“DUE” is the latest release by Monteceneri, an Italian trio based in Milan. It’s their first piece of work in 2025, arriving after “Evo,” “Heimveh,” and “Plan O,” three standalone singles released in 2021. With this new material, Monteceneri showcases their natural progression by delivering four incredible compositions, garnered by magnificent songwriting, composing, arranging, and producing. Those unfamiliar with this exceptional trio can expect masterful assembly and flawless musicianship, which is vividly hearable in each segment of every track. Soundwise, Monteceneri relies upon the fundamentals of post-rock music, but don’t be surprised if you stumble upon some other music genres along the way. Sonic ingredients borrowed from styles such as shoegaze, psychedelic rock, synth, and ambient music, and you’ll probably stumble upon even more elements as you dig deeper into this material. These experimentations with many different but complementary styles resulted in a masterful display of their musical and songwriting abilities, perfectly merging everything you dearly love about modern and nostalgic post-rock music.
Before diving into the “DUE,” it’s good to know that Monteceneri excludes vocals and vocal arrangements. It’s not likely they even need some of these, as their music delivers a multilayered, multidisciplinary, universal sonic experience that tickles all your senses. Instead of paying attention to the lyrical content and vocal deliverance, they solely rely upon synths, guitars, bass, and drum arrangements, demonstrating their tremendous experience, knowledge, skills, talent, and ideas. Speaking of the instrumentations, you’ll also notice how each composition arrives with perfect structure, garnered with profoundly detailed segments, brilliant ideas, and an entire collection of marvelous orchestrations. The guitar works are unquestionably dominant ones, as they pave the way for other instruments to shine along the way. The interplay between rhythm and lead guitar builds the calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal ambiance that gradually or suddenly becomes more raw, abrasive, heavy, and powerful yet cathartic at the same time. In these sections, you’ll notice how the band levitates between ambient, post-rock, psychedelic, and progressive rock music. You’ll also hear how all those jangly, angular chord progressions and heavily distorted riffs pair with catchy, memorable, engaging leads, themes, melodies, harmonies, and other sonic maneuvers. The way this band continuously levitates between calmness and aggression is worth praise because they showcase an entirely new level of power, groove, energy, and dynamics at once.
The synth works are also worth praising because they spice things up and elevate these four songs to new heights with another layer of ambiance, sequences, harmonies, melodies, and themes. With all those analog and digital synths on their disposal, Monteceneri put an entirely new meaning to post-rock music, proving that even when you think you turned every stone looking for more innovative, fresh, unique, exciting music, there are bands like this that breaks all the rules, shapeshifts the boundaries, and takes everything to new heights. These soundscapes are mostly calm and relaxing, but there are moments where they perfectly blend into aggressive segments, delivered by profoundly heavy guitars, bass, and drums. With the same level of mastery, precision, and finesse, the bass guitar reigns supreme, but in low registers. Those equally intricate, vividly hearable, warm, or slightly distorted bass lines rumble beneath all those guitar and synth works, contributing more heaviness, clarity, and depth to an overall ambiance while simultaneously binding those orchestrations with rhythmic sequences. These low-ends are rich, dense, and luxuriant, and they unquestionably deserve equal attention as the remainder of the band. It’s one of those instruments that defines particular segments and even entire songs at times, providing more understanding to the listeners about the creative output each band member had on this fine piece of sonic artistry. And of course, this material wouldn’t shine this bright without exceptional drumming performance. Those tastefully assembled, flawlessly performed, well-accentuated beats, brakes, and other percussive acrobatics keep the remainder of the band in line while dictating groove and tempo. Whether going with the flow or steering the ambiance in so many directions, the drummer keeps this material interesting in every possible way while providing a backbone for other instruments to shine upon.
From genius songwriting, composing, arranging, and producing to excellent synth, guitar, bass, and drum works Monteceneri has everything it takes to become your next favorite post-rock band. With such precision and finesse in their performance and calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal flow that tickles your senses and forces you to contemplate the things that truly matter in life, they’ve created a perfect debut EP that will immediately become your favorite post-rock release of 2025. Look up this tremendous piece of sonic artistry on your favorite streaming platform. You won’t be disappointed.
Thoughts Words Action 