The Stereo Morphonium, a synths-and-drum-machine duo who both appeared in an early incarnation of Hefner (of whose Dead Media album this EP is rather reminiscent), strike me as slightly geeky and obsessive types. However, I suspect their obsession is more endearing than alarming: this six track demo EP may be a Flaming Lips-esque bubbling of mad scientist ideas and strange sound effects, but coupled with that singed-eyebrows air of up-all-night obsession is a My First Chemistry Set amateurishness and charm.
And that air of wide-eyed innocent experimentation, alongside TSM's deceptively accomplished trick of infusing a seemingly simple repetitive riff with an absurd amount of emotion, makes for a CD which you simply can't avoid being touched by. It's just so charming, so sweet and simple and cunningly lo-fi in its analogue-synth-and-drum-machine cleverness, that it wins the listener over without even seeming to try. After which conquest it presumably steals your identity and sells it to an international gang of fraudsters, and then you find yourself locked out of your own house and your place in the world is lost forever. It's always the quiet ones...