Another great review for City Paranoid's 'Closedown' courtesy of Dj Astro at Finland's Psychotropic Zone e-zine:

Okay, some more hallucinatory, ice-cold ambient aural tapestry from Paranoid Foundation’s Crispin Lee from London. As you can maybe conclude from the title of this 26-minute 11-tracker, Lee indicates that this is his last disc under the City Paranoid name and the guy is now going to focus on the more collective Paranoid Foundation project again. As usual, Lee tells his dark stories over the psychedelic and very experimental sonic landscape created with manipulated field recordings and acoustic and electronic sound sources in his cool as a cucumber, minimal and motionless style, and there’s no rhythm or melody to be found. Well, maybe there is a bit of melody on the final track “When We Wake” that is also in other ways somewhat different from the otherwise quite similar, short tracks. The atmosphere is very dark, bleak and forlorn, but I still (or just because of it) find myself enjoying the ride.

Link to the the original review HERE

City Paranoid - Closedown - OUT NOW!!! On CD and mp3

I am pleased to announce that after some delays, Crispin's latest solo CD 'Closedown' under his 'City Paranoid' pseudonym is out today on the Paranoid Foundation label! It is available on CD and mp3 direct from the Paranoid Foundation store above or via the usual sources... CDBaby, itunes, amazon and all good retailers!

This is one for the fans of our more extreme, dark ambient style. A late night, dark room, headphones listen for sure...

'Closedown' album review and airplay

Here's a roundup of the latest activity from the Paranoid Foundation:

The first review of the new City Paranoid album 'Closedown' is in courtesy of Dutch zine, Vital Weekly:

Closedown is the latest CD from Crispin Lee under the name City Paranoid and is a follow-up of of Dream's Edge (2004) and A Means to No End ( 2008). Closedown will be the final chapter of his set of solo recordings under the name City Paranoid. The album is very intense and built up of 11 tracks in a period of 26 minutes. The tracks are created by highly manipulated field-recordings, and acoustic and electronic sound sources. His voice tells a story, but I cannot follow it, because of my lack the English language, but also because of the way the voice is mixed in drony, noisy sound layers. But maybe this is also the meaning of these short stories with titles like Hitched, Now Understood, Terminal Nation, At Peace with Nothing and Silent Running. That we will never know what the thoughts are of this man who is living in a city which fears him a lot by all the dangerous moments, vehicles and people. Cause if we really know what in his mind than we can track and expose him. City Paranoid is a short well-composed piece of dark music with a unique personal touch. (JKH)

The link can be found here... http://www.vitalweekly.net/775.html and for a limited time, you can hear us on the Vital Weekly podcast here... http://www.vitalweekly.net/podcast.html

Also, the track 'Broken Up' was played on Canadian radio show 'Le Vestibule' on CFOU 89.1 FM, Quebec. If you missed that, that is also on a podcast here... http://www.archive.org/download/levestibule2avril2011cfou/levestibule2avril2011cfou_vbr.m3u and here... http://www.archive.org/download/levestibule2avril2011cfou/levestibule2avril2011cfou_vbr_mp3.zip

DJ Don Campau has also played tracks from the album on his 'No Pigeonholes' radio shows broadcasting on KOWS-FM from Occidental, California, USA. The podcast edition is here... http://nopigeonholesexp.podomatic.com and also on his show on the www.luver.com, with the podcast for that here... http://doncampau.podomatic.com/

Good to see the release is being well received, more to follow we hope!

Delay and other PF News (edited 13th May)...

Owing to a delay with our distributors, City Paranoid's 'Closedown' release has now been put back until 5th September. Many apologies to those fans eager for this, but it is sure to be worth the wait.

Additional news:
The next Paranoid Foundation album is in advance stages of production and we have pencilled in a release for Autumn 2011. Further details to follow... watch this space!

Finally the next podcast is scheduled to go up late April and will feature a 5-track, full album-length suite of Cris's instrumental drone work.

next up...

CLOSEDOWN is the latest recorded output from Crispin Lee under his City Paranoid moniker following Dream’s Edge (2004) and A Means to No End (2008). Assembled several years ago and originally intended for release in late 2010, Crispin has indicated that this eleven-track, 26-minute collection will be the final chapter in his set of solo recordings under the City Paranoid name. In the immediate future he is preparing once again to concentrate on the collaborative Paranoid Foundation project.

CLOSEDOWN is a lo-fi, fictional chronicle of breakdown and redemption divided into eleven short tracks, set to a grittily ethereal palette of manipulated field recordings, acoustic and electronic sound sources. An uncompromising and challenging listen, CLOSEDOWN is complimented perfectly by the dark, psychological cover imagery provided by resident Paranoid Foundation artist, Tetsu Okada.

Tracklisting:
1 Hitched
2 Now Understood
3 Terminal Nation
4 The Wrong Woman
5 Final Rites
6 Too Much Harm
7 Broken Up
8 At Peace With Nothing
9 Silent Running
10 Perhaps Today
11 When We Wake

The album will be released on 4th April. To whet your appetite in the meantime, you can view the video to "Perhaps Today" here...

new Paranoid video art...

Inspired by Brian Eno's video installations, but with a darker, more Paranoid twist. Audio from forthcoming winter podcast... click here to view