A lovely, hand-stitched sampler of an EP from Brooklyn’s Teleseen; this is most certainly the most engaging and individual work so far from Gabriel Cyr, who has previously released two albums, War and Fear of the Forest. “The Real Enemy” features his signature clipped and vocodered female vocals drifting over the top of a spacious mid-tempo number somewhere in the vague musical vicinity of The Village Orchestra, Cooly G and Disrupt. “By Many Names” incorporates the croak of Bullfrogs into a squelched-out skank that wouldn’t be out of place on Bristol’s mighty fine Punch Drunk label. “The Goldest Coast” probably doesn’t out-Goldy Queensland’s finest fantasyland, but the woody gamelan-style percussion introduces a tropical hothouse of four/four rhythms, somehow related to the whole UK Funky thing.
Teleseen’s opening gambit on this EP is definitely his best production by far; “Mandrake” demonstrates the lightness of touch and playfulness that Cyr’s most memorable moments are made of. Bringing together body-popping electro and tropical rhythms with fantastic, soulful horn licks courtesy of Ikebe Shakedown’s Morgan Price, the result is a Middle-Eastern tinged dubwise funky roller. Imagine Cedric ‘Im’ Brooks meeting Kode 9 and Mulatu Astatke in a South African shebeen for an impromptu late night session heavy on vibes and hypnotizing rhythms.
Oliver Laing
