Camel – Air Born: The MCA & Decca Years 1973-1984 (box set with 5 albums in 5.1 on blu-ray)

[marpow]

My 27 CD update.
I have listened to all the Blu Rays, video and sound content, love them.
My honest intention was to listen to all my ripped 27 CD's in the car.
I got all the way up to CD 11, loved them, great 16bit/44.1Khz sound quality, but after CD 11, I just got burned out, basically listening to ever so slight versions, over and over.
I tried.

 

[Blackwood]

Today is the videos day for me. Watched the concert from ’84 earlier... going through the Video Vault bluray now.

I know Andy Latimer is always spoken highly of for his guitar playing, but I wasn’t too familiar with it other than the Snow Goose and Moonmadness albums. Seeing him in a live setting is really nice.

A kid starting on guitar could do a lot worse than studying Latimer’s playing. Very tasteful playing whether slower material or breaking out the intensity.

 

[marpow]

A

Today is the videos day for me. Watched the concert from ’84 earlier... going through the Video Vault bluray now.

I know Andy Latimer is always spoken highly of for his guitar playing, but I wasn’t too familiar with it other than the Snow Goose and Moonmadness albums. Seeing him in a live setting is really nice.

A kid starting on guitar could do a lot worse than studying Latimer’s playing. Very tasteful playing whether slower material or breaking out the intensity.

Agreed. For some reason when I listened to Andy's guitar playing I thought a lot of Terry Kath from Chicago, his rhythm grooves felt similar to me.
Having never been a Camel fan originally, I look at all the musicianship as underrated, now a bonafide Camel fan would likely disagree with me but I just have not listened to them my whole life.

 

[edisonbaggins]

My 27 CD update.
I have listened to all the Blu Rays, video and sound content, love them.
My honest intention was to listen to all my ripped 27 CD's in the car.
I got all the way up to CD 11, loved them, great 16bit/44.1Khz sound quality, but after CD 11, I just got burned out, basically listening to ever so slight versions, over and over.
I tried.

I haven't even opened the shrink wrap on mine...

 

[Blackwood]

I haven't even opened the shrink wrap on mine...

It’s kind of daunting. If you open it, you sort of have to start listening to it at least a little bit and it’s overwhelming to think about working your way through it.

 

[Blackwood]

Agreed. For some reason when I listened to Andy's guitar playing I thought a lot of Terry Kath from Chicago, his rhythm grooves felt similar to me.
Having never been a Camel fan originally, I look at all the musicianship as underrated, now a bonafide Camel fan would likely disagree with me but I just have not listened to them my whole life.

I’m glad I broke down and bought this set. (I had waffled on it.)

Like you, it may take me a while to get through all the live material. But I feel like there’s a lot of great playing that I’m going to enjoy.

 

[srbjab]

This wonderful set is comparable in size to one of the gargantuan King Crimson box sets, except each of those are devoted to just one or a few albums and concentrated on exhaustive live material, while this boxset covers most of the catalog. Currently I've ripped the discs and have listened to everything except the stereo remixes (prioritized the 5.1 mixes). Although I'm one of the lucky ones that snagged the early release from JPC at a steal price, after listening and reading through the large book, I can recommend this set even at the current prices - especially if you are a fan of 70's / 80's prog and appreciate a melodic, thoughtful approach to this type of music. Also, the 5.1 mixes are terrific and, in some cases, transformative.

 

[Bill B]

If new surround releases continue to come out at the pace they've been coming out, I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to listen to the 27 cds.
My "listen pile" is growing faster than I have time to listen to everything.
We've been getting a steady stream and that's a good problem to have.... right?

 

[Simon M]

I haven't even opened the shrink wrap on mine...

Same here, but to be fair mine only turned up over the weekend... 'Your new box set is held up in a queue...' seems to be happening fairly frequently at the moment, which is no a bad thing, we have been somewhat spoilt with surround mixes this year. I think I might open mine on Christmas day at some point and treat myself!

 

[Quadwreck]

Congratulations to all those already enjoying the Camel box and the great deals you got.

I waited for Amazon US to develop a clue about this release as I had a large gift card to burn and wanted to use it up on this release. Long story short, it got rejected on smaller purchases so I lost time trying to get the gift card to be acceptable. Finally after a lengthy chat with 4 support agents, I got the guy who knew what was going wrong and how to make sure the AMEX gift card would be accepted. Placed an order on Nov 23rd and crossed my fingers.

The availability status and delivery date information began to crumble until it disappeared a couple weeks ago. The price was initially $239 + tax with free shipping; this began to fall by 8% then 12 % and so on. But no sign of any stock but I hung on. 'We will email you when we have a delivery date.' ?!

Yesterday, the order reflected only a foreign currency item @ $650! I was about to give it up. Today I looked and it pointed to "1 available" at $215 free shipping - with January 15th delivery date. So I ordered that and saw it was going to be fulfilled by Amazon UK (which I would've used in the first place if not for gift card situation)

Once I saw this was a separate order, I went back and cancelled the order from November. Whew. Looking forward to this one.

