Camel rain dances zip

Listening to Rain Dances it sounds like Peter has gotten a whole new keyboard rack. Metrognome is one of my favorite Camel songs. Beautiful simple melody line and a symphonic instrumental chorus.

Tell Me is very beautiful and has a great vocal melody. Simple as Camel has always been but nevertheless beautiful. Unevensong is another favorite of mine. This is one of the most progressive songs Camel have ever made IMO.

Great vocals, beutiful symphonic arrangements and excellent playing. One of these Days I'll get an early night is an instrumental song with some beautiful melodic soloing. Elke is a subtle beautiful intrumental song with ethnic folky hints only hints though. Skylines is another instrumental song with a melodic guitar theme which starts and ends the songs and a great Peter Bardens keyboard solo in the middle.

Really enjoyable. The album ends with the title track which is another instrumental. Good but nothing special. I think I hear themes from the other songs played here. The musicianship on Rain Dances is very special.

There is a certain magic here. Just great performances all around. The production is wonderful. Some might not enjoy the more eighties like production but I find it beautiful. Camel has made one of their best albums here. Let me put it this way: Rain Dances right now tops the list of my favorite Camel albums over both Mirage and Moonmadness who I used to count as my favorites. The sound builds with prominant synths lots of synths on this album.

The tempo picks up a minute in. Great sound. Nice bass as well. Mel Collins who guests on this record offers up some good sax 4 minutes in. Fortunately it changes to a much better sound. That contrast continues though. The tempo picks up 2 minutes in with sax. Lots of background synths. I hated it from the first time I heard it. A calm after 3 minutes before it kicks back in to end it. Nice ending. The last four songs are instrumentals.

It has it's moments though, as Latimer plays some excellent guitar. Lots of synths too. Orchestral sounding intro is joined by flute. Lots of synths follow. I have listened to it lots, but i'm just not sold. Camel had entered ''the fall of Prog'' period in a slightly different manner than most Prog bands had; Genesis with And Then There Were Three moved to a simpler Prog style; Yes with Tormato, made a vegetable disaster, while not Pop, it was quite lacking of their epicness and the sound overall was horrid; ELP was messing with orchestras and finally concluding with a total swift in musical direction with Love Beach; Pink Floyd was still in their gold period, however, they were changing too to a darker realm dominated by Waters; Gentle Giant was doing no good, and so on.

Camel, on the other hand, while they had diminished their "prog quotient", they still featured their melancholic sound plus new features like up-lifting melodies and very jazzy rhythms.

Camel brought new members for this record, but not ANY new members, these were Richard Sinclair, "the voice of Canterbury", with his beautiful voice and great bass playing, and Mel Collins, a well-recocgnised sax player from the Prog world.

These inducted their obvious main influence to Camel's music, which is Jazz Fusion , even though Camel always had a jazzy touch due to Peter Bardens' organ style. So Rain Dances is made up with a fairly new sound compared to Camel previous works. The popular Highways of the Sun is an ingenious mixture of the freshly acquired mainstream sensibilities and jazzy ones, making a fairly enjoyable song, and actually very impressive for being a single.

Then there's Unevensong, which is certainly uneven because it can easily be divided in two different halfs: the first half being the mainstream part compromised by a Supertramp-esque keyboard riff with a very jazzy bass and rythm, while the other half of the song features a Floydish melancholic moment for a while which then turns out to be a decent guitar solo with the rhythm section backing up greatly. The opener, First Light, while featuring some up-lifting melodies which make it feel pretty mainstream, it still is a fantastic instrumental with some very notable instrumentation, specially Peter's echoey and spacey keyboards.

Yes, that's as much as the mainstream sensibilities go, which as you may notice they're not even present in a whole track all-through, so there.

Then you got the totally Fusion-esque tracks. One of These Days I'll Get an Early Night being one of my favorites Camel tunes, it opens with a simple though grabbing rhythm made by Richard and Andy, Peter soon enters with his so pleasant spacey keys and then the instrumental really begins together with Andy's melancholic guitar playing.

The tune stays with that rhythm all-through while some of the musicians start to solo; Peter delivering an incredibly up-lifting keyboard solo which has a bit of groove; Mel Collins soon follows and delivers a fantastic solo too; finally Andy finishes the show greatly with his guitar. For more Fusion-alike, the other instrumental entitled Skylines, with it's killer bass line and showing a vast improvement over Andy Wards' drumming, though the main attraction is the impressive performance of Bardens' synths.

