(Symphonic Prog) Salmon - When the dust settles - 2004, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

The second album of this excellent Dutch progressive and symphonic band is again released by themselves as apparently their first album from 2001 Decade Reference didn't result in a record deal. That's actually a shame since they really produce good quality music that deserves a proper worldwide release! But on their website you can order a copy of this album. Should you then and if so why? Let me focus on that:

When The Dust Settles... is a great progressive/symphonic album on which on one side you can clearly hear the influences of some great names from the symphonic rock world like Genesis, Camel, Kayak and Landmarq and on the other side an unique and significant style! The excess of variation and the characteristic voice and singing style of Jan Jaap Langere creates this significant sound they developed.

To be honest I'm not really charmed by his singing, I can't lay my finger on it, but in some way it just don't seem to fit in with their music style. On the other hand you tend to get used to it and surely will miss it when it won't be there. Maybe it's just a personal thing, but to my taste his singing style often sounds very similar in tone and height and there is some vibration or tone in his voice that disturbs me somewhat; his singing is pure and technically correct, but I do miss something in there. This however does not much diminish my enjoyment of this album, so let's no longer elaborate on this.

The album only features 6 tracks, but still clocks just under one hour, mainly due to the lengthy third track Time To Fantasize that keeps you fascinated for almost 20 minutes. The song King For A Day (you can hear a sample of it on their website) starts the album off with a building up intro with some great organ sounds, then the singing kicks in which after a while comes to a sudden halt to be followed by very nice multiple voice unaccompanied singing. The song is classical styled with some Genesis influences and with a major role for the piano that is really driving the song and not so much the keyboards. There are several nice tempo changes and variations in this song that is actually typical for the whole album.

Grey Velvet is dedicated to the deceased mother of guitarist Gerrit Hoogebeen, the man behind all lyrics which are often very poetical and fantasy enriched. It's a standard sentimental ballad, but again with some unexpected changes in melody and rhythm. When you think the song is over after a standard ending it however goes on and gives an instrumental encore dominated by a Spanish guitar as if to say there's still something happening after a seemingly definite ending.

Time To Fantasize is, as already mentioned, the epic song of the album and absolutely a magnificent piece of music. Despite its length it never gets tedious, boring or ending up in repeating itself, which is an accomplishment for a song of this length. You're thrown into the song by the sound of falling dice and then a harpsichord and a flute start off, a very nice mediaeval sound! Then the piano and other instruments take over for a long and varied intro (over 4 minutes!). The track is actually divided in four pieces, each with their own subtitle, that flow into another. The changeovers to the next segment happen almost unnoticeable since each piece is quite varied and doesn't have a significant style or melody line of itself. The third segment called The Sand-Witch includes some very nice mediaeval singing and there's again a long instrumental part between the 3rd and last segment. All in all an absolutely great song that can match itself with other great prog epics even though it doesn't include much bombastic and extravaganza!

When September Weeps starts you might think you're listening to Steve Hackett who performs with his brother John a song by Satie; a serene melody by a Spanish guitar with flute. When the piano and singing take over the almost magical fairytale atmosphere slowly changes into a ballad structured song in the best sympho tradition that builds up after a while with some military drums to end again in a tranquil style. Three is the only instrumental on the album and although I'm always very keen on instrumentals I can't say this one is totally fabulous. Again you can find here some Genesis influences, or even borrowings, but the lack of the vocals is not really compensated by keyboard or guitar extravaganza (which I'm very fond of), so it sounds a bit as if the vocals just have been erased from the track. Maybe it's also fair to say that the music of Salmon lends itself better for vocal tracks with lengthy instrumental intersections than just instrumental tracks. It's still a very enjoyable track though, quite up-tempo, very varied and inspired by the three Maya kings that ruled Palenque in Mexico many centuries ago.

The lyrics for Dubious Dried Ink are printed as a newspaper article (in a imaginative paper called 'The Fishy News'!) in the booklet and handle the topic of writer's block. When after the short intro the vocals start I shortly long back to the previous instrumental song because they sound a bit forced and therefore inappropriate to me, but soon enough this annoyance flows away again as the rest of the song is back to the high standard that can be heard throughout the album. A great instrumental middle section brings on some more enjoyable minutes and although the ending of the song and album is a bit sudden and unexpected I'm left with the impression to have listened to a great album.

When comparing this album to their previous one, which was reviewed late 2001, (click here for that review) it's very clear that Salmon has developed their skills and talents a lot and produced not only more solid compositions, but also improved their own style despite that several influences still easily can be spotted. Although this album won't blow you away with extravaganza of any kind it surely will appeal to any person that also can thoroughly enjoy for instance Genesis, Camel and Landmarq and can drift away in beautiful sounds and really wants to explore melodic music that has much offer in diversity.

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008

Отчёт EAC об извлечении, выполненном 17. августа 2001, 21:09

Salmon / When the dust settles

Дисковод: HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GSA-E60L Adapter: 4 ID: 0

Режим чтения : Достоверность
Использование точного потока : Да
Отключение кэша аудио : Да
Использование указателей C2 : Нет

Коррекция смещения при чтении : 102
Способность читать области Lead-in и Lead-out : Нет
Заполнение пропущенных сэмплов тишиной : Да
Удаление блоков с тишиной в начале и конце : Нет
При вычислениях CRC использовались нулевые сэмплы : Нет
Интерфейс : Встроенный Win32-интерфейс для Win NT/2000

Выходной формат : Пользовательский кодировщик
Выбранный битрейт : 768 kBit/s
Качество : Высокий
Добавление ID3-тэга : Нет
Утилита сжатия : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Дополнительные параметры : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=%e" %s -o %d

TOC извлечённого CD

Трек | Старт | Длительность | Начальный сектор | Конечный сектор
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1 | 0:00.00 | 9:26.09 | 0 | 42458
2 | 9:26.09 | 6:30.12 | 42459 | 71720
3 | 15:56.21 | 19:31.49 | 71721 | 159594
4 | 35:27.70 | 7:09.20 | 159595 | 191789
5 | 42:37.15 | 7:50.17 | 191790 | 227056
6 | 50:27.32 | 8:22.23 | 227057 | 264729

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Имя файла E:\TORRENT\Salmon - When the dust settles.wav

Пиковый уровень 100.0 %
Качество диапазона 99.9 %
CRC теста 8F83CC8F
CRC копии 8F83CC8F
Копирование... OK

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