The Mobius Band

Opening bands have one of the hardest jobs in the world. Often mismatched on the bill, these poor souls know you're not there to see them, and that most of the audience will spend their set impatiently clicking their Indiglos to gauge how much longer until the main attraction takes the stage. And then there's the pressure of realizing they've got just this one chance to reach everyone in the venue-- if their set doesn't go well, they've likely lost potential audience members for good, and even if it does, it's a crap-shoot as to whether or not any new fans will jump on board.

Every once in a while, though, the opening act just nails it: the audience matches up, the performance kills, and just enough confidence gets projected from the stage to distract from the passage of time and win a few mailing list signees. I caught the Mobius Band opening for Hood and Surface of Eceon about nine months ago, and this is pretty much exactly what happened. I came in wondering who they were, and walked out with a copy of their second numerically titled EP, the hand-packaged Two. And it mostly lived up to their show, with a few pleasantly surprising twists and turns thrown in. The band's kitchen sink blend of everything from fusion-era Miles to prime Kraut groove to glitch to straight-up rock was pursued from a fresh angle, and their exploratory, amateurish approach was charming.

With the release of Three, their third EP in two years, the Massachusetts trio make the jump into the world of labels and grow fully into their sound, eradicating nearly every inconsistency found on their past releases. The speed of the band's progress is stunning. I won't even venture to imagine where they'll be in another year. Opener "Frozen Lake in Unison" is a fairly basic instrumental-- choppy drums, loosely wielded guitars, some background glockenspiel tinkling and a vaguely jazzy feel, but the recording renders it much deeper, utilizing the ambience of the room it was recorded in (and the freeway, if I'm hearing things correctly) and samples of indecipherable conversation to open the composition up.

"Burnoff" surges forth in its wake, swathed in sheets of buzzing analogue synth, underlined by a cutting, tonally limited bassline. There's a deceptively infectious pop song hiding in all the buzz, though, and that's what really makes it work. The Mobius vocal chops are up of late, and they've crafted their most immediate melody for the occasion here. The upward quality arc continues with the gorgeous acoustic guitar and crunchy beats of "Arrows". Uneasy string samples flutter in and out of the background, haunting the laid-back vocal melody and ultimately taking over the song as the drum kit rises over the programming to bring everything to an unsettled conclusion.

"Well-Thumbed Page" simultaneously offers a nod to the American Analog Set and a wink to Autechre, while the impassioned strumming of "Snow on Snow" puts you in the austere beauty and calm of a winter landscape without turning your fingers blue. The EP closes with "Plastic Pillar", a creeping thing that opens with harmonics, slippery beats and barely audible ambient voices, and ultimately morphs into a pulverizing assault led by overdriven drums and topped-out VU meters.

With Three, the Mobius Band have definitively disproved their own punny moniker, proving that they do, in fact, have more than one side. As they continue to focus their sound and hone their craft, I have no doubt they'll emerge as a force to be reckoned with. For now, they're certainly one worth listening to.

November 27th, 2002
- Joe Tangari

Who? Western Massachusetts power trio who aren't afraid of the term "avant-garde."

Sounds like? A synthesis of traditional instrumentation and sequencer/sampler noodling, held together by remarkably inventive drum patterns and occasional vocals.

How is it? Thrill Jockey fans will cream their jeans over this record. No one else will care.

Kindred spirits: Tortoise, Kraftwerk, Emperor Penguin

7 out of 10
- Alternative Press

"The Mobius Band cruise the same strip as Chicago artists like Jim O'Rourke and David Grubbs, smarty-pants who make dense orchestrated post-rock stuffing it with horns, samples, found sounds, aggressive groove drumming, synths and sequencers, finessed melodic guitar and California-breeze meets monotone indie vocals. Impressive, especially when they let it squiggle out of the lines."

- David Sean Bosler

"Three, the new EP from Western Massachusetts trio The Mobius Band, opens well with "Frozen Lake In Unison", combining relentless, splashing drums with the kind of delicate, smoky lead work that Tortoise wrap around listener's heads. But the closing "Plastic Pillar" points a possible way out of the post-rock ghetto, with an accelerating bass riff illuminated by theremin-like tones giving way to scything cymbals and Krautpunk drums."

- David Keenan

The Mobius Band is a Massachusetts group that leans toward post-rock whil staying intriguingly off-balance. - The Onion

The sounds of Radiohead, electric-era Miles Davis, and 'Krautrock' all seep through The Mobius Band's compositions, yet the band remains wholly original. - Ethan Covey

"The Mobius Band has a penchant for sonic squiggles and krautrock beats, but
it's clear that gigging with the likes of Broadcast and Broken Social Scene
has polished its gift for crafting gentle electropop songs." - Time Out New York