Blockhead

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." "Beyond Reach" is the album's elegy for a wasted life, as singer Baby Dayliner croons about missed opportunities over an eerie, yet calming guitar loop and whirring synths. Insomnia never sounded so good.