The cover gives precious little away, and it begins inauspiciously enough, with 'Overture 5' suggesting just another laid-back instrumental electro album: background Muzak. But before I know it, I find I'm completely immersed in Sinier's sounds.
But what is is about 'Guilty Cloaks' that's so enthralling? It's hard to define, and of course, therein lies its secret. Stylistically, I suppose it's electro-pop after a fashion, but it's filtered through a dark, new-wave approach, coupled with a clear predilection for the expansive and even the vaguely experimental. The stuttering 'She is a Lord' straddles countless boundaries and follows a dizzying range of trajectories, a vintage drum machine propelling interweaving guitar and synth lines resulting in a song that sounds like A-Ha and The Danse Society splicing tapes together at the mixing desk.
There are some rather Tangerine Dream moments during 'Green Lights' which don't wash so well, but there are hints of Depeche Mode shade the corners of 'Over the Table', which is strangely haunting in its sparse dark disco echoes, and while the instrumental 'Flat Street' doesn't really go anywhere, the symphonic 'Winter Days' slowly disintegrates into a warped chaos of electronica and shows much more imagination.
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Ultimately, it's the combination of imagination and subtly-applied musical dexterity that makes 'Guilty Cloaks' an album that snags the attention and then wins the listener over with its depth, range and atmosphere.
Raoul Sinier On-line
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