MOBIUS

Mobius is a strong sophomore effort by Japanese artist Accept, and stands for me as a good example of an artist managing to improve his craft the second time around.

The album as such is basically divided between two rather different types of songs: On one hand there's gentle, pastoral symphonic workouts with nods in the direction of bands like The Beatles and Camel. But also utilizing psychedelic and folk-inspired textures when needed, expanding the musical canvas in a neat manner.

On the other hand we're served dark, atmospheric pieces featuring space-tinged and almost industrial atmospheres. Often fragmented and broken down, at times sporting an ominous and almost decaying sonic exploration.

The end result is an intriguing creation, where the easy-going harmonic landscapes contrast the challenging harder to grasp mood pieces in a nifty manner. Good stuff from start to finish, and where the mood pieces in particular touch upon the brilliant from time to time.

Two years after ''Silver moon'' Hisao returns under the Accept moniker with the album ''Mobius'', Vital Records was again the musichouse.Taiki appears to be the concept maker, but actually this is only Hisao's own child, who inspired the Japanese musician to write down this release.Guitar, bass, keyboards and programming are all responsibilities of Hisao with one Akiko provides female vocals in four tracks.

Hisao explored the old British stylings of bands like PINK FLOYD and GENESIS in the album, which combines soft orchestrations with lyrical parts, but there are still some MIKE OLDFIELD vibes throughout the release.Again there seems to be some great potential in here and some tracks are really lovely, but certain flaws affect the final result.These come especially from the instrumental tracks, where sound effects are used next to the natural instruments, leading to a mechanical and flat sound.Other tracks, which hurt the overall consistency, sound very spacey and monotonous.The armour of Hisao seems to include a variety of keyboard sounds with synthesizer, piano and Mellotron being the most dominant ones, while the strong use of acoustic guitars strengthens the bonds with the old GENESIS and even KING CRIMSON offerings.These arrangements are the most convinving ones with a lush sound and some interesting instrumental themes with both dreamy and complex structures, highlighted by the mix of dark-sounding Mellotron with ethereal voices and acoustic parts, while the relaxing electric solos and lyrical deliveries are following a more PINK FLOYD-like mood.Some dynamics were even needed during these pieces, which sound very soft at moments, but the refined 70's-influenced themes are at least decent.

''Mobius'' sounds a bit better than ''Silver moon'', more convincing in terms of composing, but again these modern effects and abstract instrumentals are rather confusing and not very interesting.Consider half of the album to be pretty nice and act at your own thoughts.Recommended for fans of PINK FLOYD and GENESIS...2.5 stars.