Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers (2018)
Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers (2018)
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks+.cue, log) ~ 238.21 Mb | MP3 CBR 320kbps ~ 94.44 Mb | 40:49 | Cover
Chamber Pop | Label: Fire Records (UK) - FIRECD524
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks+.cue, log) ~ 238.21 Mb | MP3 CBR 320kbps ~ 94.44 Mb | 40:49 | Cover
Chamber Pop | Label: Fire Records (UK) - FIRECD524
‘Welcome Strangers’ is the second record by feral pop outliers Modern Studies. Elegiac and haunted, life-giving and triumphant, this beguiling return digs deep into landscapes both real and imagined, internal and external, in a work that might perhaps best be described as “kosmiche choral” or, if we’re pushing it “arts-und-crafts-werk”. Or, put simply, glorious pop music.
It is an elemental and often spectral world of contrasting tones and hues that is found within ‘Welcome Strangers’, one whose lyrical vocabulary is of loss, light, air, sun, growth; of spires, seeds and phosphene dreams. Here is the Britain of visionaries such as Kate Bush, Broadcast or PJ Harvey, a nation of dark magic, conflict, celebration and confusion, all at the same time.
Witness the incandescent chamber-pop of ‘Get Back Down’: underpinned by complex jazz rhythms, and string and brass flourishes, it manages to be both understated and epic as it explores a similar sonic terrain to Wild Beasts. Or there’s ‘Horns And Trumpets’, a haunting musical perambulation that burrows deep into Britain, a warm-hued hymn for future generations, and ‘Let Idle Hands’, which abandons restraint halfway through and, in a moment of musical epiphany, runs joyously to the horizon. Meanwhile on ‘Phosphene Dream’ the honeyed harmonies of Emily Scott and Rob St. John wrap themselves around each other like Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood had they holidayed in draughty Glasgow tenements. Or perhaps – as on ‘Disco’ – they come closer to Kylie and Nick Cave.
“It’s an ever changing thing - an organism,” explains principle songwriter Emily of Modern Studies’ collaborative creative process, “there is space for each of the band to experiment.” Shared band listening habits include Yamasuki, Van Dyke Parks, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, Matthew E White, Basil Kirchin, and Nanci Griffith.
Working at Pete’s Pumpkinfield studio in rural Perthshire through 2017, the band used a Creative Scotland grant to hire a chamber orchestra and a remote village hall to record them in. Contributors include sisters, wives, toddlers, freeform saxophonists and The Pumpkinseeds, an ensemble featuring violins, violas, cellos, trombones and vocals, brought together to play Pete and Emily’s collaborative string, brass and vocal arrangements. Truly, a family affair.
As well as further fleshing out the sound with analogue synths, tube organs, drum machines and mellotrons, some inventive techniques were deployed – a decayed tape loop of Emily’s vocals used to create the stuttering rhythm in Mud and Flame for example, or prepared guitars recurring as percussion and drones.
Now they proudly present ‘Welcome Strangers’, an album of modernist pop weirdness for the 21st century, a bricolage where classicism meets experimentalism and repeated listening unearths new stories for this contemporary age. More elaborate and expansive than its predecessor, this is music as cartography, Modern Studies mapping their own multi-dimensional internal world.
‘Welcome Strangers’. Welcome all.
Modern Studies are: Emily Scott (vocals, organs, piano, double bass). Rob St. John (vocals, guitars, synths, harmonium, tape loops). Pete Harvey (cello, bass, piano). Joe Smillie (drums, mellotron, vocals).
