(Post-Rock, Abstract, Ambient) Icebreaker - Distant Early Warning - 1999, WavPack (image+.cue), lossless

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008
EAC extraction logfile from 24. July 2009, 18:27
Icebreaker / Distant Early Warning
Used drive  : TSSTcorpCDDVDW SH-S203B   Adapter: 3  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                              : Installed external ASPI interface
Used output format              : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate                : 1024 kBit/s
Quality                         : High
Add ID3 tag                     : Yes
Command line compressor         : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\wavpack.exe
Additional command line options : -hmx3 -w "artist=%a" -w "title=%t" -w "album=%g" -w "date=%y" -w "tracknumber=%n" -w "genre=%m" -w "comment=ExactAudioCopy v0.99pb4" %s %d
TOC of the extracted CD
     Track |   Start  |  Length  | Start sector | End sector
    ---------------------------------------------------------
        1  |  0:00.00 |  5:10.70 |         0    |    23319
        2  |  5:10.70 |  5:21.42 |     23320    |    47436
        3  | 10:32.37 |  3:36.47 |     47437    |    63683
        4  | 14:09.09 |  8:11.73 |     63684    |   100581
        5  | 22:21.07 |  6:45.38 |    100582    |   130994
        6  | 29:06.45 |  6:32.73 |    130995    |   160467
        7  | 35:39.43 |  3:05.28 |    160468    |   174370
        8  | 38:44.71 |  8:34.52 |    174371    |   212972
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     Filename E:\Muzak\Icebreaker\1999 - Distant Early Warning\Icebreaker - Distant Early Warning.wav
     Peak level 100.0 %
     Range quality 100.0 %
     Test CRC CF39A885
     Copy CRC CF39A885
     Copy OK
No errors occurred
End of status report

REM GENRE Electronic
REM DATE 1999
REM DISCID 570B1708
REM COMMENT ExactAudioCopy v0.99pb4
PERFORMER "Icebreaker"
TITLE "Distant Early Warning"
FILE "Icebreaker - Distant Early Warning.wv" WAVE
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    TITLE "Melody For NATO"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    TITLE "Co-Prosperity Sphere"
    INDEX 01 05:10:70
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    TITLE "The Arctic Night"
    INDEX 01 10:32:37
  TRACK 04 AUDIO
    TITLE "Reconnaissance Flight"
    INDEX 01 14:09:09
  TRACK 05 AUDIO
    TITLE "Distant Early Warning System"
    INDEX 01 22:21:07
  TRACK 06 AUDIO
    TITLE "Supply Lines / The Track North"
    INDEX 01 29:06:45
  TRACK 07 AUDIO
    TITLE "Listening Station"
    INDEX 01 35:39:43
  TRACK 08 AUDIO
    TITLE "Untitled"
    INDEX 01 38:44:71

New Yorker Alexander Perls and Londoner Simon Break met each other while Perls was attending school in London, eventually joining up with Glen Johnson in Piano Magic. After leaving the Piano Magic stable, Perls and Break formed the highly conceptual electro-acoustic duo Icebreaker. With funding provided by the NATOarts board of directors, Distant Early Warning was released in September of 1999 through Aesthetics. Like the Rush song of the same name, the record took its name from (and was inspired by) the radar stations located at the edges of Canada and Alaska that warned NATO members states of possible Soviet nuclear strikes. Continuing their alliance with NATOarts -- an organization that "seeks to promote global security and stability through the exhibition of works of conceptual art" -- the duo boarded a container ship named Trein Maersk in early 2000, spending two months on the ship during its journey from Japan to Canada recording an audio document promoting free international trade. With the help of portable digital audio equipment, Break and Perls were able to make their report possible. Released just over half a year after their return to terra firma, Trein Maersk: A Report to the NATOarts Board of Directors made their extensive report public.

Simon Break and Alexander Perls' first geopolitical concept record names itself after the system of radars located in northern Canada and Alaska that were built during the cold war to alert NATO countries of Soviet nuclear strikes. This instrumental song cycle assembled from keyboards, organs, pianos, and a series of drones most resembles the chilled eeriness of Broadcast's most atmospheric side, Steve Reich, or even Brian Eno. Icebreaker are excellent at making such an isolated, barren landscape seem so warm and lulling, placing haunting melodies every so often enough amid the cavernous drones to make the record go down more as an ambient pop record than one that merely fades into the background with whatever incidental noises fill out a room -- passing vehicles, chirping birds, creaking floors, appliance hum. "Melody for NATO" -- originally found on a split 7" with former associates Piano Magic for Debut -- is the disc's opener and the most involving of the eight tracks, built on a fragile, rolling melody that constantly shifts above sensitive percussion. The track gradually dims the way a room does when daylight dissipates, with the melodic tones warping into scratchy AM-interference territory. The duo also knows a thing or two about minimalism. The title track bridges the first and second halves of the record together with a simple one-two piano plod and creepy ambience, like walking through one of the unmanned stations depicted on the cover of the record; "The Track North" places a sickly organ tone upfront while another swirls in the background (sounds like Jon Lord's napping on the keys). Another repetitive keyboard organ hook dominates the closing "Listening Station," which shows what Stereolab could do if they lost the motorik chug and went for a darker sound. Great concept, great record.