- With Storm Queen, Morgan Geist and Damon C. Scott tapped into house's pop pleasure centres, making such irresistible music that one of their tracks, the MK remix of "Look Right Through," made it to #1 on the UK singles charts. It's a sugar-rush sensibility that's coloured Geist's music for years, both in the clipped melodies of Metro Area and in Storm Queen. Now, with The Galleria, he brings that sweet tooth to freestyle. For the first release Jessy Lanza comes along for the ride, and the two offer a loving tribute to the music of Geist's youth in New Jersey.
Geist's instrumentals are impressive—they have the loose, funky vibe of freestyle down pat—but Lanza makes them into great songs. She's an icy diva on "Calling Card" and a buzzing lover on "Mezzanine." The former is all orchestral hits, bouncy cowbells and pithy snares, nicely framing Lanza's acerbic lyrics before a sweaty breakdown of grunts and thwacks. "Mezzanine," meanwhile, is tough on the outside with a gooey centre, as Lanza sings sweetly alongside bright synth chirps. Geist and Lanza feel natural together, and the brighter production teases out a side of the rising Canadian star we haven't heard before.
Geist throws in a dub version of both tracks, chopping them in that crude but ebullient way that defines many '80s remixes. They're nearly as good as the originals, replacing the hooks with giddy repetition, and getting the vibe just right. Geist's pitch-perfect take on freestyle is wonderful, regardless of whether it came out in 2015 or 1985.
TracklistA1 Calling Card
A2 Calling Card (Razor Dub)
B1 Mezzanine
B2 Mezzanine (Up Dub I)