Keser- Robo_Ghost
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 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

The Keser sound has its roots in the Glasgow underground guitar music scene of the late 90s which included transcendental bands such as Aereogramme, Mogwai and Arab Strap.

Fusing the guitar style of that lauded era with synthesised beats has resulted in a new progressive form of guitar-based seraphic electronica.

Ambient and ethereal sounds elevate subtly, building up into crushing waves and returning back again. The vaporous instrumentals and melodic chimings are only anchored by the electro beats and unconditional ambience throughout.

The debut album 'Esoteric Escape' has captured both the Keser live feel and refined recordings into 12 tracks and diverges into the realms of post-rock melodic electronica, with a "music as a metaphor for life" mentality evident on every track - songs which seem to aptly soundtrack a person's journey.

Be it travelling through life or simply on a bus...

6 billion people can't be wrong.