C.I.A. Debutante - Trespass

A Promethean tableau of gothic electronics and flared fretwork.

Can you believe there are now four C.I.A. Debutante LPs in the world? Batting in the cleanup spot, Trespass is the duo’s strongest, most focused effort to task. Narrator and guitarist Nathan Roche is at the peak of his oratory and string-mangling prowess, delivering recitations over a landscape of flared fretwork. This is conjoined with Paul Bonnet’s alchemical electronic stitchery and essential woodwind flourishes, summoning a sound that is inexplicably both gothic and futuristic. Imagine if Mary Shelley had created Roxy Music instead of Frankenstein, and you are beginning to approach the majesty of this record.

Burning with a demanding urgency, Trespass sweeps across time and space, from the charnel houses of Ingolstadt to the Offworld shoulders of Orion. Whatever you thought of their previous three albums, those are now but tears in the rain. With this release, C.I.A. Debutante approaches a pinnacle of "Godhead," trading the murk of the past for a sharp, high-contrast brilliance that defines the new frontiers of experimental post-punk.