(Progressive rock) VA: Colossus Projects - The Empire & The Rebellion - 2008, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

One typical trait of the previous releases initiated by Colossus that seems to be lacking from this production is the emphasis on epic compositions. With 11 tracks listed and none above the 20 minute mark, this approach seems to have been rejected for this release. The fact of the matter, having said that, is that it's still very much present on this creation as well; the whole album is one long song divided into 11 parts. It's not a continuous track though, as most of the segments are tied together by sounds and background noises, but all parts tie rather nicely together even if atmospheric sounds are utilized to make it so. Assembling the components for the album has given Alfio Costa and his fellow collaborators a greater variety of choicees in terms of changing musical styles explored, where one can change sound, mood and atmosphere in rather drastic manners without creating a major dramatic disruption in the composition, thus the background noises and mood pieces function as transitional segments to great effect in this case, giving the composers and musicians better creative options when planning and making this release. When that is said, the style explored on this production is pretty similar, at least superficially, to most other releases inaugurated by Colossus. Symphonic progressive rock is the name of the game, with a distinct emphasis on the vintage variety in general and the Italian brand of the style in particular. The Hammond organ is the dominant instrument on most tracks, serving swirling melodic layers and mellow explorations, as well as being the main element in the more majestic sounding segments. Various types of keyboards flesh out the melodies, adding nuances and textures in some parts, serving up vintage multilayered symphonic elements in others, while the piano gets to occupy the limelight in several mellow passages. The bass guitar is given a prominent place in the mix, with jazz-tinged themes as well as harder, driving bass lines with leanings towards funk in sound being the most common varieties delivered. The drum patterns tend to be on the quirky side and in quite a few instances with leanings towards jazz in style, while the guitars for the most part are hidden away in the mix, with a few notable exceptions. The Dark Lord of the Sith is one case where the guitar is given a prominent place in the composition, and here it is utilized as the main provider in twisted, distorted brief segments which reminded me quite a lot of an act called Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and a particular creation of theirs called Sleep Is Wrong. This stylistic variation, notable on this production due to the massive discord it creates, stylistically compares to the album overall. The second instance where the guitar hits the limelight a bit is in the slick, almost lounge-like jazzy exploration named The Millennium Falcon, where the guitar is placed a bit back in the mix to deliver distinctly blues-tinged licks and solo fragments, contrasting with the general style explored and invigorating what otherwise might have ended up as a too tedious composition, adding tension and stylistic variation in energetic fashion. Apart from the slight stylistic variations explored on this creation, with a few folk-tinged segments in addition to the ones detailed above, what separates this album from many others in the Colossus series of productions is the mood and atmosphere. With Star Wars as the conceptual theme, the at times extensive use of spacey synthesizer, mellotron and keyboard textures is hardly a surprise. That the overall atmosphere mostly is on the dark side wasn't expected though. The movie that inspired this release is one of few nuances; the good are very good, the bad are very bad: light and dark with few shades in-between, the most notable aspect of the state in between being the character of Han Solo. However, the album in question explores mostly the nuances in between light and dark, with a distinct leaning towards the darker moods. Personally I think this is a good thing, but fans of the movie might feel a bit let down by the lack of extreme polarization in the musical landscapes visited on this release. Overall I found this to be a strong release. Some of the segments may be a bit on the long side, not all themes explored are brilliant, and there's a certain cheesy aspect to the release that is unavoidable when exploring a theme such as Star Wars. Still, it's a solid piece of work, with the close to twenty minute long The Rebellion Suite as my personal favorite, a creative and adventurous composition with many unexpected elements and a fair share of strong, memorable passages.

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 3 from 28. July 2007
EAC extraction logfile from 5. November 2008, 0:06
Colossus Project / The Empire & The Rebellion
Used drive : PLEXTOR DVDR PX-755A Adapter: 1 ID: 2
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 30
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : No
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
---------------------------------------------------------
1 | 0:00.00 | 6:16.00 | 0 | 28199
2 | 6:16.00 | 9:07.00 | 28200 | 69224
3 | 15:23.00 | 7:59.56 | 69225 | 105205
4 | 23:22.56 | 7:15.19 | 105206 | 137849
5 | 30:38.00 | 4:10.00 | 137850 | 156599
6 | 34:48.00 | 7:58.21 | 156600 | 192470
7 | 42:46.21 | 1:19.37 | 192471 | 198432
8 | 44:05.58 | 8:48.20 | 198433 | 238052
9 | 52:54.03 | 3:55.01 | 238053 | 255678
10 | 56:49.04 | 19:21.29 | 255679 | 342782
11 | 76:10.33 | 1:33.42 | 342783 | 349799
Track 1
Filename D:\TMP\Colossus Project - The Empire & The Rebellion\01 - Astral Prelude.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00
Peak level 96.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 2
Filename D:\TMP\Colossus Project - The Empire & The Rebellion\02 - Droids.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 3
Filename D:\TMP\Colossus Project - The Empire & The Rebellion\03 - The Dark Lord of The Sith.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 4
Filename D:\TMP\Colossus Project - The Empire & The Rebellion\04 - Meeting The Force.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:00.01
Peak level 96.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 5
Filename D:\TMP\Colossus Project - The Empire & The Rebellion\05 - Two Suns.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 6
Filename D:\TMP\Colossus Project - The Empire & The Rebellion\06 - When I Was A Jedi.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:00.01
Peak level 96.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 7
Filename D:\TMP\Colossus Project - The Empire & The Rebellion\07 - The Millenium Quartet.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 8
Filename D:\TMP\Colossus Project - The Empire & The Rebellion\08 - The Millenium Falcon.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:00.01
Peak level 96.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 9
Filename D:\TMP\Colossus Project - The Empire & The Rebellion\09 - My Tears For Alderaan.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 10
Filename D:\TMP\Colossus Project - The Empire & The Rebellion\10 - The Rebellion Suite.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:00.01
Peak level 96.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 11
Filename D:\TMP\Colossus Project - The Empire & The Rebellion\11 - May The Force Be With You.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
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End of status report