PRESS
Fall/Winter UK GQ Style 2011
Article by Ethan Swan of Silk Flowers
NME 24 April 2010
“Dust On Common is an album that is likely to confound expectations people may have had on it based on the Wierd scene. The cold wave and minimal electronica tags simply don’t work here—there’s certainly nothing minimal about the thick bass and cluttered synth lines that predominate. It’s an unabashedly commercial record for the most part, full of concise and finely honed songs that wouldn’t sound out of place in the mainstream if there were a sufficient marketing budget to foist Led Er Est on the masses. For now, that will remain an unreachable dream, but there’s vast potential here, in a band perfectly capable of reaching into the past for inspiration and coming up smelling like a fully-formed 21st century pop act.”
-Nick Neyland, Drowned in Sound
“Wierd Records brings us Dust on Common, the first full-length from Led Er Est. Formed in 2007, the New York trio possesses a dark, cavernous yet tuneful synthwave quality, even resembling Trisomie 21 on tracks like “Port Isabel.” At the same time, however, there are also equal elements of post-punk and a bit of raw pop reminiscent of groups as dissimilar as early Simple Minds (when Led Er Est adopts a more driving sound) and early Human League. As you’d expect from the Wierd Records camp, the band doesn’t take these reference points or their influences lightly. Dust on Common varies from propulsive, intense synthwave (e.g. “Unkept Area,” “Scissors” and “Laredo” — the latter complete with an angular post-punk guitar lead) to prance-y slow synthpop (“Destination Sanity”), to slow industrial soundtrack music (“Something for the Children”). There’s even the Argento/Claudio Simonetti-esque ”CC” that serves as the outro track for the album. Strictly serious stuff for the heads who can tell the difference between those who are down with this sound and those who are simply “trying it on” for cool points. Recommended!”
-Scott Mou, Other Music