Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	1	2	3	4	5

PBII - Rocket! The Dreams Of Wubbo Ockels (2017)

Posted By: popsakov

Date: 17 Nov 2022 22:09:41

Wubbo Johannes Ockels was a Dutch physicist, astronaut, pilot and professor. On October 30, 1985, he was the first Dutchman in space when he participated in a flight on the space shuttle Challenger, STS-61-A. This experience affected him deeply and when he came back he put a lot of effort into safe ways of preserving the Earth and methods of producing safe energy. Until his death in 2014, he was Professor of Aerospace for Sustainable Science and Technology at the TU Delft Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. Ockels died in 2014 of an aggressive form of kidney cancer. Until his very last day of his life - some say with his last breath - he spoke of our responsibilities: Save the earth, well now!

Dutch prog outfit Plackband, who always had a very strong socially involved projects like Plastic Soup (2010, about the pollution of the Oceans) and 1000 Wishes (2013, with the topic of child cancer), decided to write a rock opera about Ockels and his vision, both during and after his flight into space. Only a handful of bands could come up with a really good work that is musically as strong as the idea within the lyrics. And I´m glad to say that Rocket is one of them. The band has a long and complicated history at the Netherlands prog scene, being active, on and off, with vairous line up changes, since the mid 70´s. Nowadays the core members of Tom van der Meulen (drums), Ronald Brautigam (guitars) and Michel van Wassem (keyboards) are joined by singer Ruud Slakhorst and bass player Alex van Elswijk. Also on board is soprano and backing singer Natalie Mees.

The results are stunning: a great mix of neo and symphonic prog, where the band delivers an hour of continuous great music (all tracks are linked in way or another) that takes the listener to the amazing experiences of Wubbo Ockels in an a roller coaster of sounds that is always varied, melodic and creative, with not a single moment of boredom all the way through. In fact this is one of the most interesting concept albums I have heard in a long time. A rare case where the words and music combine successfully in equal terms in a rock opera. Slakhorst voice may annoy some people with his vocal lines very similar to Jon Anderson. Unlike most of Anderson´s imitators, who sound forced, Slakhorst voice comes across as natural and smooth, a simple coincidence of timbres. The band delivers a tapestry of sounds that takes some time to get into, but that will provide the listener with a great deal of pleasure if you listen carefully. This is definitely a grower that reveals more and more fine details with each spin, like any great prog record does. This is a real team work with all the instruments appearing and leaving according to the what the song demands. So don´t expect any explicit display of virtuosity here. This is music for art´s sake. Still, I do have to point out those fine, emotional guitar solos by Brautigam, a guy that has his own style of playing.

Rocket has a very good production and tasteful arrangements that include a string quartet to enhance the sound of some passages. Nad Sylvan (Unifaun, Agents Of Mercy. Steve Hackett) sings on one track too.

Conclusion: One fo the best records of 2017. Those guys took a quite risky project and came up with an excellent work that will please anyone who likes good melodic prog rock, even if they don´t get the storyline. With no weak parts and a very original approach for such "political correct" theme, Plackband gives us both a masterpiece of good music and very good food for thought. Not many artists can accomplished that. Final rating: 5 stars with honors.

~ Tarcisio B. Moura, Prog Archives

Official Website | Prog Archives | Discogs | All Music

***************

Track List:

01. Rocket Part I [0:05:22.72]
02. Gravity [0:04:46.33]
03. On My Own Again [0:05:41.53]
04. Mother [0:04:42.48]
05. Life In The Cloud [0:05:28.45]
06. Rocket Part II [0:04:57.74]
07. Trapped [0:03:54.17]
08. Pure Destruction [0:04:05.44]
09. Nothing Is Real [0:05:41.66]
10. Happy Energy [0:04:48.33]
11. Blue Marble [0:07:32.70]
12. Rocket Part III [0:05:26.19]

Personnel:
Ruud Slakhorst - vocals
Michael Van Wassem - keyboards, piano, vocals
Ronald Brautigam - guitars
Alex Van Elswijk - bass, pedals
Tom Van Der Muelen - drums
Nathailie Mees - vocals

With:
Nad Sylvan - vocals (7)

EAC Log

Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016

EAC extraction logfile from 19. August 2017, 19:18

PBII / Rocket - The Dreams of Wubbo Ockels

Used drive : TEAC CD-W516EB Adapter: 1 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 685
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

