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Aviary - Ambition (2003)

Posted By: v3122
Aviary - Ambition (2003)

Aviary - Ambition (2003)
EAC | Flac(Image) + Cue + Log & M4A(Tracks) & MP3 CBR 320Kbps
AV Records, AV-1000 | ~ 393 or 395 or 136 Mb | Scans Included
Progressive Rock | All songs were recorded 1975-1979

Of all the great pomp bands, perhaps none can rival Aviary. Although misleading to the casual observer, the descriptions that must surely follow this exceptional band's music are a delight to the connoisseur of pomp rock. Grandiose, pompous and bombastic, the unique songwriting talent of Brad Love and the musical skills he and his four fellow band members bring is a truly special sound so needed in today's music scene.

~ amazon

Prolusion. The American band Aviary was active in the second half of the 1970s, and their only eponymous album was released by Epic Records in 1979 and reissued by Rewind, a division of Sony Music, in 2001. The hero of this review, "Ambition", is the new Aviary output, which however features unreleased materials written and recorded from 1975 to 1979. The album is dedicated to the memory of Ken Steimonts (see line-up above).

Synopsis. So-called compilations of previously unreleased materials are usually of interest to completists only, but Aviary's "Ambition" is another story altogether and deserves a real send-off. In short, I am very, very astonished at "Ambition", which is a truly outstanding album and is great from the first to the last note. A child of genuine inspiration and high professionalism, the music here is wonderfully both melodious and complex and is just filled with magic. The album is stylistically quite uniform and is about Symphonic Art-Rock with elements of progressive Hard Rock, though four out of the eleven songs here feature in addition elements of light classical music. While traces of influences of Queen and late Beatles are noticeable on about a half of the tracks on "Ambition", they cannot prevent my ears to recognize that on the whole, Aviary play in a style, which is outstandingly original and is full of unique ides that are certainly their own. Furthermore, marked with the continuous use of complex meters, very frequent changes of tempo, tone, and mood, and a truly progressive drive, this music is for the most part much more complex than that on any of the albums by Queen and The Beatles. Despite the fact that almost all of the songs here are short, most of them contain a huge number of different themes, and the arrangements that they consist of are highly inventive and intriguing and are always diverse and intense, i.e. regardless of whether there are vocals at the moment or not. And the vocals on the album need to be specially described. They're truly artistic, very diverse, and highly impressive, and the possessor of them, the main mastermind behind the band Brad Love, is definitely one of the strongest singers in the history of Prog, though his talents as a pianist are also more than remarkable.

Conclusion. Every part of the music on "Ambition" is so excellently thought out and is so impressive that while listened to the album, I sat in front of my speakers like being enchanted. This collection of unreleased songs is so strong that it can easily be considered one of the best albums released at the very decline of the 'mainstream' era of Prog. In my honest opinion, the release of "Ambition" is the most important Progressive-related event of the first half of 2003.

~ progressor
Aviary - Ambition (2003):

Aviary - Ambition (2003)

Tracklist:

01. Hello (3:20)
02. The Sun, The Sand (4:26)
03. Apathy (3:47)
04. Ambition (3:18)
05. You (3:55)
06. Desert Songs / Pharaohs March (11:10)
07. I Should Of Known (4:56)
08. Eva's Birthday (3:40)
09. Fine Lines (5:42)
10. Working Girl (3:37)
11. Yes And No (3:20)

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 29. May 2010, 0:42

Aviary / Ambition

Used drive : PLEXTOR DVDR PX-760A Adapter: 3 ID: 1

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 : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface

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 | 3:20.18 | 0 | 15017
2 | 3:20.18 | 4:26.31 | 15018 | 34998
3 | 7:46.49 | 3:47.04 | 34999 | 52027
4 | 11:33.53 | 3:18.56 | 52028 | 66933
5 | 14:52.34 | 3:55.36 | 66934 | 84594
6 | 18:47.70 | 11:10.63 | 84595 | 134907
7 | 29:58.58 | 4:56.27 | 134908 | 157134
8 | 34:55.10 | 3:40.55 | 157135 | 173689
9 | 38:35.65 | 5:42.47 | 173690 | 199386
10 | 44:18.37 | 3:37.05 | 199387 | 215666
11 | 47:55.42 | 3:20.66 | 215667 | 230732


Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename E:\Aviary - Ambition (2003)\Aviary - Ambition.wav

Peak level 98.3 %
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 7EE1A612
Copy CRC 7EE1A612
Copy OK

No errors occurred


AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [49355848]
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [57F6868E]
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [7B3B12E4]
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [85972C0A]
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [B5646DFD]
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [BDBA0694]
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [F2519755]
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [5D4A42D1]
Track 9 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [AB986620]
Track 10 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [CEAAD54E]
Track 11 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [9CD6F714]

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

Aviary - Ambition (2003)

Musicians:

- Brad Love / lead vocal, piano
- Paul Madden / Hammond B2 w/perc. Mellotron, MiniMoog, Profet, Rhodes
- Ken Steimonts / Rickenbacker bass, vocals
- Richard Bryans / drums, vocals
- Toby Bowen / guitar
- Tony Dart / drums (on Eva's Birthday)


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All thanks go to the original releaser