(Prog-Rock) Arena - Contagious (EP) (P)&(C)2003 Verglas Music, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Формат: MOV
Видео: Cinepack 320x240 5/4, Overall bit rate: 5 736Kbps, 4322Kbps, 25000fps
Аудио: PCM, 1411,2 Kbps, 44.1KHz, 16 Bit, 2 channels, (Big / Signed)
Продолжительность: 4mn 43s

General
Complete name : D:\Downlod Torrents\Arena - 2003 - Contagious (EP)\Media Plus\SKINGAME.MOV
Format : QuickTime
Format/Info : Original Apple specifications
File size : 194 MiB
Duration : 4mn 43s
Overall bit rate : 5 736 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2003-02-19 16:13:50
Tagged date : UTC 2003-02-19 16:40:32
Writing library : Apple QuickTime

Video
ID : 1
Format : Cinepack
Codec ID : cvid
Duration : 4mn 43s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 4 322 Kbps
Width : 320 pixels
Height : 240 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 5:4
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 2.251
Stream size : 146 MiB (75%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2003-02-19 16:13:50
Tagged date : UTC 2003-02-19 16:40:32

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : twos
Duration : 4mn 43s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 411.2 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 47.7 MiB (25%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2003-02-19 16:13:50
Tagged date : UTC 2003-02-19 16:40:32

Arena are a British progressive rock band founded in 1995 by Clive Nolan and Mick Pointer. Most of the band's lyrics are written by Nolan, though Pointer
contributed lyrics to Sirens and other tracks on the first two albums.
Musically the band's style ranges from symphonic to hard rock. Some of the band's recent albums have a similar sound to Nolan's earlier band, Shadowland.

As promised, Arena is releasing two EP’s that go with the “Contagion” album. This is the first, the second will appear later and will be entitled “Contagium”.
These EP’s fit in the digipack limited edition version of “Contagion” but of course that leaves you with the package of this EP. A dilemma?
The Audio tracks:
Usually, an extra EP comes with some left-overs from the album session that didn’t make it on the album, so you expect them to be inferior to the album tracks.
But this is certainly not true for this EP. At least 3 of the 4 new tracks deserve to be on the full album. You can even reconstruct the double album as it would
have been, because, in the booklet, you can find between which tracks of “Contagion” you should place this songs.
”Vanishing Act” is an instrumental that starts as a Pendragon song but changes after a while to the well known Arena sound. A track with a lot of energy.
”The Hour Glass” is, together with the previous track, to follow “Painted Man” on the album. A typical Arena song, with superb vocals by Rob.
“Contagious” starts a bit (too) slow but the finishing guitar solo is sublime.
I first thought that ”I Spy” was the only track that didn’t really fit on the album. But I have listened to it after “Mea Culpa” on “Contagion”, the place where it
should be, and it’s doing very well on that spot. It’s a track with vocals accompanied by an acoustic guitar, followed by a string solo.
The special remix of “Witch Hunt” was really a surprise for me. I usually hate remixes, but this one isn’t that bad. I still prefer the original, but this is a nice track.
The dance rhythm and the electronic device on Rob’s voice are some pleasant extras.
The multimedia part:
A lot of extra footage, but only the first two are really interesting. The “Skin Game Video Footage” is the clip they used as video projection during their live shows
on the “Contagion” tour. Beautiful animation but a bit boring without the show in front of it. Nice for people who attended this live shows.
The second interesting multimedia part is the Ghost Vocals section. The tracks sung by John Mitchell to give Rob Sowden an idea how the melody lines for the
vocals sounded like. Never intended to being published, this doesn’t sound that bad at all, except the sound is a bit naked without the rhythm section. He sounds a
bit like Peter Gabriel on these tracks, but of course you already know his voice from The Urbane.
There is also a gallery with pictures of people who were in the ‘Floodgate Choir’ from the “Contagion” album. There also a page with the lyrics of this EP, but I
would rather have seen them in the booklet. Now they are on this multimedia page, where you can’t even print them out. Finally there’s also a screensaver with
only some pictures of the artwork of “Contagion”.
There’s nothing really new but if these EP’s are meant to go with “Contagion”, they have to be in the same style, haven’t they?
A good add on for the “ Contagion” album. If “Contagium” is of the same quality then you could say that “Contagion” could have been a very good double album.

Clive Nolan keyboards, backing vocals
Rob Sowden vocals
John Mitchell guitars, backing vocals
Ian Salmon bass
Mick Pointer drums

Produced by Clive Nolan
Mixed by Karl Groom
Witch Hunt Remix by Richard West