Blockhead - Interludes After Midnight Review

There aren’t many Hip Hop producers that create what can really truly be considered albums. Blockhead joined the small, exclusive club of “Hip Hop composers” when he recorded 2004’s Music by Cavelight after making a name for himself producing for Aesop Rock and a slew of other artists. Each album since has carried with it a distinct aesthetic. Blockhead’s latest, Interludes After Midnight, is no different in that it is something entirely different.

On “Never Forget Your Token,” the album’s opener, a vocal sample from Psychedelic Rock group The Loose Enz implores the listener, “buy yourself an underground ticket / take the subway to the end of your mind” on the album’s opener. In typical Blockhead fashion, the song builds as various elements are introduced and removed at different junctures. ...full text Interludes After Midnight is another sonic adventure where Blockhead, unaccompanied but for Paris and Dayliner, tackles terrain as diverse as gangster rap, disco and psychedelia. As usual, he combines clever vocal samples with immensely varied beats, but the record’s new intimately personal approach cannot be ignored. By developing a clearly defined autobiographical theme in the nostalgic tour of New York City, Blockhead’s eclectic talent achieves the structure and direction that his previous solo work has occasionally lacked....full text With fifth album Interludes After Midnight, producer Blockhead delivers what might just be his masterpiece. Interludes is a dedication to the beatmaker's teen years in the late '80s and early '90s, a pre-internet age that Simon spent exploring dingy NYC afterhours and watching public access. Like his previous work, Interludes After Midnight conjures a sombre mood via intricately crafted, sample-based instrumentals. "Smoke Signals" melds a complex drumbeat with churning organs and pitch-shifted crooning. As the title reflects, Interludes was crafted with a specific time and place in mind; it's a bleary descent into the darker hours of night, evoking dollar cabs, cheap pizza and half-emptied 40 oz. bottles. Opener "Never Forget Your Token" sets the mood, mashing up jazz piano, fuzz guitar and psych-rock vocal chanting about a subway to "the end of your line." ...full text Interludes After Midnight is the upcoming fifth release from New York hip-hop/beats producer, Blockhead. With a very chilled-out vibe that paints the picture of RJD2 having a smoke in a rainy metropolis version of Café del Mar, Interludes After Midnight is a deep and shady exploration into beat-driven music.

Admittedly, when I was first presented the chance to review the album, having no prior knowledge of Blockhead or his work, I was hoping to fall face first into a hard-hitting dance album, but what I found was a grooving, lounge album that fills the room without taking it over. It is arguably impossible not to fall into the music without even being aware that you are bouncing along in your seat....full text