(Electric Violin Rock) Fuse - Fuse - 2010, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

In the summer of 2009 FUSE became the first electric violin artist to sign a major global record deal through credible traditional channels in over a decade.
FUSE are virtuoso musicians Linzi Stoppard and Ben Lee who, on their eponymous debut album, harness their bespoke signature Bridge electric violins and take Rock tracks that people love and radically but lovingly reinterpret them. As Linzi says, "It's completely fresh, no one thought that what we do was even possible. Someone recently said, 'The album is great but I can't hear as much of the violins as I'd like'. Everything you hear is violins! The style that we use when we play is more akin to that of a guitar player, with more soul and electricity - literally! We chose work from artists that are huge stadium acts, and that's where we want to be. It is that big and that powerful - get some ear plugs! We specialise in blowing away people's preconceptions."
What FUSE do is unique but they feel that the tracks that they reinvent are not untouchable. "We're unafraid to cover classic rock tracks," says Ben. "Don't forget that all 'classical' music today is cover versions of music by pop stars from the last 300 years! What we do can have a truly global appeal; there are no language barriers. Whilst we're a string band, people can sing along to the choruses that we all know."
The sound that FUSE generate takes serious know-how and technical skill. Linzi explains, "We play five string and four string instruments; this gives us more range than a normal violin. We play Bridge violins with Kevlar carbon fibre composite bodies. They could take a bullet for us!" Ben continues, "The violins are sprayed with a finish containing gold particles. We have particular tonal requirements - of course we keep our secrets to ourselves! - but I will say that we use guitar amps, combinations of valve heads and transistor heads and speaker cabinets. Other people playing electric violins just plug into a mixing desk whereas we use a series of effects pedals." FUSE have had to invent new ways to render melodies that were vocal on the original tracks. FUSE aim to prove that the electric violin can be as versatile as the electric guitar. There's no cutting down or simplification involved. Live, it is nothing short of explosive - the violins are generally accompanied by the sound of jaws dropping!
There is unquestionably a FUSE 'sound'. The band performed at a Status Quo event and, as Linzi says, "Everyone just got it. Francis Rossi said, 'I love what you've done, how did you get that sound?' He ended up performing on our recording of 'Down Down'. Nick Mason from Pink Floyd was at a gig and offered to drum for us!" Ben continues, "One of our producers played on new material for Michael Jackson and sent our version of 'Beat it' to the project team. They thought it was unbelievable and asked who the guitarist was! They were going to play it for Jackson himself but of course we don't know if that happened."
Linzi and Ben took differing routes into FUSE, though their backgrounds have much in common. Both learned violin using the Suzuki method which Ben describes as, "A rock n roll way of learning because it trains the ear rather than focusing on theory or reading music." Both performed many of their first public shows busking.
Linzi had an enviable reputation as a solo electric violinist performing at prestigious events globally but was looking for a musical director to help take her ambitions to the next level. She and Ben first met when she borrowed his purple Yamaha violin for a photoshoot - "They gave me a fifty quid deposit for a violin worth a grand and drove off! I was a little naive but it all worked out." For a couple of years Ben worked in the studio with Linzi until the idea of forming a duo clicked. "Whilst I'd been using electric violins for ten years and knew all about effects, Linzi brought her own tastes and unique vision to bear - FUSE is my palette and her brush!"
Choosing the tracks for the 'FUSE' album was not easy, but the duo picked personal favourites and tracks that they knew that most people love. Linzi says, "With the track 'Glorious' we needed to turn the vocal into a string line and it just worked, it's a great song, one that you just hear people whistling." More inventively Ben relates, "We combined the mediaeval 'O Fortuna' from Carmina Burana with 'Kashmir' by Led Zeppelin, 'Carmina' felt a bit empty just on strings and amazingly we realised that the tracks had the same musical form. It works so well!"
The duo want to do things their own way. Linzi comments, "We have been told in the past that it would be 'very much in our interest' to apply for certain reality talent shows but we wanted to go through the credible traditional record company route that our heroes took." FUSE have enjoyed some great live shows including several Royal Albert Hall gigs and memorably Glastonbury, Ben says, "We were late, didn't have the right passes and were about to miss the slot. We ended up flagging down an ice cream van - we got in with all the equipment and got there just in time." At another show all the equipment got lost en route - all the wiring and sound processors FUSE need - and was couriered to the show, arriving in the nick of time. Without this gear the violins are silent, the one disadvantage of electric instruments!
With the release of 'FUSE' scheduled for May 2010, the band look set to achieve many of their goals. Linzi says, "We want the album to be a success and then to tour. Live is where we're exceptional - we'd love to take FUSE to America. They would love our music I think. Maybe one day we'll do an album featuring some of our heroes. That would be amazing."

