Phil Manz was in Quiet Sun and Country Life has a mild Canterbury flavour.

Camel acquired several ex-members of Caravan and there was some interaction with others who came fiom the Canterbury scene outside the band as well, so there were some influences after Moonmadness (Down on the Farm could have been a Caravan song more easily than a Camel one), but Camel are not a Canterbury band.

Roxy Music are totally unconnected with the Canterbury scene.

To answer the question, I like some Roxy Music. I love (almost) all Camel.

Same here.

(And even though Manzanera was in Quiet Sun I don't really see much of a  Canterbury connection...though I'm going to listen to Country Life to see this 'mild Canterbury' thing)

wow, no contest, really?

Roxy Music 9.5/10

For Your Pleasure 10/10

Stranded 10/10

Country Life 10/10

Siren 9/10 

Manifesto 8/10

Flesh + Blood 6.5/10

Avalon 10/10

That's an impressive discography with only one less-than-great LP.

Camel had three great albums.

Roxy by a large margin.

Yeah, Camel doesn't do much for me. Roxy Music, to me, has way better songs, and truly one of the best runs of any band ever. I'd say only Flesh + Blood and Manifesto aren't up to the high standards that they'd set for themselves earlier in their career, but they made up for that tenfold with how excellent Avalon is.

Camel might be "more prog" with their complex arrangements and stuff, but Roxy Music made much more compelling music, pushing pop in new directions, and the songwriting is truly top notch.

I agree with this almost entirely. Personally, I'd give Siren 10/10 as well. It's my favorite of theirs! Front to back for me, it has the best songs they ever wrote, and even exceeds Country Life's greatness. I can't say enough about how dope that record is! And they're a band where 6 out of their 8 albums are excellent or total classics!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2V-VzQ8kV0

I think someone is going to be quite upset with you... 

Camel... need you ask?

That's your default setting so lets go with that then.

Camel are one of those bands that made prog better but didn't add anything new in the process. Total oxymoron if ever there was!

Roxy Music very much inhabit their own world and for me are the best of what I consider to be 'art rock' but in no way are they 'prog rock'. So if you are a prog snob then give wide berth to them. Otherwise their first 5 albums are unique and well worth checking out. Their later radio friendly approach does very little for me. Actually depressed me but then a lot of music from around that time had that affect on me.

I'm voting for the Guildford Scene band. 

Both bands are very good, but I like Camel more

I consider:

1) Camel

2) Mirage

3) Moonmadness

4) Rain Dances

(The Snow Goose is fine but modest)

1) Roxy Music

2) For Your Pleasure

3) Stranded

4) Country Music

Their style is quintessential prog, they are the "moderates" of prog, very pleasant to listen to, very competent and elegant. Their music, I would say, is average prog of the Seventies, competing with that of Yes. But compared to Yes they are less pompous, less virtuosic, more fluffy.

In short, they give less satisfaction to those who love the canons of 1970s English prog.

I've listened to Roxy longer, but would give Camel the edge.

Roxy does get extra points for the personalities in the band, which really stand out. The Camel guys are sort of anonymous in comparison, which isn't a big deal music-wise. Roxy added an extra dimension on top of their music.

Interesting comments. I would only add

Camel - The Snow Goose. This for me is the only outstanding and important Camel album. It's all instrumental and that puts them apart from most seventies prog bands who didn't go that way (apart for the jazz fusion mob but that's a whole different thing) even for one album. It was a risk but it paid off for them.

Roxy Music were a bit of a 'bail out band' for those that were already getting bored with traditional prog even back in 1972 (maybe it was becoming too pompous and far up it's own bum) but wanted art in their music. Ferry famously of course auditioned for King Crimson to replace Greg Lake. Fripp decided on a Lake clone instead despite later trashing GL in some interviews but that's another story!

I can absolutely see why you write this. I voted for Camel not because of innovation and originality and actually "progress" (although you've got to give to them that every one of their albums has its own character and they never stood still), but rather because for me personally they have a very unique emotional quality. They have a very large number of songs throughout all of their albums (not even Single Factor is an exception in that respect) that touch me in a very direct way. In that respect they are second to none, not even my "personal top 5" (maybe in terms of importance of their music for my life overall they could even be up there). In another thread Jaketejas nominated them as one of two "big" bands in a category they had made up called "takes time to breathe", together with Pink Floyd. I think that they very consciously do not strive for innovation for innovation's sake, and I'm fine with that as much as I appreciate originality and surprise (Breathless is in many respects a very surprising album though). 

A band like Camel will always take a back seat when thinking about music in a manner that is all too oriented toward "objective" measurable qualities that will appeal to critics and intellectuals (although they are/were top quality instrumentalists with strong musicality). They are something of a symbol that music is so much more than that and that it is sometimes hard if not impossible to get intellectually at what makes music connect to people.

But then these qualities are obviously subjective, so if Camel's music doesn't connect to you (or only very little of it), none of what I write can change that. Personally I respect Roxy Music, but they just have some five tracks or so that connect to me, so they can't win, but if they are winners for others, so be it.

You say: they have a very unique emotional quality.

I guess it's their meditative/ecstatic musical mood, similar to Canterbury scene.

That's not quite what I mean. It's not that easy to put into words. It has more to do with their melodies than the overall musical mood, even though it helps that the mood fits the melodies. The way their melodies resonate with me (which may include parts of guitar solos etc.) is just special and there are few bands who do that. I can find something like this in some other Canterbury artists, but then we're maybe talking about an album's worth of material per artist, occasionally two. Camel has much more. Unfortunately I can't explain in "objective" terms how they do that.