This is the debut album from mobiUS (their capital letters), a band inspired by Pink Floyd, Yes and Porcupine Tree. Keyboardist Tim Newcombe started thinking about forming this band back in 2012, but never managed to get it off the ground. Then in 2020 he met bassist Alistair McCaig at a music club in the south of England, and during the conversation they realized that by combining their talents (Alistair also knows each other from college) they could have the basis of a band. Tim played sessions with drummer Andy Clifton and knew the reputation of guitarist/vocalist Andy Hughes, and so the band was born.

We start with the longest track on the album, “Odyssey,” which runs over 19 minutes. It’s always brave for a band to start with a song like this, especially if it’s a debut, and even more so if it’s an instrumental, but it comes out really well and for me is certainly the highlight of the album. If I were to point to inspirations in this piece, Rick Wakeman, Pink Floyd from the “Animals” period, Jean Michel Jarre and the Alan Parsons Project are the ones that immediately come to mind. There’s plenty of lush piano, as well as moments when Tim simply holds down chords on the synths for Andy Hughes to have a great time. Underneath we have some funky bass and drum interaction, while Tim also provides some vocoder before letting us hear some cool jazz sounds. It’s hard to realize that this was recorded remotely, as it really seems like the team is bouncing around in the same room. The song is divided into many parts, allowing the introduction of different melodies and phrases, which keeps it interesting throughout. ” And then there are 3 more long songs in the style of neo-prog rock and retro-prog-rock. A very good album.