Thing of the Day
Paranoid Foundation
August
10th 2011
PARANOID FOUNDATION – Threads
(PF) –
Atmospheric, beat-heavy (not too beat heavy), six track mini album.
Industrial
ambiance, dark soundscapes, spoken word electronic claustrophobia,
clinging thoughts, slow moving beats, inside, waiting for the rain to
stop... A rolling
menace undercut with just a touch of spacerock bleep and fuzz, the
darkside of
late 70’s Hawkwind and lighthouse shining stars, a little more
menacing, far
more sinister actually, a darker fate awaiting, justified paranoia?
Cryptic
lyrical flow, meaty sub-bass dub, twitching electronica... rather like
this.Those
synth noises that electronic seagulls
make. Andrew Walker is the name responsible: seems he gathered together
the
spoken word vocals of Crispin Lee, took himself off onboard a research
ship for
two months, out there in the cold South Atlantic Oceanwith the pre-recorded vocal
fragments and a lot of downtime to fill when he wasn’t working. Two
months
cramped in the small cabin of a little research vessel, “miles off the
barren
windswept South American coastline” constructing the works that were to
become
Threads. This is the fifth release from Paranoid
Foundation, the first came out
in 2004, This release is our first encounter, and we’ll be off to check
out the back
catalogue very soon; this has us positively curious as it closes in on
us (though you
might not want to be 
listening on this on
headphones at night while out there
walking the dark streets – unless you want that paranoid adrenalin
rush, that
is).
Six tracks, six dark atmospheric tracks, dark rolling tracks, dark flowing brooding claustrophobic beats that lurk underneath the surface rather than imposing themselves. Maybe that two months out in the middle of nowhere rolling around on the dark night-time waves did affect the sound? The heavy beats are there under the surface with the fragmented vocal lines; the spoken words and the details from the gentle synths, thoughts suspended from a thread, hanging there in the ether, throbbing on the engines, lighting up the night sky. Soothing in a very uneasy, offsetting kind of way... sinister, a paranoid foundation indeed, dark and intriguing. Chivalry still starts fights, which tune shall we dance to?By the time we get to the almost dance beats of closing track These Amber Hours, they have us looking over our shoulders far too much (or for skybound threats) to really think of dancing.
