First impressions are always important.  Before getting a chance to listen to Alex Moulton's Exodus, one must first get past the cover.  The cover art is unmistakably Boris (Vallejo), one of my favorite artists [I even have a trading card set of his artwork] and as I discovered he shares credit with Julie Bell. The cover depicts something as a cross between a romance novel and a science fiction novel cover.  Not being that familiar with Alex Moulton, from the cover, I was not sure what I had in store.  Beyond just the cover, the CD is contained within a hard glossy packaging that is great for the cover (and back) artwork, but makes it hard to see the text on the inside cover.  As a side note, I also liked the idea that the CD looks like an album -- the whole presentation was very clever.

Now, onto the music.  Alex Moulton has tried to create what I can only explain as a "rock opera" for techno music.  He is trying to tell a story through his music.  Using the images of the cover and your imagination, along with the titles of the song, you have to form the story within your mind of the plot.  One possible scenario which has gone through my mind when listening to the album includes to main characters, a hero and heroin (as pictured) in a futuristic world, actually the one in my mind resembles the one from the movie Flash Gordon (the one with the soundtrack by Queen), however, this world has more of a 80's pop feel to it.  Of course the story also includes an evil villain, whom takes the interstellar princess prisoner and the heros must risk life and limb to save the princess and the fate of the known universe (your typical sci-fi story).  There are also songs that depict the hero's love for each other (you see, they are separated when the hero thinks that his love had died, but come back together again), then there are also the dream sequences such as in a walk through "Paradise."   The emotions and actions of the story are in the beats and sounds of Moulton's synthesizers, and it is up to you to decipher your own meaning behind its silent lyrics.

Alex Moulton keeps your imagination open while providing a great music.  Even without a storyline, the music is still really good just to listen to.  It provides a good mood backdrop for listening to in the car, at home or even to dance to at a night club. This rates well for a debut album.