Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) {Real World CDRW176}
Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) {Real World CDRW176}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 377 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 146 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 20 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2010 Real World Recordings | CDRW176
World / Electronic / Folk
Conceived in London and recorded in Damascus, this fascinating CD collection is a true fusion on many levels, traversing space and time, reinventing and subverting stereotypes, consciously marrying ancient Middle Eastern sounds with Parisian cafe music…The vocals are both stunning and spooky, the swirling music at once mysterious and totally accessible.
One of the highlights of this summer's Womad was the rousing debut performance by the current lineup of the UK-Middle Eastern band Syriana, the latest project of guitarist and bass-player Nick "Dubulah" Page, best known for his fusion work with Ethiopian musicians in Dub Colossus. Now comes the first Syriana album, which features the same songs the band played at Womad, but sounds very different – hardly surprising, since the band's personnel have changed since it was recorded. The current Syriana includes no Syrians, while on the album many of the songs are dominated by the Syrian qanun player Abdullah Chhadeh and a Syrian string section. But the approach remains the same, with Middle Eastern themes matched against sturdy Arabic percussion and bass work from Bernard O'Neill, with Page adding guitar and keyboards. The songs range from moody atmospheric pieces such as The Road to Damascus to the more gutsy Black Zil – which would both make great film music – and the adventurous The Great Game, in which a vocal chorus and drifting qanun solos are matched against thunderous guitar lines. As when playing live, Syriana are at their best when most experimental.
Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) {Real World CDRW176}
With guitars set to "twang" Syriana set off on The Road To Damascus, taking the listener on a trip from the west to the Middle East, where clean tone guitar meets the 83-string qanun, a zither-like update on the old Egyptian harp, played here Syrian musician Abdullah Chhadeh. Syriana have channelled a cinematic vision for this debut album, and as a listening experience the record could almost be broken down into the narrative of an imaginary spy film, set in an Arabic parallel to the Cold War (references of which appear in several song titles – Checkpoint Charlie, Templehof and Black Zil, a Soviet car favoured by the KGB). Syriana's "soundtrack" features blissful sweeping passages evoking sandy desert plains, the urban, the hustle and bustle of souqs. Fittingly, at recent live shows they were accompanied by a backdrop of old black-and-white films.
The core of Syriana is made up of musicians from both the east and the west, as Chhadeh is joined by the western duo of half-Greek, half-English guitarist, programmer and keyboardist Nick "Dubulah" Page and Irish double bass player Bernard O'Neill. Page's background includes Transglobal Underground and working with musicians from Mexico to Ethiopia. The traditional, ancient Arabic instruments mix side by side those of the western band members, helping to achieve the stated intention of bridging the political tensions of east and west.
Although mostly instrumental the album also boasts the considerable talents of classically-trained Syrian singer Lubana Al Quntur, who breezes in with the required gravitas to pull off the bold ideas. She is after all a head of vocal studies at the Damascus Conservatoire and a graduate of from the Royal College of Music in London. Her handling of both the Arabic and operatic vocal styles makes her the ideal choice for this ambitious cross-cultural project.
Throughout, western and spy themes creep in alongside the Arabic sounds of the qanun. Some kind of jerky oompah even comes into the mix on third track 'Gharibb' (stranger). Full of carnivalesque pomp, musically it is more like eastern European folk than anything obviously Arabic, even when the soprano voice of Al Quntur is introduced for the first time. 'Black Zil' features out-there harp work, shifting loosely, but pinned down by sped up trap beats and zoned atmospheric electronic effects.
With hypnotic choppy violins as its starting point 'Galatian Bridge at Dawn' becomes an epic eastern mantra, disturbed by a doom-tinged twangy guitar riff. The groove shifts as different instruments transform the original riff and tone of the piece, and intensity builds thanks to soaring violins from the seven-piece Pan Arab Strings of Damascus. The track brims with foreboding intensity, and a distinctly prog leaning. 'The Great Game' is another heavy slice of hypnotic swing and repetitive skronk.
Instrumental 'Al Mazzah' is one of the few tracks devoted to Chhadeh's solo qanun playing and is the most pure representation of his music in its usual setting, sitting appropriately as an interlude in the middle of the album. Once again Al Quntur comes to the fore on the (power) ballad 'Al Araby', backed by a swirling orchestration of strings.
Album closer 'Love In A Time Of Chaos' mixes loose western clean guitar licks, with the patter of a gimbri drum. If anything, the only disappointment is that it stops abruptly just after four minutes into the track when you feel it could go almost anywhere. So, as the final note sharply cuts out of the speakers there's a feeling of unfinished. Does this journey perhaps have a return ticket?
Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) {Real World CDRW176}
RealWorld review
Musicians
Oud, Percussion, Qanun, Vocals, Whistling Abdullah Chhadeh
Bass, Piano, Vocals Bernard O'Neill
Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion, Programming, Vocals Dubulah
Vocals Nizar Issa
Vocals Lubaban al Quntar
Viola Patrick Dunn
Arabic Percussion Sherif Ibrahim
Accordion Mazzin Abu Sayf
Group The Pan Arab Strings Of Damascus
Violin, Whistling Adnan Safar
Violin Noor Hashem
Violin Nazer Mauas
Violin Naser Morali
Violin Jihad Jazbeh
Violin Fares Khoury
Violin Amir Krajdi
tracklist:
01 The Road To Damascus 05:34
02 Syriana 05:45
03 Gharibb (Stranger) 04:21
04 Black Zil 05:31
05 Galatian Bridge At Dawn 04:30
06 Al Mazzeh 03:30
07 Al Araby 05:57
08 The Great Game 05:04
09 Jannat Al Dunia 01:08
10 The Templehof File 06:35
11 A Ya Zain 02:53
12 Checkpoint Charlie 07:18
13 Love In A Time Of Chaos 04:09
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011
EAC extraction logfile from 5. July 2014, 17:39
Syriana / The Road To Damascus
Used drive : SONY DVD RW DRU-810A Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 618
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 : 128 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 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "ALBUM ARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "COMMENT=EAC Secure Mode, Test & Copy, AccurateRip, FLAC -8" %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 5:34.53 | 0 | 25102
2 | 5:34.53 | 5:45.00 | 25103 | 50977
3 | 11:19.53 | 4:21.21 | 50978 | 70573
4 | 15:40.74 | 5:31.74 | 70574 | 95472
5 | 21:12.73 | 4:30.26 | 95473 | 115748
6 | 25:43.24 | 3:30.51 | 115749 | 131549
7 | 29:14.00 | 5:57.28 | 131550 | 158352
8 | 35:11.28 | 5:04.37 | 158353 | 181189
9 | 40:15.65 | 1:08.61 | 181190 | 186350
10 | 41:24.51 | 6:35.19 | 186351 | 215994
11 | 47:59.70 | 2:53.27 | 215995 | 228996
12 | 50:53.22 | 7:18.01 | 228997 | 261847
13 | 58:11.23 | 4:09.61 | 261848 | 280583
Track 1
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\01 - Road To Damascus.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00
Peak level 99.4 %
Extraction speed 4.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC F44EA5BA
Copy CRC F44EA5BA
Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [58E3B48D] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\02 - Syriana.wav
Peak level 98.4 %
Extraction speed 5.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FC24C43E
Copy CRC FC24C43E
Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [C8C834DF] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\03 - Gharibb-Stranger.wav
Peak level 98.2 %
Extraction speed 4.8 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC E262D196
Copy CRC E262D196
Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [C1E4ACE1] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\04 - Black Zil.wav
Peak level 97.4 %
Extraction speed 5.5 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 59964D41
Copy CRC 59964D41
Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [4E825F75] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\05 - Galatian Bridge At Dawn.wav
Peak level 97.2 %
Extraction speed 6.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FDA281A3
Copy CRC FDA281A3
Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [5FCA2F31] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\06 - Al Mazzeh.wav
Peak level 97.2 %
Extraction speed 6.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 8848C258
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Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [FA8EF831] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 7
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\07 - Al Araby.wav
Peak level 97.4 %
Extraction speed 7.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC F09E24D3
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Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [613246A7] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 8
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\08 - The Great Game.wav
Peak level 98.7 %
Extraction speed 7.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 10FF7FA0
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Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [0AB67DB1] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 9
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\09 - Jannat Al Duniya.wav
Peak level 67.8 %
Extraction speed 5.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 78B92E97
Copy CRC 78B92E97
Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [2F2240B5] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 10
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\10 - Templehof File.wav
Peak level 97.6 %
Extraction speed 8.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 64A542CF
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Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [D0C8FC0E] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 11
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\11 - Al Qaboun.wav
Peak level 64.8 %
Extraction speed 7.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC DDAE1017
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Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [A39AE28A] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 12
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\12 - Checkpoint Charlie.wav
Peak level 99.3 %
Extraction speed 8.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 66986EA0
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Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [9DB636ED] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 13
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\13 - Love In A Time Of Chaos.wav
Peak level 89.3 %
Extraction speed 8.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 88083413
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Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [6D395109] (AR v2)
