Teleseen — Fear of the Forest

I haven't really kept up with reggae since the late 80s.  I remember when the first stirrings of Dancehall started and it just wasn't for me; seemed like a poor attempt at replacing reggae basslines with cheesy acid-house synths, except using the EXACT same wigged-out tone every song.  Not to mention the increasing violence not so much in the lyrics but in the scene as well.

Well I've got this one-man techno/reggae act Teleseen to review, so I'm going to give this release an open mind.  The work of Gabriel Cyr from Brooklyn, this is more like techno-gone-reggae instead of the other way around, but nothing quite like the new craze called "dubstep".  The basslines are more of the deep electronica kind rather than wacked-out early-dancehall ones.

Anyways the record really only kicks off by the third track where the reggae side gets really rootsy, occasionally reminding me of some of Adrian Sherwood's classic material.  About the only time I wince are when the two tracks by Abena Koomson come up -- I just hate that cynical use of autotune.  However Billy Woods contributes a couple of half-decent (if shallow) raps.

Overall much of Fear of the Forest is pretty close to old-school inspite that it's mainly electronic.  Teleseen does have a lot of things that reggae fans young and old will like here