Paranoid Foundation- The Music of Chance

ARTIST: Paranoid Foundation

ALBUM: The Music of Chance

LABEL: Northern Star Records

REVIEWER: Matthew J.

DATE: 5-20-07

Available as a free download from Apple's iTunes Music Store, this collection of tracks serves as a great introduction to the dark ambient music of Cris Lee and Andy Walker. These 11 tracks range from pure, cold drone music to thicker, more guitar-influenced eerie psychedelia, but it all shares the sense of unease embodied by the project's title. Opening track "Remote" is aptly titled, as it's a lonely arrangement of windy drones punctuated only by the occasional spoken phrase or bit of scraped guitar echo, while "Disturbed" creates its sense of tension with nervewracking white noise textures that gradually absorb the bell-like tones of the song's beginning. "A New Room" takes psychedelic ambience to its most nightmarish places with dissonant yet soporific tones, while "The Future" and "What Remains Of Us" are the closest Paranoid Foundation comes to pleasant harmonies, with thick washes of guitar drenched in sustain. While spoken parts can often be a distraction in ambient music, they're put to excellent use here; the deliberately slow pace keeps things from interrupting the tranced out layers of pure sound, and the utterly matter-of-fact delivery on "No Degrees of Hell" amplifies the song's sense of hopelessness perfectly. If there's any complaint to level at this particular collection of tracks, it's that they're all a bit short; Paranoid Foundation's style would lend itself well to gradually evolving half-hour epics, and none of these songs break the 10-minute mark. Still, as an introduction to the band it's perfect, and it's hard to argue with free music; one suspects that more than a few dark ambient fans will seek out the rest of Paranoid Foundation's work after downloading this free teaser.

Let the feelings of paranoia wash over you at www.paranoidfoundation.com.