Copy OK
All tracks accurately ripped
No errors occurred
End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.3
[CTDB TOCID: u3_0LDQTVz1DKr3.g80xbDPiVJc-] found, Submit result: u3_0LDQTVz1DKr3.g80xbDPiVJc- has been confirmed
[b6a5d2a5] (2/2) Accurately ripped
==== Log checksum 3036283449BFFF7A2F83F0F3E474D4B7CE622D907E0FB85F7F4F879A82355696 ====
EAC extraction logfile from 5. July 2014, 17:39
Syriana / The Road To Damascus
Used drive : SONY DVD RW DRU-810A Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 618
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 : 128 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 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "ALBUM ARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "COMMENT=EAC Secure Mode, Test & Copy, AccurateRip, FLAC -8" %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 5:34.53 | 0 | 25102
2 | 5:34.53 | 5:45.00 | 25103 | 50977
3 | 11:19.53 | 4:21.21 | 50978 | 70573
4 | 15:40.74 | 5:31.74 | 70574 | 95472
5 | 21:12.73 | 4:30.26 | 95473 | 115748
6 | 25:43.24 | 3:30.51 | 115749 | 131549
7 | 29:14.00 | 5:57.28 | 131550 | 158352
8 | 35:11.28 | 5:04.37 | 158353 | 181189
9 | 40:15.65 | 1:08.61 | 181190 | 186350
10 | 41:24.51 | 6:35.19 | 186351 | 215994
11 | 47:59.70 | 2:53.27 | 215995 | 228996
12 | 50:53.22 | 7:18.01 | 228997 | 261847
13 | 58:11.23 | 4:09.61 | 261848 | 280583
Track 1
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\01 - Road To Damascus.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00
Peak level 99.4 %
Extraction speed 4.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC F44EA5BA
Copy CRC F44EA5BA
Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [58E3B48D] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\02 - Syriana.wav
Peak level 98.4 %
Extraction speed 5.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FC24C43E
Copy CRC FC24C43E
Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [C8C834DF] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\03 - Gharibb-Stranger.wav
Peak level 98.2 %
Extraction speed 4.8 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC E262D196
Copy CRC E262D196
Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [C1E4ACE1] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\04 - Black Zil.wav
Peak level 97.4 %
Extraction speed 5.5 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 59964D41
Copy CRC 59964D41
Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [4E825F75] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\05 - Galatian Bridge At Dawn.wav
Peak level 97.2 %
Extraction speed 6.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FDA281A3
Copy CRC FDA281A3
Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [5FCA2F31] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\06 - Al Mazzeh.wav
Peak level 97.2 %
Extraction speed 6.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 8848C258
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Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [FA8EF831] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 7
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\07 - Al Araby.wav
Peak level 97.4 %
Extraction speed 7.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC F09E24D3
Copy CRC F09E24D3
Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [613246A7] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 8
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\08 - The Great Game.wav
Peak level 98.7 %
Extraction speed 7.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 10FF7FA0
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Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [0AB67DB1] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 9
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\09 - Jannat Al Duniya.wav
Peak level 67.8 %
Extraction speed 5.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 78B92E97
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Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [2F2240B5] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 10
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\10 - Templehof File.wav
Peak level 97.6 %
Extraction speed 8.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 64A542CF
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Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [D0C8FC0E] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 11
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\11 - Al Qaboun.wav
Peak level 64.8 %
Extraction speed 7.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC DDAE1017
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Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [A39AE28A] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 12
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\12 - Checkpoint Charlie.wav
Peak level 99.3 %
Extraction speed 8.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 66986EA0
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Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [9DB636ED] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 13
Filename F:\New Rips\Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) [FLAC]\13 - Love In A Time Of Chaos.wav
Peak level 89.3 %
Extraction speed 8.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 88083413
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Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [6D395109] (AR v2)
Copy OK
All tracks accurately ripped
No errors occurred
End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.3
[CTDB TOCID: u3_0LDQTVz1DKr3.g80xbDPiVJc-] found, Submit result: u3_0LDQTVz1DKr3.g80xbDPiVJc- has been confirmed
[b6a5d2a5] (2/2) Accurately ripped
==== Log checksum 3036283449BFFF7A2F83F0F3E474D4B7CE622D907E0FB85F7F4F879A82355696 ====
Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) {Real World CDRW176}
Syriana - The Road To Damascus (2010) {Real World CDRW176}
===