The Music Scene

Critical reception

The Music Scene was met with generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 75, based on nine reviews. The aggregator AnyDecentMusic? has the critical consensus of the album at a 6.3 out of 10, also based on nine reviews.

AllMusic's Rick Anderson praised the album, saying "everyone makes sample-based music these days, but very few people use found sounds and prefab musical snippets as creatively and thoughtfully as Blockhead does". Ben Hogwood of musicOMH described the music as "eclectic, calming and yet strangely energetic", writing that it is well worth getting acquainted with. Mike Schiller of PopMatters wrote: "parts of The Music Scene flirt with and even achieve greatness, standing tall as instrumentals any music fan would be advised to hear. Regrettably, the tracks in the box labeled "same old Blockhead" stick out amongst such greatness, keeping the album from achieving same". Patrick Taylor of RapReviews called it "a good album, but one that is hard to get excited about". Arika Dean of Beats Per Minute wrote: "The Music Scene is not likely to be his magnum opus, and perhaps it will never be anyone's favorite hip-hop/electronica album. Still, it is an important step in the right direction for Blockhead, and that stands for something".

In his mixed review for The Irish Times, Jim Carroll stated that Blockhead "turns to Ableton software to juggle multiple samples and stitch them into an enthralling narrative".

Personnel

James Anthony "Blockhead" Simon – producer

Damien Paris – guitar (tracks: 7, 9), bass (tracks: 3, 7, 8, 10)

Wilder Zoby – vocoder (track 9)

Justin "DJ Signify" Levy – turntables (tracks: 1, 12), co-producer (track 11)

Baby Dayliner – mixing

Kevin Metcalfe – mastering

Owen Brozman – artwork

Matt Rota – color, design