Windsor, Ontario's
Black Ribbons are pretty blasé when it comes to the exposé of inspiration: released yesterday, Sylvana draws as much upon the pastiche
rinascimentale Italo-disco of Heartbreak as it does Depeche Mode's
Violator, or Pet Shop Boys'
Please. Bits of Cold Cave's
Love Comes Close can be detected in its histrionic build, as can the almost parodically naff synths of The Beloved's
Conscience but when their every reference point is quite so celebrated in its own right, well, the result is bound for an addictive reformation of greatness. Both melodramatic and infected with a niggling melancholia, it's contemporary synthpop with a glinting stud in its ear and a glint in its eye – an eye transfixed on the '80s now looking at a potentially lustrous contemporary.