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009
EAC extraction logfile from 19. July 2010, 20:59
Fuse / Fuse
Used drive  : ASUS    DRW-1814BL   Adapter: 0  ID: 1
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                                : Not detected, thus 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)\FLAC\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=EAC FLAC -8" %s
TOC of the extracted CD
     Track |   Start  |  Length  | Start sector | End sector
    ---------------------------------------------------------
        1  |  0:00.00 |  3:32.07 |         0    |    15906
        2  |  3:32.07 |  3:32.64 |     15907    |    31870
        3  |  7:04.71 |  4:00.09 |     31871    |    49879
        4  | 11:05.05 |  2:07.51 |     49880    |    59455
        5  | 13:12.56 |  0:30.56 |     59456    |    61761
        6  | 13:43.37 |  1:18.36 |     61762    |    67647
        7  | 15:01.73 |  3:58.08 |     67648    |    85505
        8  | 19:00.06 |  4:22.74 |     85506    |   105229
        9  | 23:23.05 |  3:34.23 |    105230    |   121302
       10  | 26:57.28 |  3:51.49 |    121303    |   138676
       11  | 30:49.02 |  3:17.13 |    138677    |   153464
       12  | 34:06.15 |  3:34.15 |    153465    |   169529
       13  | 37:40.30 |  4:27.02 |    169530    |   189556
       14  | 42:07.32 |  4:41.02 |    189557    |   210633
Track  1
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     Track quality 100.0 %
     Copy CRC 41B068E3
     Copy OK
Track  2
     Filename C:\Музыка\Fuse Flac\02. Fuse - I Love Rock'N'Roll.wav
     Peak level 96.6 %
     Track quality 99.9 %
     Copy CRC 89E21F8C
     Copy OK
Track  3
     Filename C:\Музыка\Fuse Flac\03. Fuse - Beat It.wav
     Peak level 96.6 %
     Track quality 100.0 %
     Copy CRC 926F415D
     Copy OK
Track  4
     Filename C:\Музыка\Fuse Flac\04. Fuse - Go Your Own Way.wav
     Peak level 96.6 %
     Track quality 100.0 %
     Copy CRC 06866805
     Copy OK
Track  5
     Filename C:\Музыка\Fuse Flac\05. Fuse - Interlude.wav
     Peak level 96.6 %
     Track quality 100.0 %
     Copy CRC C209844A
     Copy OK
Track  6
     Filename C:\Музыка\Fuse Flac\06. Fuse - The Chain.wav
     Peak level 96.6 %
     Track quality 100.0 %
     Copy CRC 06AF6CAA
     Copy OK
Track  7
     Filename C:\Музыка\Fuse Flac\07. Fuse - Crazy Crazy Nights.wav
     Peak level 96.6 %
     Track quality 100.0 %
     Copy CRC 0465E3E6
     Copy OK
Track  8
     Filename C:\Музыка\Fuse Flac\08. Fuse - Final Countdown.wav
     Peak level 96.6 %
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     Copy CRC A5FCC599
     Copy OK
Track  9
     Filename C:\Музыка\Fuse Flac\09. Fuse - Going Home.wav
     Peak level 96.6 %
     Track quality 100.0 %
     Copy CRC 79B40558
     Copy OK
Track 10
     Filename C:\Музыка\Fuse Flac\10. Fuse - Fix You.wav
     Peak level 96.6 %
     Track quality 100.0 %
     Copy CRC 92F8CF8E
     Copy OK
Track 11
     Filename C:\Музыка\Fuse Flac\11. Fuse - Down Down.wav
     Peak level 96.6 %
     Track quality 100.0 %
     Copy CRC 6568ACDF
     Copy OK
Track 12
     Filename C:\Музыка\Fuse Flac\12. Fuse - Battle Without Honor Or Humanity.wav
     Peak level 96.6 %
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     Copy CRC 9492E791
     Copy OK
Track 13
     Filename C:\Музыка\Fuse Flac\13. Fuse - Top Gun Anthem.wav
     Peak level 96.6 %
     Track quality 100.0 %
     Copy CRC C75F8A40
     Copy OK
Track 14
     Filename C:\Музыка\Fuse Flac\14. Fuse - Led Carmina (Kashmir, Carmina Burana).wav
     Peak level 96.6 %
     Track quality 100.0 %
     Copy CRC FF3D60DD
     Copy OK
No errors occurred
End of status report

REM GENRE "Rock Electric Violin"
REM DATE 2010
REM DISCID B50AF80E
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