Funky, psychedelic, and extraordinarily groovy, Vancouver three-piece rock outfit Brass Camel’s debut record Brass was released last fall. Invoking the musical aptitude of heavy-hitting prog rock legends like Yes with the glitter-drenched, stadium-ready theatricality of Queen, Brass Camel’s sound will blast you through the annals of time and space into a previously extinct psychotropic fantasyland of musical delight.
Established in 2018, Brass Camel is the musical concoction of Daniel Sveinson, a prodigious multi-instrumentalist who began touring before he even reached teenhood. Rounding out the triad is Curtis Arsenault on vocals and bass and Wyatt Gilson on drums. The group has spent the last four years tuning up their live show to its earth-shaking bravado, building a coterie of enthusiastic fans and ardent supporters, most notably Big Sugar’s Gordie Johnson, who named Brass Camel as his favorite band in Canada in 2021. With a slew of jam-packed headline shows around Vancouver under their belt, the band knew it was time to bottle their buzzing live energy and record it for the world to hear.
Recorded between Afterlife Studios, which has hosted legends from Diana Ross to Led Zeppelin, and their very own Camelot Studios over the course of a month and a half, Brass features a myriad of instrumental experimentation and an astonishing level of musical prowess. The album traverses a wealth of thematic terrain but remains unified by its spirited vocals and staggering symphonic intensity. After recording, it was passed off to legendary producer Ben Kaplan (Mother Mother, Biffy Clyro), who worked his magic in amplifying the already voltaic record.
The album opens with “First Contact”, a rapturous instrumental odyssey full of dynamic synth lines and cosmic zeal. Track two is “Dinger’s in the Back”, a bluesy rock tune full of shimmering harmonies and heavy-hitting guitar riffage that pays homage to an illustrious Canadian audio engineer. “I’ve Got the Fox” is a funk-filled jaunt that makes reference to Arsenault’s Foxbody Mustang, and “Pressure Cooker” looks across national borders into the volatility of politics in the United States.
Though Brass Camel is resolved in their reference to the great rock, soul, and blues acts of the 1970s, they aren’t stuck in the past. The band is shrewdly innovative, straddling the frequently unreachable union where technical dexterity and virtuosic musicianship meet magnetism and entrancing performance. With their visionary debut Brass, Brass Camel are well on their way to securing their spot as luminaries in the vanguard of modern rock ‘n’ roll.