This should definitely please any jazz fusion lover. Then finally, there's some hope for die-hard fans of Moonmadness, with the tunes Elke and Tell Me, both played in a slow and melancholic manner, even the flute makes a reappearance in both. Metrognome however, is a mix of Camel's prog roots and the new jazzy side.

The first half being melancholic, but not necessary slow, while the second half is a masterful jazzy instrumental part, in the strength of Skylines and One of these Days I'll get an Early Night, with again a killer bass line, as well as great sax playing, and finally ending up with a sparkling guitar solo.

As for the last track from Rain Dances, the title track, I never understood what was it's purpose. It's a decent instrumental orchestrated by Peter's keyboards, but it really doesn't fit the album's either jazzy or slightly mainstream style.

All in all, an easy album to get into and a difficult one to rate since it's definitely not the Symphonic Prog Camel people are accustomed to, since Latimer's guitar is by all means less frequent, Bardens killer organ is gone though replaced by very nice floating keys and synths, while Ward's drums are great like in Moonmadness, nothing spectacular, but he knows what to do when and how efficiently. As for the new members, Sinclair and Collins, they definitely contributed a lot and made this Camel album what it is, a smoother and groovier Camel, but never taking off Camel's original brilliancy for composing and playing, and that's why the result is great and unique, something that will not happen with the following record, Breathless.

A very unexpected release which is nonetheless an excellent Camel album due to having achieved a fairly new sound while still maintaining Camel's instrumental and compositional strength and uniqueness. Fans of Moonmadness' jazzy features will get a great kick out of this. First Light continues where Moonmadness ended, with the introduction of fretless bass and saxophone it adds some slightly jazzy influences into the sound.

Especially the spacey middle section is very charming. If the opening track had made you hope for another excellent Camel album, Metrognome will probably shatter your hopes. Especially the sung part is very poor. With this level of sleepiness, a song really needs stronger melodies in order to work. The second half is instrumental and works better but it fades out before it gets really interesting.

Tell Me is mellower then what you thought total drowsy mellowness could ever be, but still it somehow works for me. Highways of the Sun however is shockingly horrible. Easily one of the annoying pop songs I've ever heard. Unevensong is better but again the vocals are disappointing.

Most people will agree that singing was never Camel's main asset but still I enjoyed it on Mirage and Moodmadness. Here it sounds as insecure and lethargic as on the debut. One of these Days and Skylines are songs where Camel embraces elements of fusion into their sound. I wouldn't say it's much of an improvement. If you want fusion, there's lots of better albums from that era and if you want Camel, you're better off without this gluey take on fusion in their sound.

Elke is a dreamy romantic piece for flute. Very moody and quite nice. Rain Dances closes the album and recapitulates the themes of the opening track. On a stronger album this would have been a very nice final touch. Here, it is ok but given how disjointed this album is, it doesn't accomplish the effect it tried to achieve.

Inconsistent is the best way to describe the record. The first two songs are quite nice. First Light and Metrognome are an excellent start to the album. Interesting rhythms abound in this track. Elke has a very Eno influenced sound, as it should. Skylines , a fusion piece, is much more complex than it's delicate tone lets on, Mostly due to Andrew latimer's fine bass work. And Rain Dances has an almost Tangerine Dream feel to it. All in all, I like this a lot more now than I did when I bought it.

And does anyone else here have the LP on the "Janus" label? The logo in color on the record label looks good, but on the white logo on the cover and inner sleeve, you can hardly see the "J", giving it a different meaning. Doug Ferguson was a prog bassist while Sinclair is more influenced by the jazz. And this is where the band was going after Moonmadness.

This album is made of some average good old-fashioned songs like "First Light", "Skyline" and "Unevensong" but has also some poor in my opinion tracks like "Metrognome", "Tell Me" and "Highway Of The Sun".

This is what I mean for cloning the poppy side of Caravan. A mention goes to the ambient effort of Brian Eno in "Elke" that's one of the highlights and to the symphonic title track.

Not bad, but if I want to listen to some fusion a Camel album is not the first place where I search. Not a bad album, at least not as bad as some things that will follow it. It has the merit to be distinctive of the Camel's sound of that period, but it's not the album that I would suggest to somebody who approaches Camel for the first time.

