Don’t Get Sentimental

Yeah, yeah, I realize it’s Thursday. Think of this as a “Breakfast for Dinner” a.k.a. “Brinner”  type thing (see video below). I missed my weekly posting this past Saturday due to the fact that I am at my permanent home address in Houston, TX, where Hurricane Ike did his fair share of huffing and puffing last week. I didn’t get power back at my house until recently, so I am now making up for last Saturday’s post.

“New World” is a track off of Nas’ 1999 album “Nastradamus,” which is famous for being Nas’ least successful album in terms of ratings, but managed to go Platinum regardless. That’s when you know your name carries a lot of weight.

“New World” obviously samples Toto’s 1982 hit “Africa,” a song familiar to most of us as a corny yet lovable 80’s song.  “Africa” has also had it’s share of discrepancies in approval, having reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1983 but also being voted for having the sixth worst lyric ever in a BBC poll for the line “The wild dogs cry out in the night, As they grow restless longing for some solitary company, I know that I must do what’s right, Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti.” Word.

Toto featuring Gandalf

I’ve also included a remix of Ghostface’s “Good Times” that uses “Africa” as its backing beat, and has been aptly renamed “Good Times in Africa.” The remix is done by Omega One, famous for his production work for Aesop Rock on the songs “Coma” and ” Skip Town.”

Nas - New World

Toto - Africa

Omega One - Good Times in Africa

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The title of this post was taken from a line in the opening track of Blockhead’s debut solo album, “Music by Cavelight.” It came from a cleverly used sample from “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” where Sally flips out at Linus for making her miss out on Halloween to wait for the Great Pumpkin (see video below). Although the line works out great for providing a humorous opening track using the producer’s name, the statement is anything but true. Listening to Blockhead is always a good decision.

Although the Manhattan-based producer’s name may not ring a bell right away, some of you are probably familiar with his work through Aesop Rock. Blockhead has been a long-time collaborator and friend of Aesop’s, providing production work on a lot of Aesop’s songs, including songs like “Daylight,” “Cook It Up,” and “None Shall Pass.”

Although there are a lot of great producers out there, Blockhead is among my favorites, if not my favorite of all time. The reason for that is that his solo work is simply brilliant. You have to have a real gift to make great beats that rappers can use on their rap records. But to go beyond that world of rapper and producer, and create albums that are entirely instrumental with some sampled vocals and scratches is simply incredible. That takes a lot of talent.

The cool part about his solo work is that it can stand alone on its own, and anybody that’s into any kind of music can get into it. Although he’s a hip-hop producer, his solo work can be appreciated by fans of instrumental music, experimental rock, jazz, you name it.

“Music by Cavelight” is very well put together, combining samples and sounds from all over the world and all kinds of genres as if they were made for each other. While others would struggle to create rich instrumental pieces with seemingly incompatible samples, Blockhead makes it look easy.

Not only that, the album has a really dark and kind of somber undertones throughout, that really play into the title “Music by Cavelight.” It’s definitely one of the best buys I’ve ever made. Within a month of buying the album, every song was in my Top 25 Most Played list on my iTunes.

“Insomniac Olympics” by Blockhead

Blockhead has put out two albums (“Downtown Science,” and “Uncle Tony’s Coloring Book”) since the release of “Music by Cavelight,” which are also worth listening to. Blockhead also has a weekly blog on Definitive Jux’s website, titled “Sweeping Generalizations with Blockhead,” where he mostly rips on things. Everything from weddings to the musical “Rent.” It’s not really well organized, but you can find most of his blog entries here, mixed in with other miscellaneous Def Jux news.

It was hard to pick a few tracks from “Music by Cavelight,” but here are some favorites. Check out “Insomniac Olympics,” I guarantee you you’ll love it.

Blockhead- Hello Popartz

Blockhead - You’ve Got Maelstrom

Blockhead - Carnivores Unite

Blockhead - Triptych Part 1

Blockhead - Insomniac Olympics

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