Music by Cavelight is the debut album by hip-hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 producer

Hip hop production

Hip hop production is the creation of hip hop music. Though the term encompasses all aspects of hip hop music, it's most commonly used to refer to the instrumental, non-lyrical aspects of hip hop. This means that hip hop producers are the instrumentalists involved in a work...

 Blockhead

Blockhead (music)

Blockhead is an American Hip hop producer based in Manhattan, New York. Aside from his solo efforts released on the Ninja Tune label, he is most associated with producing for Aesop Rock, a rapper for the Definitive Jux independent hip hop label. He has also previously worked with rappers C-Rayz...

, released on the Ninja Tune

Ninja Tune

Ninja Tune is a London-based independent record label started by DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke. The label has a strong leaning towards mostly Electronic Music...

 label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 on March 23, 2004 (see 2004 in music

2004 in music

See also:* 2004 in music Record labels established in 2004-January:*January 1**The Vienna New Year's Concert is conducted by Riccardo Muti.**Kurt Nilsen wins World Idol....

).

The album is completely instrumental save for sampled fragments of speech. Scratches

Turntablism

Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DJ mixer.The word 'turntablist' was coined in 1995 by DJ Babu to describe the difference between a DJ who just plays records, and one who performs by touching and moving the records, stylus and mixer...

 are provided by Omega One, guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 and bass

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 by Damien Paris of Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

-based band The Giraffes

The Giraffes (Brooklyn band)

The Giraffes is a Brooklyn-based hard rock band formed in 1998. The group's current lineup features guitarist Damien Paris, drummer Andrew Totolos, lead vocalist Aaron Lazar and bassist Jens Carstensen....

 and violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

 by Baby Dayliner

Baby Dayliner

Baby Dayliner is a musical recording and performing artist from and based out of New York City. He was born and raised in New York City, and went to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, also known as the high school from the 1980 film Fame. He studied at St. John's...

.

The album was released in different versions in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, with the track listings rearranged and featuring some different tracks. A further version, limited

Special edition

The terms special edition, limited edition and variants such as deluxe edition, collector's edition and others, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints or recorded music and films, but now including...

 to 1,000 copies, came with a QuickTime

QuickTime

QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...

 video for "Insomniac Olympics" directed by Sam Arthur, and a bonus disc consisting of Blockhead-produced instrumentals of tracks from Aesop Rock's Daylight

Daylight (Aesop Rock album)

Daylight is an EP by American hip hop artist Aesop Rock, released on 5 February 2002 on Definitive Jux. It is also the title of a single from his second major album, Labor Days...

 and Bazooka Tooth

Bazooka Tooth

Bazooka Tooth is the fourth full-length album by American hip hop artist Aesop Rock , released on September 23, 2003 on Definitive Jux ....

. The tracks "Insomniac Olympics", "Sunday Seance" and "Jet Son" were released as singles.

Track "Triptych Pt. 2" features modified sample from Alan Parsons Projects song "Don't let it show" (first appearance - on album I Robot (1977)

I Robot (album)

I Robot is a progressive rock album recorded by The Alan Parsons Project, engineered by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson in 1977. It was released by Arista Records in 1977 and re-released on CD in 1984 and 2007. It was intended to be based on the I, Robot stories written by Isaac Asimov, and Woolfson...

) with vocals by Dave Townsend

Dave Townsend

Dave Townsend was a vocalist for The Alan Parsons Project in 1977 on the album I Robot and in 1979 on the album Eve. Very little is known about his biographical data, as he was in no major bands.He most notably wrote tracks for:...

.

Overview

Music by Cavelight came about when independent label Mush Records

Mush Records

Mush Records is an independent record label that has released albums for many independent artists and was started by Robert Curcio and Cindy Roché.Mush Records is an electronic based record label...

, for whom Blockhead had already produced a breakbeat

Break (music)

In popular music, a break is an instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to stop-time – being a "break" from the main parts of the song or piece....

 album for DJs

Turntablism

Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DJ mixer.The word 'turntablist' was coined in 1995 by DJ Babu to describe the difference between a DJ who just plays records, and one who performs by touching and moving the records, stylus and mixer...

, asked him to produce a wholly instrumental record, in contrast to his usual work producing tracks for rappers

Rapping

Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...

 (notably Aesop Rock

Aesop Rock

Ian Matthias Bavitz , better known by his stage name Aesop Rock, is an American hip hop artist and producer. He was at the forefront of the new wave of underground and alternative hip hop acts that emerged during the late 1990s and early 2000s. He was signed to El-P's Definitive Jux label until it...

, whose Mush album Float he had also produced). After Mush stopped returning his phone calls, he and his manager sent the album around other labels before Ninja Tune, having received a copy through fellow electronic

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 label Warp

Warp Records

Warp, commonly referred to as Warp Records, is a pioneering independent British record label, founded in Sheffield in 1989, notable for discovering some of the more enduring artists in electronic music....

, offered to release it.

UK version

1. "Insomnia
   Insomnia
   Insomnia is most often defined by an individual's report of sleeping difficulties. While the term is sometimes used in sleep literature to describe a disorder demonstrated by polysomnographic evidence of disturbed sleep, insomnia is often defined as a positive response to either of two questions:...
   
   c Olympics" (T. Simon
   Blockhead (music)
   Blockhead is an American Hip hop producer based in Manhattan, New York. Aside from his solo efforts released on the Ninja Tune label, he is most associated with producing for Aesop Rock, a rapper for the Definitive Jux independent hip hop label. He has also previously worked with rappers C-Rayz...
   
