RA ME NIVAR

Formed in Sapri in 2005, RPI band Möbius Project finally delivered their debut album in 2014, and what an unexpected little gem it's turned out to be! "Ra Me Nivar" takes its name from an expression from an African dialect used by Italian author Alessandro Baricco in his 1993 novel "Ocean Sea" that refers to a `flying man', which the band use within the music on this album as a `metaphor for contemplative and imaginative events'. In many ways more than just an RPI album with fiery acoustic/electric guitar interplay, colourful keyboards and ardent voices, the band include gentle folk and ethnic elements, as well as offering a few sections in English to present a very cultured and worldly album. But not only does it hold a rich selection of musical sounds, this may be one of the most vocally rich and layered of recent RPI albums, with a subtle production that enhances the warmth of the performances.

The opening title track unexpectedly begins with a chilly synth drone before biting electric guitars and Francesco Magaldi's driving drums enter around Lucio Filizola's raspy charismatic voice. The piece reveals itself to be a gutsy catchy vocal tune, but the band still finds time for grooving jazzy breaks, fiery little bass eruptions, trickles of delicate early A.M hours piano and plenty of twisting time-changes! With its dusty atmosphere and scorched droning sitar strains, `Scorci di Vita su Nastro di Mobius' reminds of the first track from RPI band Raccomandata son Ricevuta di Ritorno's ethnic/middle-eastern flavoured comeback album `Il Pittore Volante', and is initially a dreamy ballad with ravishing acoustic guitar, Gino d'Ignazio's drifting flute, murmuring bass and a sweetly passionate vocal with warm group harmonies. But the electric guitars kick in with a slow-burn smoulder, keyboards dazzle and the vocals snarl with force, revealing that unpredictable edge of danger that permeates all the best RPI albums!

`Entanglementalistically Speaking' somewhat controversially for an RPI album utilizes English vocals (which makes the track kind of sound like a different band altogether!), and despite a partly annoying repetitive chorus and a slightly grating seemingly comical element throughout, the constant eerie piano and ambitious Gentle Giant-inspired male/female group vocal arrangement is incredible! Massimiliano Amato takes over the lead vocals from this fourth track, (back to Italian too) and `In Fuga dal Destino' is short and sweet at just over three minutes, the verses a melancholic ballad with Hammond organ shimmering softly in the background before a tougher chorus, and again the group harmonies throughout are sublime. But most ambitious of all is the nine minute, three part suite `L' equilibrista', where Tony Guerrieri's bass, constantly thick and upfront in the mix, really breaks through and takes flight. It opens as a mellow psychedelic rocker with sweetly chiming guitars behind drifting group harmonies, the middle breaks into loopy synth outbursts behind noisy guitar twists, floats into a sighing reflective male/female mantra (Brunella Gianni's voice sounding especially lovely here) and then closes on a scorching electric guitar solo.

Despite probably performing the few English passages more convincingly that some other Italian groups have managed, the group would perhaps be wise to stick to their native language overall, as it's such an important element of proper RPI music, and the current musical environment won't really allow for groups like this to gain larger worldwide exposure. But on the strength of the material on this disc, 'Ra Me Nivar' holds strong tunes with colourful instrumental qualities yet ditches overly-polished and slick production for a sparse, simpler sound that warmly allows all the musicians and especially their wonderful voices to truly shine. It's a superb start for the group, and their debut is a most welcome and very surprising RPI highlight of the last year!

Four stars.