Jason Forrest was quite prolific during the 2000s, but his output slowed during the 2010s as he raised his son and pursued other ventures such as running the curated video site Network Awesome. The 2011 full-length The Everything was a departure from the giddy sugar rush of his earlier material, particularly coming after the 2008 rave hyperblaster Panther Tracks. Fear City was digitally self-released on Forrest's long-running Cock Rock Disco label in 2018, with little advance warning, and it's much more in line with the albums and EPs he released on Sonig during the mid-oughts, filled with rapid-fire disco and arena rock samples contorted into complex patterns and loaded with filthy distortion and breakbeats. Opening track "Severe High," which opens with a minute of neon-hued robo-chanting before launching into headstrong synth thrash, had appeared in Forrest's live sets well over a decade before Fear City was released, and a few other tracks might sound familiar to fans who have been paying attention. The main difference between Fear City and earlier Forrest albums is that this one doesn't feel like quite as much of a spot-the-sample game, as there are no blindingly obvious samples of the Who or Elton John here. This certainly isn't a problem, as the whole mashup thing had been done to death eons ago, and Forrest's tracks certainly aren't lacking in energy or rock-star spirit. For advanced trainspotters, there's "Subdivision," a megamix of dozens of French house tracks that seems like a cousin of Forrest's earlier, self-explanatory "My 36 Favorite Punk Songs." "Demon Sun Ram" is more disco-fied, yet finds room for intricate acoustic guitars, scratching, and amusingly heavy bass interruptions. "Biker Movies" is a rough-and-ready collision of '70s dirtbag rock, surf riffs, gabber kicks, and an unexpected but welcome flash of Neue Deutsche Welle. "Beating Up Giants" pastes together seemingly random drum breaks and noise bursts into an extremely oblong pattern, but it works, and it flows into an unexpectedly beautiful song. A few other tracks, such as "Uncertainty" and "New Age Asshole," are noisier and less melodic, coming closer to early Otto Von Schirach or Duran Duran Duran, but Forrest's more esoteric material still remains as compelling as his fun side. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi

1		Severe High
2		Uncertainty
3		Chase
4		New Age Asshole
5		Subdivision
6		Biker Movies
7		Demon Sun Ram
8		Forever Psyche
9		Real HxCx
10		Beating Up Giants
11		Prelude

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