   ) – 5:06
2. "Carnivores Unite" (T. Simon) – 4:46
   • Guitar
     Guitar
     The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
     
     : Damien Paris
     The Giraffes (Brooklyn band)
     The Giraffes is a Brooklyn-based hard rock band formed in 1998. The group's current lineup features guitarist Damien Paris, drummer Andrew Totolos, lead vocalist Aaron Lazar and bassist Jens Carstensen....
     
     
   • Scratches
     Turntablism
     Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DJ mixer.The word 'turntablist' was coined in 1995 by DJ Babu to describe the difference between a DJ who just plays records, and one who performs by touching and moving the records, stylus and mixer...
     
     : Omega One
3. "You've Got Maelstrom" (T. Simon) – 4:47
   • Scratches: Omega One
4. "Sunday Seance" (T. Simon) – 5:26
5. "A Better Place" (T. Simon) – 4:26
   • Guitar: Damien Paris
6. "Road Rage
   Road rage
   Road rage is an aggressive or angry behavior by a driver of an automobile or other motor vehicle. Such behavior might include rude gestures, verbal insults, deliberately driving in an unsafe or threatening manner, or making threats. Road rage can lead to altercations, assaults, and collisions...
   
    Breakdown" (T. Simon) – 4:15
7. "Triptych
   Triptych
   A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...
   
    Pt. 1" (T. Simon) – 4:03
8. "Triptych Pt. 2" (T. Simon) – 3:04
9. "Triptych Pt. 3" (T. Simon/D. Paris) – 2:54
   • Bass
     Bass guitar
     The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
     
     : Damien Paris
10. "Jet Son" (T. Simon) – 3:48
    • Guitar: Damien Paris
    • Scratches: Omega One
11. "Breathe and Start" (T. Simon) – 4:22
    • Violin
      Violin
      The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
      
      : Baby Dayliner
      Baby Dayliner
      Baby Dayliner is a musical recording and performing artist from and based out of New York City. He was born and raised in New York City, and went to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, also known as the high school from the 1980 film Fame. He studied at St. John's...
      
      
    • Scratches: Omega One
12. "Music by Cavelight" (T. Simon) – 4:10

North American version

1. "Intro: Hello Popartz" (T. Simon) – 2:24
   • Scratches by Omega One
2. "You've Got Maelstrom" (T. Simon) – 4:47
   • Scratches: Omega One
3. "Carnivores Unite" (T. Simon) – 4:46
   • Guitar: Damien Paris
   • Scratches: Omega One
4. "Sunday Seance
   Séance
   A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...
   
   " (T. Simon) – 5:26
5. "A Better Place" (T. Simon) – 4:26
   • Guitar: Damien Paris
6. "Road Rage Breakdown" (T. Simon) – 4:15
7. "Triptych Pt. 1 & 2" (T. Simon) – 7:07
8. "Triptych Pt. 3" (T. Simon/D. Paris) – 2:54
   • Bass: Damien Paris
9. "Jet Son" (T. Simon) – 3:48
   • Guitar: Damien Paris
   • Scratches: Omega One
10. "Music By Cavelight" (T. Simon) – 4:10
11. "Breathe And Start" (T. Simon) – 4:22
    • Violin: Baby Dayliner
    • Scratches: Omega One
12. "Bullfight In Ireland" (T. Simon) – 4:46
    • Guitar: Damien Paris
13. "Insomniac Olympics" (T. Simon) – 5:06
14. "Insomniac Olympics" (QuickTime
    QuickTime
    QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
    
     video) (limited edition version only)

Bonus disc (limited edition version)

1. "Forest Crunk" (T. Simon) – 4:28
   • Originally appeared on Daylight
     Daylight (Aesop Rock album)
     Daylight is an EP by American hip hop artist Aesop Rock, released on 5 February 2002 on Definitive Jux. It is also the title of a single from his second major album, Labor Days...
     
      by Aesop Rock
     Aesop Rock
     Ian Matthias Bavitz , better known by his stage name Aesop Rock, is an American hip hop artist and producer. He was at the forefront of the new wave of underground and alternative hip hop acts that emerged during the late 1990s and early 2000s. He was signed to El-P's Definitive Jux label until it...
     
     
2. "Daylight" (T. Simon) – 2:15
   • Originally appeared on Daylight by Aesop Rock
3. "Night Light" (T. Simon) – 4:20
   • Originally appeared on Daylight by Aesop Rock
4. "Maintenance" (T. Simon) – 4:29
   • Originally appeared on Daylight by Aesop Rock
5. " – 11:35" (T. Simon) – 4:40
   • Originally appeared on Bazooka Tooth
     Bazooka Tooth
     Bazooka Tooth is the fourth full-length album by American hip hop artist Aesop Rock , released on September 23, 2003 on Definitive Jux ....
     
      by Aesop Rock
6. "Babies with Guns" (T. Simon)
   • Listed on the sleeve through a pressing plant
     Record press
     A record press is a machine for manufacturing vinyl records. It is essentially a hydraulic press with a closing force of 100 tons and is fitted with moulds. Labels and a vinyl pattie are placed in the mould cavity while the moulds are being steam-heated with an ideal steam pressure of 140-170psi...
     
     error, this instrumental version of a track from Aesop Rock's Bazooka Tooth does not actually feature on the disc.