PARANORAMA

In a period of Sébastien Gramond's work where he was doing alot of jazz improvisations and jam rock, it is a fairly refreshing change to hear him go back into his electronic music. 'Paranorama' is an album by this French musician that shows Gramond experimenting with some different beats and is really more of a dance-oriented album than anything else. Extended compositions generally revolves around a deep rhythm and some different sounds dabbling overtop. It does not sound like a very good formula, but Sébastien Gramond generally makes some enjoyable electronic body music on 'Paranorama', although the music is generally without deeper layers or nuances to look back upon.

More or less, a listener can expect some frantic electronic arrangements over steady, generally fast-paced rhythms. With the exception of the last title track, the music is rather static, and this can lead to the music being fairly lulling, despite keeping up a somewhat unsettling vibe to it throughout, as might be best portrayed through the first track. 'Paranorama' is a somewhat mixed bag, but there is nothing here that really treads into the realm of being 'bad' music. Instead, much of what is heard here relies on being repetitive, ambient, and playful at times. The production is fairly lo-fi- certainly not a great trait as much electronic music goes- and Gramond's sparse vocals don't do much to contribute to the overall quality of the music.

A fairly bland album, although it is nice to see Gramond doing something different in this particular period of his career.