginning to end shines with the luminous appeal of lushly-produced psychedelia. Drenched in flowing keyboards, sumptuous guitars and spiked with a boundless energy typical of youthful and highly-creative musicians, 'Mirage' is very much Camel's most complete performance.


Key songs: Nimrodel, Lady Fantasy Suite