Inspired by a personal loss, Michael Todd created this 52 minute tape of dreary, reflective atmospheres. Within its droning, mournful tones are the feelings of soul confronted with the seemingly absurd nature of life -the existential nausea of any deep thinker. Sonically, the album is composed of what I assume is heavily treated electric guitar (the label makes note of the sounds being created without computers, keyboards, or samplers... I'm not sure why though). Instead of side-long tracks, the artist has chosen to create several compositions that feel like the blurry remains of songs that are half washed away. Each song uses the same sonic pallette of soft gray guitar drones, soaked in reverb and distorted. These tones are wrapped into little cluster-like phrases that gather and release. The effect is not entirely melodic, but still not really atonal either. It's a nice mixture of soothing ambient atmosphere and slightly abrasive guitar workouts.

The gloomy mood of the tape is enhanced by the enlarged cover photo of a man leaning forward and holding his head in his hands. It might be a little cliche', but I find the mixture of imagery and music highly effective. I've heard guitar based ambient music similar to this before, and my usual complaint is that it gets repetitive after a few minutes and I'm left really wanting to hear something to break up the monotony of it all. I feel this is a valid point to bring up with "The Hopelessness of Logic", but the monotony could also be seen as a conceptual choice given the subject matter of the tape. It's an interesting journey but I'm still left wanting something more when it's over. 8/10 -- Charles Franklin (19 November, 2009)