Camel 5.1

Fifty years ago today, Frank Zappa’s inimitable, groundbreaking first solo album, Hot Rats, was released, putting the songwriter and musician on the map as a virtuosic guitarist and changing the course of music forever with its conceptual, compositional and technological innovations. Self-described as a “movie for your ears,” the mostly instrumental 1969 album was a new musical avenue for Zappa following the dissolution of his band The Mothers Of Invention as he melded the sophistication of jazz with the attitude of rock and roll to create a highly influential masterpiece widely hailed today as a pioneering album of jazz-rock fusion.

This is the first CAMEL album. Surprisingly progressive, a bit like early FOCUS, although maybe less hard rock (the electric guitar is slightly more shy). The keyboards are mostly floating and rythmic organ full of effects, and some mellotron, piano and VCS3 parts. The bass is quite present and rather complex. There are tons of sophisticated drums. The lead vocals are very good, as always. You listen the early CAMEL mainly because of the outstanding keyboards. ~ greenback

Frank Zappa - The Hot Rats Sessions (2019) {6CD Set, Zappa Records ZR20032 rec 1969}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.83 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.03 Gb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 167 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1969, 2019 Zappa Records / UMe | ZR20032
Rock / Experimental Rock / Jazz Rock / Art Rock

Official Release #115. If there is one record you must listen to is HR, and this treasure of sounds and images is full of FZ musicanship and creation, really a masterpiece here for the first time in its whole dimension, fine fine music as FZ used to say. The Hot Rats Sessions box set celebrates the 50th anniversary of one of the greatest albums in the history of recorded music. The original 1969 Frank Zappa album was the first record to be recorded on a prototype 16-Track Tape Machine. Self-described as a "Movie For Your Ears," it was technically the second solo outing for the composer and the album that put FZ on the map as a guitar player.

Camel's classic period started with The Snow Goose, an instrumental concept album based on a novella by Paul Gallico. Although there are no lyrics on the album – two songs feature wordless vocals – the music follows the emotional arc of the novella's story, which is about a lonely man named Rhayader who helps nurse a wounded snow goose back to health with the help of a young girl called Fritha he recently befriended. Once the goose is healed, it is set free, but Fritha no longer visits the man because the goose is gone.

Double LP published by Decca in 1976 containing their albums "Mirage" & "The Snow Goose"...

This 2013 edition of their classic ‘Snow Goose’ album has been completely & lovingly Re-Recorded & Re-Packaged by Andy Latimer & co.!…

Fantastic comeback by Latimer & Company, witnessing his splendid "Harbour of Tears Tour". The title track is unforgettable, as well as those ones from the concept album based upon the novel by J. Steimback'd "The Grapes of Wrath", that is "Dust and Dreams", the definitive imprinting of CAMEL in the early nineties…

This 2013 edition of their classic ‘Snow Goose’ album has been completely & lovingly Re-Recorded & Re-Packaged by Andy Latimer & co.! Inspired by a short story written by Paul Gallico, this beautiful album was one of the band’s most popular releases, and it has been lovingly Re-Recorded by the 2013 line-up to coincide with their autumn European comeback tour.