The Mobius Band The Loving Sounds of Static Ghostly International
Here’s the dark little secret about this band: these glitch-pop meets indie-rock up-and-comers were once a jam band. I can tell you: I was there. Our paths have crossed intermittently since we were all at Wesleyan University, and I’ve watched in time-lapse as they’ve gone from a traditional improvisatory band to their current incarnation as next-hot-thing in the underground. That status is well-deserved and their full-length debut (following a string of self-released EPs) delivers on their promise.
Singer/bassist Peter Sax has settled nicely into his voice, which at first seemed
ill-suited to this kind of stuff but now sounds completely at home in the Mobius
Band’s electronic-meets-analog environs. Drummer Noam Schatz’s propulsive,
loop-like beat drives “Radio Coup” while Ben Sterling’s guitar
nudges along Sax’s lazy melody. “Taxicab,” here reprised from
one of their earlier EPs, gets a makeover that epitomizes why the Mobius Band
has made the jump from great local group to legitimate national band: where
the original was sparser and possessed mostly potential energy, this version
is subtly fleshed out, exploding into staggering rock-mode around the four minute
mark. I’ve little doubt that they’re headed for big things, at least
on an indie rock scale, but if you see them, tell them you know: Sax once played
bass on “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” with yours truly. ||
