Wrapped in glossy paper, with a minimal artwork in red and white, comes this stellar split LP between Led Er Est and Ancien Régime. Led Er Est is an all-analog trio hailing from Brooklyn and one of the pivotal bands of Wierd Records. Their style bridges the gap between the first Cabaret Voltaire's lo-fi approach on pop and a more straightforward europop attitude. “Ps 18” is an instrumental track with nasty synthlines and a perfect groove that will push your brain from side to side, if listened at the proper volume (a personal favourite). The second one is “Lonesome XOXO” and shows them dealing with a brighter kind of synthpop compared to the one played on their debut “Dust On Common”, which came out just 6 months ago. “A Darkness In My Soul” is a great cover, originally from Solid Space, one of the most obscure and underrated minimal synthpop bands (fingers crossed for a reissue...). “Ants” harks back into their experimental roots (well documented on their untitled tape that came out on Throaning Tapes) and the last one is another cold-pop gem called “Orange”. The b-side was a total blast to me, Ancien Régime is one of Italy's best kept secret! They are a young band from Rome and they play a dark post-punk soaked with lots of synths and vintage drum machines. The incisive singing flows perfectly in the mix with new wavey guitar and pounding bass structures. “Brief Encounter” and “When They Fall” are heartfelt anthems and i bet they both work fine when played live.“The Phantom Chariot” is a more brainy affair and takes a little more to get under your skin. Ancien Régime are a huge revelation and i have the feeling that this band is moving towards something big, let's just wait! Edition of 500, be quick.

Coming from Edinburgh, after a couple of releases on Noise-Joy, Savier is landing on MOMT with a new four track E.P. titled SERENADE MY ENEMY. Available as CD-r or digital download, the E.P. collects four tunes in balance from industrial and dub. Paragoned to Scorn or Techno Animal, Savier, without using guitars, is able to create convincing post industrial atmosphere where hard beats, bass sounds, industrial samples and tiny synth melodies form a dark soundtrack that will convince you in no time. Passing from the dilated atmospheres of the opening "Lapse" we arrive to the horror atmospheres of "The Beginning V2" carried by a sense of an incoming catastrophe. SERENADE MY ENEMY is the sound of a giant robot Gozilla shaped who's walking on your heads keeping the rhythm...

The unpredictable keyboardist, former metal-head and electronic musician Philipp Quehenberger gained a certain visibility three years ago for his album Phantom In Paradise, as it was a record issued by Editions Mego which sounded quite different from other releases by the far-sighted label managed by Peter Rehberg, but Philipp’s experimental attitude fully justifies his presence in such a blazoned roster: the main points of intersections with his previous release is the use of swirling noises and deep distorted sub-tones, being the main difference the lack of male vocals as well as interesting stylistic research. Philipp Quehenberger’s attempt could be synthetically described as a conjure between the rhythmical structures of electronic body music - in many tracks of Hazard, the influence of the sound of DAF as well as his experience as a studio-musician for Dj Hell is quite clear indeed -, psychedelic noise-rock and IDM. Such a freak deriving from the hybridization of different but often complementary genres has been molded throughout eight scrupulous tracks showing their creator’s skills hazarding progressive sound saturations of the sound.

The morbid Stupid Idea, starting the sequence, begins with the sound of a typewriter working almost as a metronome for the obsessive rhythmical step, while the following track, Undante, mixes it up certain sci-fi scents - those thrilled howling sounds normally announcing the invasion of some weirdy alien race on Earth in American and Janese sci-fi movies…- with a well-done dubbed drumming canned by Fuckhead drummer ddKern. Most of the next waves of the album have the same structure with just some relevant variations on the hypnotic Hey Gert - whose heavy-dub stepping and some distant guitars effected by wise reverberations and delays reminds some past releases by Eraldo Bernocchi or Bill Laswell -, the crank pitch in Hard Joke, the bizarre splashed drum crashes on the mumbling Keep Talking which seem to be injected in a sequence of quad waves according to the customs of some electro bandits - maybe the closest to DAF sound of the album -, the gluey techno pattern of the loony hammering of After Death Business. Some stylistic devices as well his leaning towards risk could let you suppose Philipp Quehenberger could be the bastard Austrian cousin of Meat Beat Manifesto’s Jack Dangers or maybe he just shares the same pots and pans in order to cook the groove.

Mixing synthpop and electropop, Tourdeforce (band coming from north Italy - Bergamo), are delivering through Breakdown Records their debut album COLOURS IN LIFE. Filled with fourteen songs, the album is showing a multi faceted band where male and female vocals alternation create varied atmospheres: songs like "Modern affair" or "Dancing days" ideally refer to 80s European synthpop bands such as A-HA or The Twins, proposing upbeat tempos and catchy melodies; instead, when Roby (the female singer) takes the microphone, the tracks tend to sound different (and sometimes more intimate) and influenced by nineties electro pop (with the exception of "We're not underground" which reminds me of "People Hold On", the Coldcut / Lisa Stansfield's hit). The band is putting on the table a lot of ideas and influences and most of the times they succeed into creating nice songs. They'd need a stronger production but the seeds are there, ready to spring.

Artworks, is the first thing you manipulate approaching this new project form Q.M., the images processed in the booklet are in the arena defined by McKean and its mysterious aria is really strange, spooky, neighborhood guys transformed in monsters next door. The world of QM, is obscure, above all for me, B/c I do not understand their language; this feature casts a shadow of mystery and occult over their work. In many sense sometimes, during the listening of this work, you can feel the same atmosphere of "The exorcist movie". Q.M. are noise, dark, symphonic artists and nothing is punk_like, or grunge, from a certain POV they are the Dead Can Dance of the Hebrew music world. But more aggressive, darkish and, another time, they use the mystery of their language like an Art Form; a question of perception, an ancient and unknown, for many people, language increase the mystery of this experience. I like so much their approach, they follow the rules of contemporary music (Cage) creating complex carpets of classical instruments but they add also the dimensions of the electronic processing, and the acid of an ambient-noise oriented ( guitar as the industrial excellence strumento ). Another time Q.M. created a Reign where old B/W pictures coming from alien asylums, occult maneuvers in darkness and sound from the ID and from the most ancient language of our
earth became the 4 kings of this "Middle Earth/Middle East" of music and dreams.