I like it because I'm a fan and a completist, but to be honest it's a 2. Will you listen 'till the end or will you stamp the eject button with your foot? Man, back in the old days, some guys in their basement must've sweared against this record; some echo of their profanities is still roaming in space including the record's sleeve, orbiting gently around the earth.

I thought:' Hey, I love Moodmadness, this cannot be that bad! Good news, it's easier to spot the good from the bad, thing that will no longer occur in the future for Andy Latimer. Calm and peaceful songs like Tell Me, lots of cool cat jazzy mid-tempo tracks and some jaw dropping melodies like Elke, First Light or Rain Dances are worth listening. Definitely not worthy of all the rotten tomatoes thrown at it. First Light was clearly written to be an album opener.

This 5 minute instrumental completely delivers. The song structure is surprisingly simple by Camel standards, but the melodies are fantastic.

For those expecting a cheesy pop song on this supposedly 'commercial' album, then you will be pleasantly surprised by this. First Light segues neatly into Metrognome , which is quite a quirky little tune. We get to hear Sinclair sing some rather cryptic lyrics in the first half of the song, before it completely changes to a fun instrumental.

It's a very odd little song, but enjoyable nonetheless. Tell Me is more melancholy in nature. The music is dominated by keyboards and bass guitar, with a flute solo appearing halfway through. This song is not very proggy, and unfortunately not very interesting either. The most commercial song on this album is Highways of the Sun. With a shamelessly poppy feel to both the verses and the choruses, the experimental instrumental makes this song slightly more musically interesting.

If you're looking for a guilty pleasure song though, this might just be the song for you. On a side note, the reissue of this album mistakenly titles this track Highways To The Sun , which sounds like a far more interesting song!

After the extremely poppy feel of Highways of the Sun , Unevensong returns Camel to a very proggy sound. There are many time signature changes in this strange track, and many mood changes. Whenever I listen to this, I'm always pleasantly surprised by actually how good it is, technically and musically. The quibble I have with this song is that the lyrical parts are rather unmemorable, and thus the song is less enjoyable, but the outro to this song is a very good reason for listening to it.

That is, in fact, the last vocals you'll hear on the album. The final four tracks are all entirely instrumental. I don't think so. The track starts off in good form, and continues at it's leisurely pace for the entire track. We hear a keyboard solo, followed by a sax solo and finally a guitar solo, played over the same pattern.

While the music is very listenable, there is little of 'prog' interest about this song. Elke is a slow, ambient instrumental, which is augmented by Latimer's flute. This piece is very relaxing and pretty, but doesn't feel too progressive either. What you want is excitement, and Skylines certainly quenches some of your progressive thirst. The sound is one that progheads will feel more comfortable with. The technicality of the playing is remarkable and the flow of the song is also great, but it is nowhere near as gripping as First Light.

Rain Dances is a light instrumental that uses the same theme from First Light as it's outro. This gives a more cohesive feel to an otherwise directionless album. This track is quite pretty, but not very interesting. Although 'Rain Dances' is not as commercial as some people give it credit, it does have a few flaws. Firstly, the album feels quite directionless, as if the band are once again trying to find their sound with their new bandmates.

Secondly, all the instrumentals lumped at the end of the album does not help, as it makes the album feel lopsided. Finally, I can't quite put my finger on why these tracks sound generally less interesting than those on previous albums.

The great musicianship is there but the compositions really don't excite me, although in my opinion, First Light is just as amazing as anything the band ever did.

There are enough good moments to make this album a worthwhile listen, but this is a band on decline. Camel is one of my favorite symphonic progressive rock bands. The band arrived late in the scene with their excellent but not yet masterful debut in ' After a string of four great albums the band found it's Waterloo with this release from ' With some of the tasteful composition qualities still around the band gave in to up-coming sympho-pop standards of it's time.

Perhaps a logical step for a band that has had to cope with financial difficulties and the usual problems with record companies. However, this results in an album that's a bit of a mixed bag, with an emphasis on the less interesting material for fans of progressive rock that is. The sterile 'somewhere out there' sound of the album doesn't help either.

The opening track 'First Light' still captures the momentum of the tame but beautiful and intelligent 'Moon Madness'-album of the year before. We get to listen to well recorded, adventurous instrumental sounds and nice composition. After that the musical properties decline at a fast rate with a string of less interesting songs with mediocre song-writing with semi-interesting instrumental passages.

