There's a lot of drum'n'bass out there these days. That's why it's so thrilling for me to find someone doing something really fresh and exciting with what has unfortunately become -- in some circles, at least -- a stale medium. With Little Lost Soul, The Third Eye Foundation's Matt Elliott has truly created a thing of beauty. It tempers the frenetic energy of traditional drum'n'bass with the insatiable brooding and sickly yearning of other Bristol outfits, like Portishead and Massive Attack. Such divergent energy results in music that is unsettling indeed -- I'd go so far as to call it spooky. Elliott's sonic materials often seem drawn from horror; thick organs blare, distant voices moan and gothic strings swoon, and this only serves to heighten tension. I'm quite taken with Elliott's command of beat manipulation -- particularly impressive are the intricate tempo modulations he affects. Beats seem to speed from speaker to speaker, swirling, skittering and occasionally careening into oblivion. The clear highlight of Little Lost Soul is "Lost". It is mournful and atmospheric -- pure pathos -- and it's the closest Elliott comes to Portishead. A dark, soulful alto voice emotes lines like "You are lost, the world is lonely," a solitary acoustic guita rplucks away like a rejected lover and tasteful beats and reverberation serve as a drunken haze. I almost wept, folks -- it's that moving. Let's please give The Third Eye Foundation credit for breathing such vivid life back into drum 'n' bass.