I should say straight away that this post has nothing to do with the band called Crowded House – unless they are fans of the Norwegian prog rock outfit, Wobbler (which seems unlikely). The headline photo is just an amusing illustration of Five Rooms, which is the title of the recently released single taken from Wobbler‘s forthcoming album, Dwellers of the Deep.

Wobbler isn’t just any prog rock band. In Five Rooms you could almost be listening to early Yes. There are Jon Anderson melody lines, the gritty sound of Chris Squire’s Rickenbacker bass and the semi-classical keyboard runs of Rick Wakeman. The guitar work may not be quite up to Steve Howe standards and the drum kit doesn’t scurry along with Bill Bruford’s flair, but overall it comes close – very close – to the sound of that vintage Yes lineup.

Like nearly every other musician on the planet, Wobbler have had to change the way they do things over the last few months. Here’s how they describe the recording sessions for the new album:

In a very Decameronesque way, we sent “histories” to each other from our hermitages, while the plague waited in the shadows outside.

The Wobbler website

Pretty scary, huh? But, if the single is anything to go by, a wobbly and disjointed 5-man band has comprehensively defeated a billion-strong army of Covid virions and built a lasting monument to their victory in the form of Dwellers of the Deep. We shall see when the album is released on 23rd October.

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Dwellers of the Deep

A1. By the Banks (13:49)
A2. Five Rooms (08:28)

B1. Naiad Dreams (04:24)
B2. Merry Macabre (19:00)

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