Secret Dog – “Thumb. Middle. Ring.” (Album Review)

Secret Dog are an eclectic underground hip hop trio, coming out of the “Mile-High City”, Denver. Consisting of An Hobbes (Tyler Kreiger), Aethernaut (Daniel Culp) and Felix Fast4ward (Felix Ayodele), Secret Dog released their debut album, “Thumb. Middle. Ring.“, earlier this year. This ten track album features Damn Selene, Lex the Lexicon Artist, Hatsune Miku, Kadesh Flow and Stoney Bertz. I recently got the chance to listen to this experimental underground album and I have to say, it was quite the ride.

A standout track was “Calibration”, the production on this song was so clean! True to the projects video game theme, this song features some of the smoothest synth arrangements I have heard in a while. The live boom bap based drums, sprinkled with some smooth fills, laid the perfect foundation for An Hobbes & Lex the Lexicon Artist to ride through their verses and play with some cool flows.

“Into The Woods” is a trip! This song is story telling where the beat actually sets the scene and the rapper simply responds. This was very well done from top to bottom. The dubstep influence was an interesting twist that worked perfectly, if I am being honest. This is arguably An Hobbes best performance for me. The way he is able to place you right there with him in these dark woods, and do it with cadence, is impressive.

“Defense Monster”, this was some of the coolest composition I have heard in a very long time! An absolute production masterpiece. Not in a hip hop specific sense but on an experimental album, definitely! The different levels on this instrumental allowed An Hobbes to dance all over this track. Using flow switches like scene transitions, he makes this an interesting track in a way that maybe only he can. “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” tribute to close and we have a brilliantly made cinematic ending to a pretty vivid concept project.

This album was cool. It has been a while since I have heard a hip hop group put out an experimental project like this. It is different, it isn’t perfect but I think it has it’s moments. It lacked any decent hooks, but was still somewhat reminiscent of groups like Gym Class Heroes. Cool debut gents, and all involved! Follow Secret Dog on Instagram: @secretdogtrio

Score: 6/10