Amazon was also offering the box from a seller in Japan, with a free shipping timeline of 4 to 8 weeks.
I still don't have the damned thing.

 

[Karonte]

Here is another one affected by the low number of editions published. I bought it through a Spanish web shop. 150 € in pre-order!!! They delayed the shipping a couple of times and then they canceled.

I can't understand what's happening with the music companies. I couldn't buy Katatonia's SVOS Bluray, I couldn't buy Harmony Codex special edition, I couldn't get this Camel box. The Katatonia box originally was 50€ and people were selling it "second hand" by 150€ but they had multiple boxes for selling. Why are they encouraging the speculation? I had to wait a couple of weeks for some of the last CDs I bought recently because they weren't in stock. The special boxes wich usually worth 80/100 euros are now impossible to find less than 200 or 300. Do they want us to listen to music only using streaming services?

I'm really angry about this matter.

 

[sjcorne]

I couldn't buy Katatonia's SVOS Bluray

You can now get a hi-res download of that Katatonia album:
https://immersiveaudioalbum.com/product/sky-void-of-stars-katatonia-5-1-flac-atmos-mkv-mp4/

 

[srbjab]

People complain about the economy, but these days the phrase "you snooze you lose" has never been truer. For those of us who collect special editions of movies and music, my experience is if there's any chance you want something you'd better order just as soon as you hear about it and it becomes available. Sadly, a growing number of these items are selling out almost immediately and many have limited distribution. Reprints, reissues and downloads are still pretty rare.

 

[Marplot]

Just got my Camel box set today .. somehow was thinking it was Caravan*. I guess I will be checking out a band I know nothing about based on all the positive comments here.

*Yes, I am a dumb ass.

 

[timbre4]

Pretty sure you’ll enjoy this band.

 

[JediJoker]

Just got my Camel box set today .. somehow was thinking it was Caravan*. I guess I will be checking out a band I know nothing about based on all the positive comments here.

*Yes, I am a dumb ass.

Pretty sure you’ll enjoy this band.

If you like Caravan, I think you'll find plenty to like in Camel.

 

[izgoblin]

Here is another one affected by the low number of editions published. I bought it through a Spanish web shop. 150 € in pre-order!!! They delayed the shipping a couple of times and then they canceled.

I can't understand what's happening with the music companies. I couldn't buy Katatonia's SVOS Bluray, I couldn't buy Harmony Codex special edition, I couldn't get this Camel box. The Katatonia box originally was 50€ and people were selling it "second hand" by 150€ but they had multiple boxes for selling. Why are they encouraging the speculation? I had to wait a couple of weeks for some of the last CDs I bought recently because they weren't in stock. The special boxes wich usually worth 80/100 euros are now impossible to find less than 200 or 300. Do they want us to listen to music only using streaming services?

I'm really angry about this matter.

I definitely understand that frustration. I don't much care for the "You snooze you lose" attitude myself, because some of us just can't afford to plunk down this kind of money without giving it a little thought first. And of course there are folks like you who believed their order would and should be honored.
Anyway, I have no idea if he has inside information or is just talking trash, but someone posted on the Discogs page not to pay flipper prices for this one because it will be repressed in the spring of 2024. So hopefully those who missed it will get another chance before too long.

 

[Tres Discrete]

Wow.
I have never heard this band before.
Decided to start with the archival video blu-ray.
I vaguely knew they were a Prog band, but did not realize that their guitar player was so good & that they get quite heavy at times.
As a recovering Metalhead, this is all quite welcome to me.
So far, so good!

 

[Bill B]

Wow.
I have never heard this band before.
Decided to start with the archival video blu-ray.
I vaguely knew they were a Prog band, but did not realize that their guitar player was so good & that they get quite heavy at times.
As a recovering Metalhead, this is all quite welcome to me.
So far, so good!

I had the same reaction when I listened to it the first time. And I had heard OF the band but don't think I've ever heard even one song by them before I bought the box. One of the many times where the peer pressure of this forum paid off (there are also several times where it hasn't.... LOL).

Between the onslaught of surround titles I purchased during the fourth quarter of 2023 and being distracted by Christmas activities and Christmas movies and music, I am looking forward to being able to catch up in the first quarter of 2024. So far, I have only one pr-order, and that's the SDE Def Leppard release. And we all know that somewhere around Jan 19th, four more Quadios drop.

Edit: I was also pretty impressed with my first listen the Nektar BR.

 

[Karonte]

I had the same reaction when I listened to it the first time. And I had heard OF the band but don't think I've ever heard even one song by them before I bought the box. One of the many times where the peer pressure of this forum paid off (there are also several times where it hasn't.... LOL).

Between the onslaught of surround titles I purchased during the fourth quarter of 2023 and being distracted by Christmas activities and Christmas movies and music, I am looking forward to being able to catch up in the first quarter of 2024. So far, I have only one pr-order, and that's the SDE Def Leppard release. And we all know that somewhere around Jan 19th, four more Quadios drop.

Edit: I was also pretty impressed with my first listen the Nektar BR.

And again:

A non-published yet BD and it's already out of stock. This is so ridiculous.