by Bradley Torreano\r The bright-eyed Britpop combo Obi first came to being in 2000, when the band's members decided to come together in a studio in London. An intensive period of songwriting resulted in a demo, and that was used to score them several gigs. The band had actually existed in a much different form before this point, but it was the combination of a revamped lineup and better material that really brought the 2000 incarnation of Obi together. The band hired engineer Charlie Francis to record a new demo for the group, and the tape reached the desk of Cooking Vinyl Records later that year. The label signed the band and they asked Francis to come back and record their full-length, The Magic Land of Radio (2002.)\r