The Music Scene.jpegBlockhead has only gotten better and better, and that’s saying a whole lot when you look at his contemporaries. Deeply intricate instrumental hip hop is a genre that gained numerous contributors after Endtroducing… told unspoken stories without the need for a lyricist. Subsequent albums made the style appear limited, as RJD2 managed only to put out one killer record (Deadringer), and DJ Shadow proved that being the founder doesn’t make you the king with The Outsider. After providing the maudlin soundtrack to Aesop Rock’s audible internal monologues, the New York based beatsmith dropped Music by Cavelight on Ninja Tune in the spring of ‘04. While the record had depth and staying power, it wasn’t a demonstration of Blockhead’s full potential. The following year’s Downtown Science was a similar story. Two years later, and after a couple of solid mixtapes, Uncle Tony’s Coloring Book came out, and the path of this producer’s skill had hit a brand new checkpoint, and it happened to come at a slightly higher average BPM rate. Blockhead has been playing with Ableton Live, so we can expect something a bit more loop based with The Music Scene. If you’ve used the software or seen it it used, you can probably guess that a guy like Blockhead will run with it. The Music Scene is out tomorrow on Ninja Tune records.


Chris Beaman Thursday, 11.12.09 @ 9:34 pm

Nice review. I love Blockhead’s beats—and those of related artists—but find it harder and harder to find albums by them these days. I count on reviewers like you!


J-Krizzle Sunday, 11.15.09 @ 6:03 pm

If you aere looking for other good instrumental music you should check out Bossasaurus or Pretty Lights. They are both fairly unknown as of known and in my opinion are actually doper than Blockhead overall (even thouhg he does the trick for me a lot of the time), Good review-one thing i’d mention is that the sound quality on the album seems a bit wierd like the samples are being converted in some odd way that downgrades their quality.




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