The Galleria

Morgan Geist’s newest project The Galleria is a throwback to an older sound. Unlike Metro Area’s boogie and Italo, or Storm Queen’s classic house, The Galleria mines the far less critically popular genre of Freestyle. In my Pittsburgh crew, Freestyle has never really gone away. We still play shit like Alisha, Lisa Lisa, Expose, Debbie Deb, Pretty Tony, and more all the damn time. So just like previous Morgan projects, this is right up our alley.

The production is as excellent as you would expect coming from Mr. Geist, with his devotion to quality hardware shining through to match the old stuff he clearly loves but also matching up to today’s standards of quality sound. Jesse Lanza’s voice works perfectly with this style of music, and the tracks are both catchy. I prefer the B side “Mezzanine” slightly, but “Calling Card” on the A is also very fun.

This record takes me back instantly to those elementary school days where going to Spinning Wheels to roller skate meant hearing jams like this, and our own South Hills version of a mall called The Galleria seemed so exotically upscale at a time when not much in Pittsburgh could be described as such. Maybe it’s just me, but because of this, The Galleria 12″ has been on consistent listening rotation at my house since it came out, and it’s always gone down well when I’ve played it out, even though it hasn’t been as hyped as the Storm Queen records.