Send "Blockhead " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Allmusic |
 For now, let's leave aside the question of what makes instrumental hip-hop "hip-hop." (Samples? Breakbeats? A certain general texture or mood or variety of funkiness?) Instead of worrying about genre or categories, let's just focus on the quality of the music on Blockhead's third Ninja Tune release, which is close to jaw-dropping. It's not just the variety of source materials from which he draws, though that alone is pretty impressive: "It's Raining Clouds," the album's opening track, wanders from a cool downtempo mood to a sort of restrained drum'n'bass jitter by the end; "The Prettiest Sea Slug" swings indolently under an explicitly jazzy saxophone and piano; "Tricky Turtle" pairs an old-school funk vibe with splanky guitars, greasy horns, and a possibly African vocal sample; "Four Walls" critiques Auto-Tune abusers with a slow 6/8 groove and over the top vocoder effects. But the album's centerpiece is both more serious and more disturbing: titled "The Daily Routine," it features a laid-back and frankly quite pretty instrumental backing track over which are layered recordings of a drug-addicted couple having a screaming, profanity-laced argument. Everyone makes sample-based music these days, but very few people use found sounds and prefab musical snippets as creatively and thoughtfully as Blockhead does. Maybe he needs a new stage name....full text |
| Musicomh |
| Three albums in for Ninja Tune, and Tony Simon's career as Blockhead is really starting to realise its potential. Not that records one and two were in any way shabby, but this new piece of work advances his thinking considerably, looking well outside the box of tricks he was working with last time. He modestly puts this development down to the use of Ableton, which he says has allowed him to work between multiple beats rather than using a standard template, usually derived from hip hop, to form the back drop for his tracks. That would explain his ability to segue almost effortlessly from hip hop to drum and bass in the course of opener It's Raining Clouds, a trick he manages without an ounce of cheese, the same riff powering both parts of the track....full text |
| Musicomh |
| Three albums in for Ninja Tune, and Tony Simon's career as Blockhead is really starting to realise its potential. Not that records one and two were in any way shabby, but this new piece of work advances his thinking considerably, looking well outside the box of tricks he was working with last time. He modestly puts this development down to the use of Ableton, which he says has allowed him to work between multiple beats rather than using a standard template, usually derived from hip hop, to form the back drop for his tracks. That would explain his ability to segue almost effortlessly from hip hop to drum and bass in the course of opener It's Raining Clouds, a trick he manages without an ounce of cheese, the same riff powering both parts of the track. There is more emotional input here too. While this is a quality his previous work did not lack, a piece of work such as The Daily Routine, whose stand-out sample is arguing drug addicts, packs a powerful punch as it chooses to stare the issues of the day in the face, rather than shy away. It’s a striking track, the like of which you'll surely not have heard before....full text |
Blockhead lyrics
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