Keser

If Martin Hannett had lived to see 2009, I’m sure he’d have loved to produce an album like Robo_Ghost. As it happens, Keser have done a pretty good job without him. The dub-eyed urban soundscapes that Hannett unleashed with Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures are translated in the modern vernacular; on 3 Point Play (Set Piece), robotic beats are pumped out of drum machines rather than kits, whilst blasts of white noise replace boxy punk power chords. Amongst this post-rock ambience, however, there’s a track with enough pop appeal that it seems oddly bereft of a lead vocal: the deceivingly daft-titled Acts of Dog. Starting out like an early U2 ballad, the song is soon blitzed by a bombing raid of dangerously dirgy guitars before succumbing to a blissful fadeout. It's a collection so image-laden that it dares you to write a dystopian movie screenplay, just so it can provide the soundtrack. [Joe Barton]
- The Skinny

...they actually manage to achieve in their tracks a new sound drenched in guitar-based electronica. From the soothing rhythms of 'FM Rocker' to the angsty and mournfully elegant electro-cirlicues of '4_Cycles', Keser prove they are able to explore the syntax of electronica with awe and excitement. Sounding like a cross between a softer version of Macrocosmica with a touch of Aereogramme, Keser combine electronic tenebrous dissonance, bass-heavy rhythms and a dose of vitriol with contemplative guitars. 'Lost for Days' switches from the ghostly to the spaced out while 'Destination:Destiny' is definitely the best track on the album thanks to its crescendo of sophisticated charming sounds and its noisecore ferocity. A band worth investigating. (AB) Issue 24 Winter 2006 - Is This Music Magazine, UK

...on this release things are mainly kept below the raucous level and more on a chilled out plane. The opening track FM Rocker is a prime example of this, though it does give way, Orbital style, to the slightly more menacing 4_Cycles. Page 20 has an intro not unlike The Postal Service, maybe at a push Dntel, but definitely Jimmy Tamburello sounding. Which believe me is no bad thing...The production is slick, as is the whole presentation of the band. I'd listen to it again and on the whole it's a thumbs up for Keser. Would be interesting to catch their live show. - CROOKED RAIN, UK

"...It ticks every box to ensure post-rock success..it's up there with their dauntingly brilliant influences...divine work...Post-rock and electronica conniseurs will find much to love, plus of course it's always good to find chillout music which has no intent to cynically cash in on the Mondeo market..." Mike Mantin - GOD IS IN THE TV ZINE, UK

KESER are a Scots post rock duo who, like the best artists of the genre, mix their guitar leanings in equal part with electronica. Bold to enter such an arena, as there are so many skilful exponents not only in Scotland but also Scandinavia, which I'll extend to include Finland and Iceland. (Be sure to understand that I love the music, simply. Geography interests me far less, although I am beginning to wonder if there isn't some magic in the North Sea water!)

There is something rarified about this ambitious debut. High altitude, far-reaching, call it what you will. This is a polished, sophisticated release -- an aural panorama in twelve parts, bound together by a retro-futuristic ambience evocative of airports, cities and technology. A high speed, wide-screen dream. I think we may need our passports.

The music itself blends Boards of Canada sentimentalism with the romantic imagery of The Blue Nile. Add a dash of the cheerier side of Mogwai's guitar pickings and you've pretty much got Esoteric Escape. (That's the Young Team rather than the Come On Die Young Mogwai. Think mischief rather than melancholy.) Reading back, I realize all three of those luminaries are themselves also Scottish. No escaping shadows of such magnitude, I guess? And frankly, why would you want to?

The album opens with a couple of mood-setting pieces. All the aural cues are there. Sit down, strap in and pay close attention to the safety demonstration. Guitars come to the boil nicely but it's KESER's brave beats that ties it all together. Third up, a track to luxuriate in. The lulling hypnosis of Lost For Days pours out of my speakers like dry ice, and begins to envelope me slowly from the ankles upwards. Narrated by its bass and flirting with dub sensibilities, this could almost have been a Seefeel track. Lovely.

In the next beginning marks the start of the album's defining phase. This searing epic drops me nicely into Rolling V2, a modern spin on the gentle, early works of Durutti Column executed with panache. Teach could have been a Stafrænn Hákon and Ulrich Schnauss collaboration . Considering it is also one of the less notable tracks on the album, I think that shows the quality of what we're talking about here. Teach does however lead nicely into another of the album highlights, Frozen fireworks. (You know it's going to be a standout from the title!). Pure Schnauss again, but with a twist in the form of a neat voiceover.

Destination destiny is a mere formulaic lull in proceedings - another rocketing climax. I prefer the KESER that isn't afraid to explore their quieter side. Yet on Page 21, guitars twinkle like a Christmas Eve sky. The atmosphere is of joy and starry-eyed wonder. A track M83 would have been proud to call their own. It shows though, how effortlessly KESER can step from one guise to the next. One moment they are a soundtrack for 70's Boeing Documentary, and the next they are Richard Dreyfus entering the Mothership in Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind!

On this slick debut they've proven they can fly anything. Now, where will they take us?

Brett Spaceman - Evil Sponge

One of the main reasons for starting this blog was to find and help promote great Scottish music. Although I have posted on a handful of acts already, I thought it was time to step it up a gear. First up is Keser, who were recommended to me by New York based blog I Work At Initech.

