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The Loving Sounds of Static
Mobius Band
Reviewed by: Ian Signore [Sat, July 09, 2005 @ 12:31:12 PM]
Glitch-rock, synth-rock, electro-rock, lo-fi indie keyboardcore overdrive! Who really gives a crap about all these clever genre-bending names anyway? The people who seem to point them out the most are usually the music elitists (me), who feel as if they have something to prove to anyone who asks them, "What kind of music do you listen to" (me). It may seem asinine to subcategorize every single little detail about an album but with Mobius Band, it's a necessity. This album can't be called rock and be correct, it can't be called electronic and be correct either; it's a combination of all the colors of the musical rainbow.
On Mobius Band's first full-length adventure, the band's growing love of bleeps, bloops, and fuzzy-wuzziness is exemplified. Over the trio's past three EPs the amount of studio tweaking has become increasingly apparent with each release. The remaining constant seems to be front man Ben Sterling's extreme nonchalant way of delivering his lyrics. Sterling has an almost robotic calmness throughout most of the album with a few malfunctions of slight intensity here and there. The crazy studio-effects take over the non-craziness of Sterling's voice and leave this album feeling a little bland. He's best on "Radio Coup" and "Twilight" because of those few slip-ups in his melancholy demeanor, but in "Taxicab" the synth lines have to drive his ass home.
The title track starts off with drums that are going to kick you in the teeth, synths that seem to be laughing at you on the ground, and lazy guitars that are just going to stand around and not help you out. The fight lets up so that Sterling can serenade us with something about 1996, and then the beating resumes. Songs like, "I Just Turned 18" offer up a comical yet pretty dead on take on what it's really like being 18 with, "Live on mac and cheese, Ruffles, and Doritos", making me realize just how badly I need to learn how to cook…
The City Vs. Country EP melded the tranquility of Sterling's voice almost perfectly with the upbeat instrumentation whereas, The Loving Sounds of Static seem to overreach with over-production. Mobius Band is aware of this however. City Vs. Country opens with the song, "Starts off with a Bang", while The Loving Sounds of Static begins with, "Detach", as if that isn't self-explanatory enough. This album is almost too slick for it's own good. The tracks seem to mosey on by and nothing really sticks out. Mobius Band has indeed stumbled on to an ever-growing popular sound, but can they keep it?
Rating: 6 out of 10
MobiusBand.com
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