Biography
"Expiration Date" presents Shadowesque rolling breaks over the kind of elegaic music that makes it a fitting memorial to 9/11. "Serenade" twists its comic opening into an electric piano-linked essay in unrequited love. "Quiet Storm" gives NYC the orchestral treatment, while "The First Snowfall" has the odd perspectives of a blizzard swirling through it. But it's not all atmospherics. On "The Art of Walking," Blockhead shows he can come up with the kind of slack disco cheekiness that you'd more readily expect from Mr Scruff, while "Stop Motion Traffic" is pure cop movie machismo and the epic "Cherry Picker" (which moves through moods like a car whizzing past the blocks of the city) shows just how far Simon has developed his skills. Blockhead notes that, ?by the time Music By Cavelight dropped I was already somewhere else musically, the overall progression is a more complete sound.? An idea of the esteem Blockhead is held in Stateside can be gleaned from the fact that he has recently contributed three tracks (including the first single) for Cage's new album on Def Jux. The other producers on the project are DJ Shadow, El-P and RJD2. "Downtown Science" is a heavyweight album from a heavyweight artist.
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