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Not the most famous name, but in spite
of that Colin Bass is a great musician. He’s the regular bass
player with the (unsurpassed and) legendary symphonic pop-band
Camel. Apart from a few solo-projects like ‘3 Mustaphas 3’ and,
perhaps, mostly ‘Sabah Habas Mustapha’, he released his first
solo-album in 1999, ‘An Outcast of the Island’ with a.o. Andy
Latimer (Camel), Dave Stewart (Camel and Fish drummer), members of
the Polish Quidam and Abraxas and the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra
(allow me to refer to ‘Colin Bass Live at Polskie Radio 3’ an album
on which you’ll find lots of Camel tracks).
In the meantime there is “In the
meantime”, a 9-track studio album, released in May 2003.
The opening track “Dissident song” is
based on a true story about Tienanmen square. The song is quite
simple in it’s musical structure. The, mainly acoustic, guitar pop
tunes ripple along softly. “So hard to say goodbye” continues the
calm atmosphere, but has mainly a bluesy keynote, mingling with the
melancholy of an ended love-affair. Especially the guitar solo in
the middle is more than a wink of the eye at Andy Latimer’s
brilliant bluesy guitar on the Camel albums. Towards the end of
this 9’ lasting track, the rhythm changes and I perceive a two-eyed
wink.
“As we say goodbye” sounds
recognizable but can’t really fascinate. “Slow train blues” says it
all, blues on top. The rhythm is the same as Steely Dan’s ‘Do it
again’. The radio-filtered voice of Colin doesn’t sound convincing,
but again the track is calm, smooth and almost like lounge music.
“Talk to me”, a beautifully melancholic slow track, offers more
content and manages to keep the attention. The title track “In the
meantime” starts very convincingly as a pop track with a
violin-solo, but the combination is not quite successful; certainly
when Colin starts to sing with a Brian Ferry-timbre and the
violin/guitar solo balances on the verge of falseness.
After this light disillusionment I
get immediately fascinated and stuck to my chair. Perhaps the
mellotron in the instrumental ‘Bridge of Sighs’ has something to do
with it. It’s a short, magical track that becomes merged softly
and slowly into ‘When will you ever learn ?’. I enjoy it
breathlessly. Top Class !!! I was never able to confirm the fact
that this was what I missed the most about Camel since Dust &
Dreams. The sound that was so abundantly present on Nude. How
sparkling the voice of Colin sounds here, how matchless his
bass-line is, how touching this music is….
Superb.
After 5 minutes, the rhythm changes
and the guitar solo and the bass-loop keeps the suspense until the
track changes to jazzy Camel. Slightly less strong than the
beginning, but Wow !
As ‘encore’ (or post scriptum) we can
listen to the beautifully tinted “One Small Moment” from the
CD-single “Gently Kindly” (it seems as if Steve Hackett peeps around
the corner).
Camel is never at a great distance on
this album; that’s taken care of by the recognizable Colin Bass
voice with his typical bass-guitar-sound. Summarizing, I don’t find
the music very surprising; I think, perhaps, rather plain, but it
has undeniably very strong moments.
Don’t expect heavy rock, but rather
tranquil pop. I’m sure there are sufficient interested parties to
buy the album.
Please note that Colin Bass will
perform this autumn (2003) with Camel and in October/November this
year with his own band. |