On side two Camel regains my interest with 'Unevensong' that has slightly more to offer for fans of symphonic progressive rock. After that I find 'One of these days I'll get an early night' particularly hard to digest because of it's supermarket atmosphere. This time Latimer can't save the track with a good guitar solo, that he should have played on another song that's worthwhile in it's totality.

In this setting it sounds a bit meaningless and out of place. To bad non of the melodies are interesting, as if it was written to be on the background. Finally, the title track 'Rain Dances' opens with a rendition of the main theme of the opening track in a dated symphonic fashion. A weak ending track. This is the kind of record that does not have enough good moments to compensate for its weak moments. Only 'First Light' and 'Unevensong' are good enough to be mentioned here.

To be honest with you, I prefer the up-coming 'Breathless' album because that album actually does have songs that really touch me and this album passes me by without notice. I have to give a two star rating here and I'm not going to put this record in my collection.

The decision to change the Camel sound for a more commercial one doesn't mean the album is stuffed with attempts at hit singles, mind; First Light is a five minute instrumental workout which teases out the best of the new lineup, whilst Metrognome enchantingly blends the styles of Camel and Richard Sinclair's old bandmates in Caravan to take things in a more whimsical direction.

As a result of the rather varied and, at points, inconsistent sound of the album, it took Rain Dances a bit longer to grow on me than Camel's outright classics. The fact is that Rain Dances is a transitional album with a dose of all the problems which usually haunt transitional albums - it's not a pure example of Camel's more commercial direction, and it's not a pure example of Camel's prior direction either.

It's from here on in where the Camel story runs into a few humps - though for my money, whilst this isn't a peak of Camel's output, it's a pretty solid album which bridges the gap between the s symphonic prog scene it emerged from and the s neo-prog scene Camel would pave the way for.

Camel is a band who always took a very own path and they never were inferior to the most of the other greatest bands. They are respected and appreciated and they also continue influencing many other bands with different styles of music, even today. For instance, Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth often mentions that he has suffered many influences from bands like Camel. Camel is a band that needs to be discovered, especially the albums of their classic period. This is the album that marks the first changes into the line up of the band, ending with their classic line up and also with their classic musical era.

After the stability of their first four studio albums, their bassist and founder member Doug Fergusson, quit the band soon after the release of their previous fourth studio album "Moonmadness" released in His replacement was made by Richard Sinclair an ex-Caravan's member. To complete the transformation of the usual line up, the group had the addition of other musician, the saxophonist Mel Collins an ex-King Crimson's member. This transformation in the line up of the band brought a certain change on Camel's sound, making it more experimental, relaxing and much closer to the jazz style.

The album has also some participation of Brian Eno, the ex-Roxy Music's member, on the keyboards. The first track "First Light" written by Peter Bardens and Andrew Latimer is an inspired and fantastic instrumental piece of music that represents a great opening to the album. It's also the first time that we can listen to a sax on a Camel's album, and I would say, what a great job was made by Collins all over the album. The second track "Metrognome" written by Bardens and Latimer is another fantastic song with a very calm and beautiful beginning and which becomes progressively more complex and experimental, with some jazz influences.

The third track "Tell Me" written by Bardens and Latimer is a very calm, delicate and beautiful ballad with a fine Latimer's flute working. This is a song that makes us dreaming. It's a song with a more commercial mood and with some pop characteristics, but with a final touch of Camel's sound.

It's a good example how to make a good pop song by a progressive band. The fifth track "Unevensong" written by Bardens, Latimer and Andy Ward is a song with great musical variations. It's really a pretty good and brilliant song. This is a song with a lot of breaks and tempo changes and has also great Latimer's guitar solos.

It's clearly a piece of music with great jazz influence. The seventh track "Elke" written by Latimer is practically a Latimer's solo piece of music, featuring the usual excellent electronic experimentation by Eno.

It's a very nice, peaceful and atmospheric instrumental song. The eighth track "Skylines" written by Bardens, Latimer and Ward is another instrumental song with great jazz influences. It's also a good musical number very well performed by all members of the group. The ninth track is the title track "Rain Dances".

It was written by Bardens and Latimer and is a reprise of the opener track. It's the smallest song on the album and is a very good instrumental track, almost very classic. It represents a natural and a great ending to this excellent musical working. Conclusion: First of all, in addition to the changes into their line up, "Rain Dances" is an album released in the punk era. A time where to be a progressive group was the same of being an old dinosaur.

