The Peanut Gallery
Tales From The Basement

New Jersey hip-hop duo The Peanut Gallery has dropped a new album, Tales From The Basement. It is quite a unique read on what one usually finds in this genre, complete with some great grooves, and quite a few hard-hitting, expletive-rich raps.

“Deep Thoughts” hits us early on with its trilling arpeggio keys, and slipping synth strings. Here we get the full declaration of what Orlando and his partner, Flee Jones are about (these two men being the brains behind The Gallery).

“Molly Crazy (ft Party of 5IVE)” features “Halloween”-movie trilling, scary keys, big stomp percussion, and a sing-along nursery-rhyme chorus. The rapping in the later verses also gets crazy fast! There are quite a few songs on Tales From The Basement that follow the kind of instrumentation and production of these two tunes; tight and heavy on the synths, but Jones and Orlando also change things up often.

For me, when The Peanut Gallery manages their danceable grooves things get cooking. A fat wonderful bass moves “Time Flies By (produced by Apollo V)” into a perfect old-school groove.  Yes, the auto-tune does grate on one’s nerves after a while, but with Orlando and Flee Jones reminding us not to “get stuck on your past,” with a flute flying above them, the concoction is very infectious.

“Die Hard Dreams (Loud Pipes RMX)” is still yet another breath of fresh air. A profane rap look-at-the-world with acoustic instrumentals and hand claps feeding the music. Tales From The Basement certainly delivers lots that you probably don’t expect.