Yes, well, he is the one playing it :-).
Originally Posted by Camelogue
Yes, well, he is the one playing it :-).
Bully!
I pulled the Nathan Mahl CD Heretik Pt. I out pretty much at random yesterday while rooting around in a box of CDs. Had a listen to the first few tracks on the drive to work this morning, and was loving it. I have to admit that while I dutifully bought all the Nathan Mahl stuff as it came out, I didn't keep up with listening to all the Heretik CDs. I'm sure I listened to the first one a couple of times, but it's been so long that it might as well be new.
But it's got a nice bit of a patina to it now that some time has passed, and it almost sounds vintage. Taking the vocals and music into account, the formula I came up with is that it sounds sort of like if you put Minimum Vital, Camel, and VDGG into a blender. A nice brew indeed!
I thought I was the only one who felt that way.
Same here, it was a double CD called "Echoes." I tried to like it; listened to it 4 times before I said, "nah." I liked Latimer's playing a lot, but the music was kind of "prog-lite" to me (and I got lambasted for saying that here several years ago). We can't help but like what we like and dislike what we don't.
I had a Nathan Mahl album (something with "Shadows") that I was lukewarm with, but I have a Guy LeBlanc album called "Subversia" that I liked a lot, so I'm interested in hearing this upcoming release.
Camel definitely has a mellow edge to it (the same that a lot of other Canterbury stuff has - especially Caravan) so it's not for everyone, I guess. I love that mellow edge, personally.
BTW, anyone know if any of the recent live Camel shows have appeared on places like Dime, etc.? I say this even though Guy is on PE, because we will all surely purchase any live shows they see fit to release!
Yeah, I found a lot of it to be kind of "pretty," but there wasn't much contrast to that. Frank Zappa once said something along the lines of that music with no dissonance is like watching a movie where there's only good guys. Camel's stuff struck me like that. The tunes I liked best sounded a bit like Genesis, but not as potent. Oh well, sorry, Camel fans!
I agree in general -- not many minor chords in Camel songs.
In general I think the psych element in the Mirage album served them really well and I was sorry to see it go. But it's just not who they were. The fusion thing happening in Moonmadness and Raindances was more natural for them, but even that disappeared with Bardens' and Sinclair's departures. The Stationary Traveller album is surprisingly dark, but the 80s was not a good time to be dabbling in darkness.
I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.
Wow, our experiences with Camel were EXACTLY the same, right down to the "prog-lite" description, and yes, it was the Echoes set.
Not the same with Nathan Mahl though, as I love "Clever Use of Shadows", my favorite of theirs. And I like the most recent one, "Exodus". Can't think of another band doing an album to the story of Moses, pretty interesting.
That's ok - it just leaves more Camel for the rest of us!
I actually do think there's enough dissonance in Camel - I think it comes mainly from Latimer's use of the tremolo. Ok, not a lot, but there's a little dirtiness in the guitar sometimes. But overall I guess it's very English sounding and not very harsh.
It's all about emotion, feeling and atmosphere really. Just what music is to me. Love Camel! And Nathan Mahl too!
Last edited by Hour Candle; 01-31-2014 at 05:12 PM.
Speaking of which...
Nathan Mahl's Justify is finally in pre-order mode. Secure your signed copy by going to http://www.unicorndigital.net/#!pres...than-mahl/cspz .
Official release date of the disc is June 1st, 2014.
GL
Bully again.
Apparently Guy had been asking him for years. Finally, one day, Andy said to Guy: "Maybe I should reconsider...some of your demands".
"Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."
-Cozy 3:16-
As much as I like and respect Latimer, I seriously don't think Camel ever created anything as uniformly fabulous as Nathan Mahl's Clever Use of Shadows, which for my money was one of the finest "symph fusion" albums of the past 15-20 years. What a pity that the original version remains in the dark - and what a wonder that I got it on release.
Did Nathan Mahl release anything at all past the Heretik trilogy (which I also enjoy)?
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
I don't think Guy released anything on par with "Clever Use Of Shadows", so the short answer to your query is "no".
Last edited by Yves; 05-08-2014 at 03:48 PM.
"Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."
-Cozy 3:16-
Formidable!
I got me a cd of The Clever Use Of Shadows and I love it. I also have Parallel Eccentricities,Shadows Unbound,Live at Nearfest 1999 and Exodus.
After the HERETIK trilogy, I re-did the Shadows album with the original line-up of the band (2003), and then Exodus in 2008.
And now the new one Justify. You can hear samples of it on the Unicorn Digital website.
Cheers,
Guy L
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