A time where many record labels and critics had completely turned their backs to the progressive rock. So, it was in that context that was born this Camel's album. Anyway and despite these changes, "Rain Dances" is really a great album. It's very consistent, but unfortunately, isn't a masterpiece. However, I'm not one of those who consider this album as a weak point in Camel's discography. This is a very well balanced piece of music with great moments, and the musical change of their sound is very enjoyable and flows gracefully from the beginning to the end.

In my humble opinion, in the progressive rock, the groups can change and evolve their music. I also think that the presence of some new band's members in a group is also a very good thing, especially if they are great musicians and experienced artists. They can bring something new. Prog is my Ferrari. I got the privilege today to share this great album with my girlfriend who has been enjoying some of my favorite Prog classics along with me for about 2 years now.

Revisiting this album after about 25 years prooved two things: 1. I still remember and know it surprisingly well 2. It's exceptionaly good album! I rate it higher now then I used to. With Ferguson gone, Rain Dances was the fifth studio album by the English progressive rock group Camel. It was originally released in and brought a major change in the band's lineup by replacing bassist Doug Ferguson with ex Caravan member Richard Sinclair and adding saxophonist Mel Collins formerly of King Cr Report this review Posted by thesimilitudeofprog Wednesday, September 30, Review Permanlink.

Camel's fifth album, the first with newcomer Richard Sinclair from Caravan and Mel Collins in a permanent position in the winds. To me, this album marked a turning point for Camel. The band and the music would never be the same after this, and it would never recover its initial glory. That does Rain Dances marks a more polished and commercial appeal of the band although there are still enough pure progressive rock elements.

Some simpler tracks are compensated by increased Pink Floyd influence and we even have Brian Eno helping out with his electronics. There were two changes of personnel between Moonmadness and Rain Dances, bass player Doug Ferguson departed and was replaced by Richard Sinclair, and Mel Collins joined as a fifth member after providing sax, clarinet etc on the previous live tour.

Perhaps as a result of these changes, Rain Dance With several successful albums under their belt and a new line-up, Camel were ready to take their music in a new direction, and with Rain Dances they take a more jazz and fusion sound than previous records, with mostly pleasing results. The presence of Mel Collins is apparent and effective on The main tra I found this album a deep disappointment after 4 wonderful albums released before the Camel "Camel" , "Mirage" , "The Snow Goose" and "Moonmadness".

The departure of bassist Doug Ferguson affected the whole chemistry of the band, and new members Richard Sinclair bass and vocals on "Tell Me" It was time for a slight change of direction for this band and I love how Camel developed thier sound here. It's more than wo I've been navigating Camel's rather massive studio output of late, and was dreading all the material between Moonmadness to Nude.

I know, very well and keenly, what the end of the 70's meant for many prominent prog bands. As it is, Breathless fell so short of my expectations that I skipped over Very hard to dispute what many of my prog brethren have stated here. Nonetheless, I would like to share my own point of view because Camel was one of my first loves, and for the record this is the record that made me a convert.

Maybe it's the adoption of a more Canterbury sound woodwinds. You mean Caravan, right? There is not a word that can describe Camel in this era of theirs, but if there was, I know it definitely wouldn't be excellent, or great, or any word of that kind. With this album, Richard Sinclair bass, vocals formerly of Caravan joins the fray.

Sinclair, recruited in response to the departure of Doug Ferguson, brings new sounds to the band. The result is more concise material, with more pop-oriented songs as well as an increased degree of jazz flavor The addition of Richard Sinclair on bass and vocals and Mel Collins is a promissing change, and it actually works out quite well, for the sound of Camel is richer than before.

However a more commercial style change has occured, and the new-commers don't get the room they But Rain Dances is pretty evenly split between complexity and commerciality -- opening instrumental "First Light" recalls the prog glories of Camel's earlier albums, and the rather ambient instrumental piece "Elke" includes guest keyboards by ambient godfather Brian Eno himself. Still, the undeniably poppy "Highways of the Sun" proved mainstream enough to be released as a single, and "One of These Days I'll Get an Early Night" is a venture into funky jazz fusion, with Collins' sax coming to the fore.

Call it the arrival of Camel Mk II. Sign In. Listen Now Browse Radio Search. Rain Dances Expanded Edition Camel. First Light. Tell Me. Highways of the Sun. Rain Dances.