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : Yes
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\FLAC_1.3.2\win64\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=ripped by wurensh for rutracker.org" %source% -o %dest%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 5:22.72 | 0 | 24221
2 | 5:22.72 | 4:46.33 | 24222 | 45704
3 | 10:09.30 | 5:41.53 | 45705 | 71332
4 | 15:51.08 | 4:42.48 | 71333 | 92530
5 | 20:33.56 | 5:28.45 | 92531 | 117175
6 | 26:02.26 | 4:57.74 | 117176 | 139524
7 | 31:00.25 | 3:54.17 | 139525 | 157091
8 | 34:54.42 | 4:05.44 | 157092 | 175510
9 | 39:00.11 | 5:41.66 | 175511 | 201151
10 | 44:42.02 | 4:48.33 | 201152 | 222784
11 | 49:30.35 | 7:32.70 | 222785 | 256754
12 | 57:03.30 | 5:26.19 | 256755 | 281223

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename Y:\EAC\wurensh\Plackband\PBII - Rocket - The Dreams of Wubbo Ockels.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 4.4 X
Range quality 99.9 %
Test CRC BE7F1F61
Copy CRC BE7F1F61
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [70F1F365] (AR v2)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [E949546F] (AR v2)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [56149747] (AR v2)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [F0CE3148] (AR v2)
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [084460B0] (AR v2)
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [CEE531F8] (AR v2)
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [BC29E98B] (AR v2)
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [C1A71DA7] (AR v2)
Track 9 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [369D0AA7] (AR v2)
Track 10 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [487E7AD0] (AR v2)
Track 11 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [86DF6053] (AR v2)
Track 12 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [4F960C50] (AR v2)

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

[CTDB TOCID: rheEAvHh6QP4TXIhsY9UQlKuRfU-] found
Submit result: rheEAvHh6QP4TXIhsY9UQlKuRfU- has been confirmed
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
2 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
3 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
4 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
5 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
6 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
7 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
8 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
9 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
10 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
11 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
12 | (1/1) Accurately ripped

==== Log checksum CCB3243FF17771CED464D3943224E6F2D25F3BEDEEB52D9EDB9C3E93486A523C ====

CUETools Log

[CUETools log; Date: 03.09.2017 4:00:53; Version: 2.1.5]
[CTDB TOCID: rheEAvHh6QP4TXIhsY9UQlKuRfU-] found.
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
11 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
12 | (2/2) Accurately ripped
[AccurateRip ID: 001b3cb3-00fe0a24-a20ea50c] found.
Track [ CRC | V2 ] Status
01 [7241f5e0|70f1f365] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
02 [446cd98b|e949546f] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
03 [ad4e09c3|56149747] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
04 [fe91ce73|f0ce3148] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
05 [c9e0cad2|084460b0] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
06 [063ddc4b|cee531f8] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
07 [3aa0d119|bc29e98b] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
08 [dfa2d81e|c1a71da7] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
09 [ccf93f43|369d0aa7] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
10 [007145ed|487e7ad0] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
11 [26d67e6b|86df6053] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
12 [dfb84998|4f960c50] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped

Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 98,8 [BE7F1F61] [EBF8EE2C] CRC32
01 98,8 [4F712D91] [F942392F]
02 98,8 [55983B36] [FDB07AD6]
03 98,8 [97E92C2D] [BB945C83]
04 98,8 [519753D6] [FD1C05A7]
05 98,8 [A845F09C] [45DF67F6]
06 98,8 [1D90DF0B] [70A07119]
07 98,8 [BB47EDD8] [81382117]
08 98,8 [1121C8FF] [891CD599]
09 98,8 [C29FD605] [58BF08AC]
10 98,8 [B1D44346] [E02AD286]
11 98,8 [CCEDD343] [27A57BAE]
12 98,8 [A5BA664F] [30D530D0]

All thanks go to wurensh

>>> My Blog <<<

DOWNLOAD:

FLAC
MP3
SCANS

DOWNLOAD FROM USENET - 14 DAYS FREE ACCESS

Rock Progressive Rock Symphonic Rock Plackband PBII Lossless FLAC MP3 CD-Rip + Scans 2010s 2017