I am preplexed at how I managed to let a band such as Keser slip under my radar, and it took an American based blogger to point them in my direction. The Edinburgh based duo create a sound that masses together the intesity of Mogwai, Boards of Canada style synths and inventive programming. They also share some similarities with Glasgow based Errors.

"Esoteric Escape" was released in late August through Scottish indie label Alex Tronic, and is a thoroughly enjoyable affair. It kicks off with the pulsing keys of "FM Rocker", before their electronica influences come to the fore after a minute or so with glitchy beats forcing their way into the mix.

"4 Cycles" continues this trend, although this time it contains a more prominent guitar melody that gives an almost Four Tet aura. However, the duo show they are a big fan of shoegazer bands such as My Bloody Valentine as a huge wall of guitar distortion hits around the 3 minute mark. The track ends with crazy Aphex style programming.

The first real highlight occurs on the fifth track, "In The Next Beginning". Starting with obscured and intertwined vocal samples, the duo portray a satisfying ability of combining euphoric synths, huge wall-of-sound guitars and solid chunky beats.

Being form Scotland, it is hard for bands not to be influenced by what has gone before them. Keser have certainly studied the dynamics of bands such as Mogwai and Aerogramme, but also retain their own identity.

"Rolling V2" would be more at home on a Boards Of Canada album than a Mogwai release, while "Frozen Fireworks" is introduced with pounding Rich Hawtin-esque beats and a sample of someone talking in A Scottish accent, that is a lot less harsher than my Glaswegian dialect.

Again the duo mix those strings, beats and guitars to great effect. If anybody knows, n5md artist, Bitcrush they will know what I am talking about. "Frozen Fireworks" would have been my favourite track on the album, if it wasn't for the next one.

"Destination:Destiny" immediately made me take notice as soon as I heard it. This one I recommend playing at full volume to get the greatest impact. It is a slow-burner (around four minutes of build up) but it is well worth the wait. As mammoth sounding guitars are unleashed around after the 4 minutes . It is as forceful as anything Mogwai have ever recorded and is certainly one of those 'hair on the back' of the neck moments.

Things are toned down slightly for the remaining three tracks. Album closer, "Kontrol/ Kaos" is an apt name for the track, as it starts calmly beofre descending into the chaos of those signature guitars.

"Esoteric Escape" is an album that can be listened to with headphones (where you will hear the intircate programming and subtle vocal samples) or you can also play it at full volume to annoy the neighbours with huge distorted guitar chords. Either way you will get a lot from Keser. A welcome edition to the scottish music scene.

Michael Henaghan
- Boring Machines Disturbs Sleep

"Calm, beautiful ascending passages that build to more drifting and hissing cascades..and mystical periods with adequately indistinct vocals..One could call Kevan and David postrock traditionalists who care about the genre's legacy well." - POPÖGA, SWEDEN

Keser have recently had their debut album 'Esoteric Escape' released by Edinburgh based label 'Alex Tronic Records', to which many good things have been said. "There is something rarefied about this ambitious beauty" Comparisons made to 'Boards Of Canada' and 'Mogwai' are justified, as Keser's sound has a beautiful, ethereal depth to it, taking the listener on a hypnotic flight through their utopian world. The escapism starts with delicate ambient strings washed over faint vocals and samples. When live, Keser have a dynamic energy full of distorted guitar and crunchy beats backed by some imposing visuals, in all promising to be the perfect support to christ. Proving yet again, what exceptional eletronica is out there in Scotland waiting to be heard.

- Tronic, Glasgow, UK

bannerman's review
Laki Mera / Keser
Bannerman's Edinburgh
Fri 27 April

A busy night in the capital with Tryptch taking over at least four of the main medium sized venues making it hard for anyone else to pull a non corporate generated crowd. Fringe of Tryptch would be not too far off in describing this bill from two sides of the new music/experimental continuum. One band instrumental that rumbled and roared the other elemental with siren like vocals and a cello that soared...!!!

Keser totally instrumental, lap-top at the forestage, guitar and bass grooving around heads down swaying in constant motion with a euphoria its purpose. A cavernous sound that suggested elements of the Cocteau twins on a crash course with Sigur Ros only no singing and with extra bass. Indeed if Edinburgh had an underground system a few folks might have been heading for cover if a twin beam of lights was to come heading out of the darkness, such was the rumble of the subsonic bass being generated from the far end of the archway. Keser's album is winning them many friends on the electronica circuit, on this showing and in spite of the sound system more of us are beginning to understand why they are being lauded.

Brian Mountbatton
Is This Music? Magazine,
UK Issue 24 Winter 2006 .
- Brian Mountbatton

The List:
GRV, Edinburgh, Fri 23 Oct

There are three words which it will probably become a legal requirement to use in all reviews of this band: epic, soundscape, cinematic. There. Done. Another one, if we’re talking about the live Keser experience, is loud: the noise coming from these two most unassuming of chaps defies the laws of physics, seeming to sound bigger than the room itself could possibly contain. Compared with the ambient sounds of the record they’re launching tonight, this is heavier, with more thunderous beats and guitar that reverberates through your very core.

With no vocals and little in the way of a leading melody to distract you, it’s the tiny, nuanced variations that mean a lot. Whether it’s the odd syncopated beat or a key change in just one layer of the rich overall sound, these are the progressions that carry you along on this slow-burning, but ultimately very rewarding journey. The most richly layered are the best of the tracks, combining droning guitars, a stuttering electronic beat and rippling melody combining to tell a gripping musical tale.

www.keser.co.uk
- The List