AN OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS

Colin Bass (one time bass player with Camel " I Can see your house from here"/"Nude") Has been puttin out several (6) great albums over the years...and this" An Outcast..." is the second (1999) is a stunner!! Colin´s voice carries the resemblance to that of former Camel mate Andy Latimer...though not as strong.Opening track "Massacar"are a fabulous instrumental, with the aforementined Latimer (playing on 8 tracks)delivering a blistering solo,like only he can do.There are wonderfull songs all over the album, interceptet by (3) small vignettes of String Quartet music (courtesy of Members of Poznan Philharmonic orch.) "As far as i can see" is a lovely slow song, which hints more than a little to Camel..in the most positive way (of course)and here Latimer also outdoes himself on the six stringed machine. Funnily enough "As far as..." is the title of Colin Bass´s first album. Fellow countryman Dave Stewart does the honours on the drums,Colin on Bass,acoustic guitar,keyboards and vocal does a fine job,Andy latimer brims with sheer brilliance on the lead guitar...but also on acoustic guitar ,mandolin and E-bow. The rest of the "crew" keyboard, additional guitars & choirs are polish musicians and they are all excellent !! I swear...in a "blindtest" everyone would go : "Hey... its Camel!! " And it is as fine crafted and well thought out music as Camel at their best!! But make no mistake Colin bass is his own master and has the compositions ( he wrote everything but one track) of this GEM of a record to prove it!! So dear progfriends and Camel-freaks... go find this wonderfull cd!! I has been sittin´on my player for quite a while now (thanx Leo)...and it keeps gettin´better and better!!! OOhh..by the way those wonderful Polish musicians are apparently from progbands: Quidam and Abraxas!!