Track List:
01. Get Back Down (04:22)
02. Disco (04:40)
03. Mud and Flame (05:17)
04. Let Idle Hands (03:13)
05. It's Winter (03:32)
06. Young Sun (03:32)
07. Horns and Trumpets (04:02)
08. Fast as Flows (03:24)
09. The House (03:58)
10. Phosphene Dream (04:53)
Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016
EAC extraction logfile from 16. June 2018, 11:49
Modern Studies / Welcome Strangers
Used drive : hp CDDVDW SH-216AL Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
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 : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -e -p -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 4:21.62 | 0 | 19636
2 | 4:21.62 | 4:39.35 | 19637 | 40596
3 | 9:01.22 | 5:16.10 | 40597 | 64306
4 | 14:17.32 | 3:12.55 | 64307 | 78761
5 | 17:30.12 | 3:31.14 | 78762 | 94600
6 | 21:01.26 | 3:31.57 | 94601 | 110482
7 | 24:33.08 | 4:01.04 | 110483 | 128561
8 | 28:34.12 | 3:23.39 | 128562 | 143825
9 | 31:57.51 | 3:57.58 | 143826 | 161658
10 | 35:55.34 | 4:52.59 | 161659 | 183617
Track 1
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\02 - Disco Session.wav
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Extraction speed 4.8 X
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\03 - Mud and Flame.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 5.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\04 - Let Idle Hands.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
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Track quality 100.0 %
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Copy CRC 0FF6759D
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\05 - It's Winter.wav
Peak level 88.8 %
Extraction speed 5.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\06 - Young Sun.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 5.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 7
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\07 - Horns and Trumpets.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 6.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 8
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\08 - Fast As Flows.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 4.9 X
Track quality 99.9 %
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Copy CRC C1CFE651
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 9
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\09 - The House.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 6.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 10
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\10 - Phosphene Dream.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 5.9 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 0441D8C0
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
No errors occurred
End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6
[CTDB TOCID: bVPnJzZurDKbHlHRYb5r.FVBmZE-] found
Submit result: bVPnJzZurDKbHlHRYb5r.FVBmZE- has been confirmed
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
2 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
3 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
4 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
5 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
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7 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
8 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
9 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
10 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
==== Log checksum 776CA33BB21B793973FE608518E46E99FD410FFF3E633C9CDDB1A54C29F71014 ====
EAC extraction logfile from 16. June 2018, 11:49
Modern Studies / Welcome Strangers
Used drive : hp CDDVDW SH-216AL Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
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 : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -e -p -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 4:21.62 | 0 | 19636
2 | 4:21.62 | 4:39.35 | 19637 | 40596
3 | 9:01.22 | 5:16.10 | 40597 | 64306
4 | 14:17.32 | 3:12.55 | 64307 | 78761
5 | 17:30.12 | 3:31.14 | 78762 | 94600
6 | 21:01.26 | 3:31.57 | 94601 | 110482
7 | 24:33.08 | 4:01.04 | 110483 | 128561
8 | 28:34.12 | 3:23.39 | 128562 | 143825
9 | 31:57.51 | 3:57.58 | 143826 | 161658
10 | 35:55.34 | 4:52.59 | 161659 | 183617
Track 1
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\01 - Get Back Down.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 4.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 985B4BB1
Copy CRC 985B4BB1
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\02 - Disco Session.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 4.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 180600FB
Copy CRC 180600FB
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\03 - Mud and Flame.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 5.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 1A93C513
Copy CRC 1A93C513
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\04 - Let Idle Hands.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 5.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0FF6759D
Copy CRC 0FF6759D
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\05 - It's Winter.wav
Peak level 88.8 %
Extraction speed 5.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC B5984D28
Copy CRC B5984D28
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\06 - Young Sun.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 5.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 02ED4E12
Copy CRC 02ED4E12
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 7
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\07 - Horns and Trumpets.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 6.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 5B2B9E25
Copy CRC 5B2B9E25
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 8
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\08 - Fast As Flows.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 4.9 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC C1CFE651
Copy CRC C1CFE651
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 9
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\09 - The House.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 6.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 4CE8132E
Copy CRC 4CE8132E
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 10
Filename C:\Rips v4\Modern Studies - Welcome Strangers {2018} [CD] (FLAC)\10 - Phosphene Dream.wav
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 5.9 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 0441D8C0
Copy CRC 0441D8C0
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
No errors occurred
End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6
[CTDB TOCID: bVPnJzZurDKbHlHRYb5r.FVBmZE-] found
Submit result: bVPnJzZurDKbHlHRYb5r.FVBmZE- has been confirmed
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
2 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
3 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
4 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
5 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
6 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
7 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
8 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
9 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
10 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
==== Log checksum 776CA33BB21B793973FE608518E46E99FD410FFF3E633C9CDDB1A54C29F71014 ====
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