Something new by Tony Simon is always a treat. I haven’t written about him in over eight years. Wow. But I didn’t forget.
If you don’t know Blockhead, which is the name Simon does music by, just think about Aesop rock’s best albums, like Bazooka Tooth. Now you know Blockhead. He’s the producer.
But more importantly, he’s one of a small number of hip hop beatmakers who can carry an instrumental album. You can probably count them on a few fingers. MF Doom. RJD2. J Dilla. Madlib. Maybe DJ Shadow, but all he did was Endroducing. Yet Blockhead has been churning out excellent instrumental albums for the past decade.
This year, he gives us Funeral Balloons.
Yes, it’s excellent. Smooth and sexy, funny, head-bobbing, entrancing.
Check it out.