Blockhead

Tony Simon—aka Blockhead—has been making and releasing utterly distinctive, funky and emotive music for the last two decades. Blockhead grew up in downtown New York City. As the son of an artist, surrounded by visual culture, he early on found that his passion was for music, for the sonic. A fan of a whole range of sounds, especially hip-hop, Blockhead steadily built a tremendous collection of tapes and later CDs from innumerable artists, a quiet accumulation of knowledge and know-how. After a brief stint as a rapper, he realized his calling was behind the boards and not on the mic – and from there began to produce beats. Since making that decision, he’s kept pretty busy: carving a niche as a sought-after underground beatmaker that people call when they want something special. Blockhead produced nine tracks on Aesop Rock’s critically acclaimed album Labor Days. Additionally, he produced half the tracks on Aesop Rock’s follow-up EP, Daylight. He has also worked with other indie giants Atmosphere, Murs, Mike Ladd, and Illogic. In between, he found time to complete a break beat album entitled Blockhead’s Broke Beats, with 10 hard-hitting instrumental tracks, which was released on Mush Records.

Blockhead’s debut album on Ninja Tune, Music By Cavelight, was described as “one of the most fantastically good albums you’re going to hear this year” (Sunday Telegraph) and “a beautiful record” (Metro), with Blockhead himself tipped as “definitely one to watch” (Touch). Blockhead returned in 2005 with Downtime Science, another set of deep, emotional instrumental hip-hop tracks, this time dedicated to the downtown area of Manhattan where he grew up and has lived his entire life, encompassing all the attitude, anger and edginess of the neighborhood. This expansive album also features some melancholy reflections upon failed relationships and the promise of future loves.

The Music Scene was released in 2009 to both critical acclaim and commercial success – launching Blockhead on a global string of headlining dates ranging from Pittsburgh to Poland – where he participated in the world famous Zubroffka Festival, providing a live score for some of Charlie Chaplin’s earliest films. Blockhead followed this album with 2012’s Interludes After Midnight, further showcasing his development as a solo artist with a unique voice.

Post-Ninja Tune, Blockhead has self-released a string of full-length albums (Bells and Whistles in 2014, Funeral Balloons in 2017), in addition to teaming up with UK’s music publisher DeWolfe Music to create The Art of the Sample (2017). This was followed up by a collaborative effort Free Sweatpants featuring Aesop Rock, Open Mike Eagle and countless other rappers. Blockhead’s next two solo records (Bubble Bath in 2019 and Space Werewolves Will Be The End Of Us All in 2021) would be released on Future Archive Recordings. More recently, Blockhead co-released the full-length album Garbology with Aesop Rock on Rhymesayers, as well as another music library sampling album (this time with the renowned KPM Music Library).

Shrimpnose

In 2013 Shrimpnose (aka Riley Smithson) purchased his first computer with the money he saved from making sandwiches at Jimmy Johns in his hometown of Minneapolis, MN. Within weeks, Riley found himself engrossed in the software, researching new techniques and gear during his college lectures. Growing up with a stutter that he still struggles with today, Riley often struggled expressing himself. Riley quickly discovered the limitless capabilities of expression through electronic music and began to feel it was “the only language [he] could properly express himself through.” Since then, Riley has managed to pioneer a lane of his own through a vibrant 200+ song discography fluttering between the beautiful and jagged edges of modern electronic music.
With a cumulative 50+ million streams across platforms and releases on esteemed labels Bitbird, Blue Note & Astralworks Records, Brainfeeder, Chillhop, Dome of Doom, Friends of Friends, and most recently Nettwerk Music Group, Shrimpnose has been featured in outlets Complex, BBC, Bandcamp, RinseFM, The Current, EDM.com, Lyrical Lemonade, Dublab, and more. In 2023 Spotify invited Shrimpnose to create two Spotify Singles in collaboration with Blueworks at their Los Angeles campus. Following the release, Shrimpnose signed a record deal with Nettwerk, and has since released two singles under the label – ‘Melt’ and ‘Snowed In’ – the latter, a gorgeous, wintertime lofi record created alongside powerhouse producers Allem Iversom and chief.
Collaboration with artists of diverse backgrounds and genres is a pillar of Shrimpnose’s creative workflow. His most recent album “Toward Heaven” released on Nettwerk Music Group in 2024 followed by his next Dance Album. His last singer-songwriter album, ‘As It Seems’ includes appearances from Anomalie, Bobby Raps, Ryan Hemsworth, Blockhead, Blu, Bad Snacks, Swum, Somni, and Joe Nora, some of whom joined Shrimpnose on his first US headline tour following the record release. Previous collaborators include Little Snake, Daedelus, Bleep Bloop, quickly, quickly, maxime, and more.
In addition to his ‘As It Seems’ headline tour in winter 2023, Shrimpnose joined Gold Panda this fall, Anomalie in 2022, Blockhead in 2021, and Friends of Friends labelmates Somni and Joe Nora in 2022 for their national tours. His festival appearances include Infrasound (2017-2023), Shambhala Music Festival (2024), Snowta (2017-2019), Summerset, 515 Alive, and one of the final Low End Theory showcase nights in Los Angeles.