KC’s Music Monday: HORSE – Giant Gorilla Dog Thing

After finding an opportunity in a normal conversation with Mitch, of Giant Gorilla Dog Thing, to quote back his own lyrics to him, it dawned on me that I’ve spent way too much time listening to their new album to NOT put together any words out there about it. And that I’m a total fangirl nerd sometimes. (Not a new realization).

I’ve been listening to this album on the daily ever since I got my hands on a copy of the 2XLP back on the release date March 28th. HORSE is available in both vinyl and digital formats courtesy Pig Food Records, and also is available at Fuzz Records if you haven’t picked up a copy yet. After GGDT worked on this album for the past year and a half, maybe two years, I’m fairly confident in saying that they are beyond happy to take a little break from listening to this sucker and to finally be able to let others in on listening to their beats, raps and secrets.

Quite often these days it seems as though artists on both an independent and mainstream level are too quick to release their music for a plethora of reasons and I’m glad that HORSE is not an example of that. Much respect to GGDT for releasing their album when the time was right, and for accidentally-on-purpose creating what will easily become my favorite spring, summer and maybe even winter, soundtrack. I mean, hell, I’m still listening to ERIC (which is

Part of it can be attributed to the fact that GGDT knows how to have fucking fun with their music. I truly believe that some rap stars aligned when the universe brought Mitch, Dez & Absolute together. Some things are inevitable. Their collective creative energy, life perspectives and overall passion for making rap music compliment their individual talents so well, it’s practically unfair to other music makers. Plus they even make it look easy. Those assholes.

It all comes down to consistently raising the bar for themselves for no reason other than the personal goal to keep improving and to stay hungry. They’ve done it with every verse, every song, every music video, every collaboration they’ve been apart of. And they even say it themselves on the introductory track to “HORSE – “It’s the shit we’re gonna make that’s gonna make you hold on. It just keeps getting better and better, and they’ve clocked the hours and put in the hard work to show for it.

Every part of HORSE is conscious. The samples, cuts, guest features, etc. are all there for a reason and molded to fit each song as it should. Any mistakes are happy ones. It flows, it bangs. Each track is a little bit different in style and tempo, and is a great portfolio showcasing the different range of elements and musical attributes GGDT brings to the table. There were no one-trick ponies involved in the making of HORSE.

I was hesitant to write about HORSE in the first place because I knew from my very first listen that I could easily find 16 things I like about each of the 16 tracks. Albums of that caliber are simply few and far between (especially on a local level), and maybe part of the reason why I’ve been listening to the same 10 albums or so the past year and have been less excited about new music than I’d like to admit. HORSE is a game-changer, and for it to have come out of the 518 makes for a perma-grin on my face.

When you list out all of the elements of HORSE besides the actual music, it’s just as impressive. With artwork by Honkey Kong, two beautifully pressed vinyl records (green and light blue! easily the nicest records in my small collection), the involvement of a huge handful of local creative like-minds and non-rappers, multiple music videos (“Stonewall”, “Hemotoma”, “Should”) and the generous donation of all proceeds from a limited edition shirt featuring Smiley’s artwork going to the Donna Crandall Foundation to help Cystic Fibrosis patients and their families, just wow. And on top of all of that, there’s a super dope release party happening this Friday at Wolff’s Biergarten featuring elsphinx, DJ White Lotus, Male Patterns, Xkwisit and DJ Duece and live art by SawFan666. It’s gonna be a good ass night.

I’m excited, as you should be, with good reason. Definitely check out this album if you haven’t yet, which again is available via Pig Food Records. I couldn’t recommend it more, simply put.