Style: Electronic, Noise, field recordings, experimental
Primary Emotions/Themes: Experimentation through sound, strange compositions that shouldn't belong together yet somehow work
Thoughts: Paranoia Star feels like it's taken right out of a science fiction soundtrack. The album starts out with a low tone that slowly modulates. During these modulations what I presume to be samples of people talking are piped in over the... music...? The longer the track goes on the more the static increases and the more disjointed the song becomes. By the end of Guide to the Perplexed the entire experience is rather unsettling... it's the perfect introduction for what is to come.
This album is not music in the traditional sense. For a vast majority of the album there is no melody, there is seemingly nothing for my mind to grab on to and say "that is my anchor." Rather it presents a series of scenes and/or portraits in musical form that it leaves up for interpretation. Perhaps a deeper listen will provide something.
One track will sound like a heart beat distorted by machinery. The next may very well sound like what a mind at peace is, only to be interrupted by horrendous nightmares. The music is not gentle or forgiving to the listener. Rather it is insidious and erodes my mind away a little bit at a time.
Paranoia Star is one of those albums that I have trouble recalling the specifics of the music when I am not directly involved with listening to it. What I do remember tho is how it makes me feel... and that is an overwhelming sense of unease.
Most of the songs have some type of electronic pulse that works as a drumbeat/percussion, though in execution ends up sounding more like an electronic heart beat than anything organic. It's this pulse that gives the music it's life, the one thing for my mind to hold on to - my anchor. When it's there I have that all important grounding factor, when it is absent the music has its way with me.
Each of the eight songs contained within the album are specifically designed to give me a deep sense of disquiet. The music toys with me on and off by giving me small parts for my mind to hold on to, only to take them away just as quickly. I don't even remember where I found this album, but it's such a unique entry into my collection that it's something I keep coming back to. Fascinating album.
Written February 18th 2024
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