Paranoid Foundation – Life Death Indifference (Paranoid Foundation)

Taking influences from industrial music, dub and noise, London-based dark ambient duo Paranoid Foundation (aka Crispin Lee and Andrew Walker) first joined forces back in 2003, their creative core being completed with the addition of ‘silent’s third member Tetsu Okada, who provides the visual counterpoint to Lee and Walker’s sonics. After first emerging back in 2005 with their independently released debut album ‘Foundations’, this latest full-length ‘Life Death Indifference’ represents their fourth album in total, and their first since 2006’s ‘The Music Of Chance.’ ‘Dystopian’ is probably the best description that encapsulates Lee and Walker’s overall aesthetic approach on these twelve tracks. Throughout tracks such as opener ‘Perfect’s and ‘The Showroom’ utilise all the hallmarks of the dark ambient genre, with the predominant focus being treated, oppressive and uneasy-sounding drone textures with the occasional piercing harmonic note nodding towards the noise arena. There’s the occasional appearance of spidery IDM-style breakbeats (as on the title track) and grainy, glitchy elements (see ‘Lines We Draw’), but on the whole this is a mostly ambient affair. One of the more problematic elements unfortunately proves to be the spoken narration that appears throughout several tracks – rather than adding to the sense of urban alienation generated here, it unfortunately frequently comes across as more obtrusive than anything else amidst these minimalist pieces. While there are some interesting ideas here, ‘Life Death Indifference’ comes across as disappointing, with few of the tracks here proving truly compelling over their full running length.