''Of Cities'' is the second studio album by American hip hop producer

DJ Signify DJ Signify is an underground hip hop producer from Brooklyn, New York. History DJ Signify's first album '' Sleep No More'', featuring collaborations with Sage Francis and Buck 65, was described as "hip-hop at its darkest and most chilling" and e ...

. It was released on

Bully Records Bully Records was an independent record label founded in 2002 in Montreal. It is maintained, funded, and run by Marc-Olivier Boileau (Marco). The label first released mostly 7-inch singles and EPs, but has since expanded to release CDs, box sets ...

on January 20, 2009. It features guest appearances from

Aesop Rock Ian Matthias Bavitz (born June 5, 1976), better known by his stage name Aesop Rock, is an American rapper and producer from Long Island, New York. He was at the forefront of the new wave of underground and alternative hip hop acts that emerge ...

and Matt Kelly.

Critical reception

Dave Segal of '' The Stranger'' gave the album a favorable review, stating, "Signify gives us 16 tracks—including six brief interludes ripe for bumper usage in NPR's hipper segments—on ''Of Cities'' that bring the funk, but stoically, with urban grime and urbane grimness." Jennifer Marston of ''

XLR8R ''XLR8R'' (pronounced "accelerator") is a website that covers music, culture, style, and technology. It was originally also a print magazine. History and profile ''XLR8R'' was founded as a newsprint zine in 1993 by publisher Andrew Smith in Sea ...

'' said: "He's still pushing his drum-heavy style, which is tight as ever, but he's also reeled in shades of glitch, new wave, Kraut-rock, and other genres for the tracks." ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

'' named it the 3rd best instrumental hip hop album of 2009.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes. *

– turntables, production, arrangement, mixing *

– vocals (2, 11), lyrics (2, 11) * Matt Kelly – additional arrangement (2, 7, 16), guitar (5), keyboards (5) *

Blockhead Blockhead(s) may refer to: Films * ''The Blockhead'', a 1921 German silent film * ''Block-Heads'', a 1938 film starring Laurel and Hardy * ''Blockhead'' (film), a 1966 Italian film Music * Blockhead (music producer) (born 1976), American hip-h ...

– co-production (4, 9) * Joe Beats – engineering *

Harris Newman Harris Newman is a mastering engineer working out of Grey Market Mastering in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His studio shares a building with the Hotel2Tango recording studio, as well as Constellation Records. Newman has mastered hundreds of album ...

– mastering * Paul "Quo" Kwiakowski – artwork, layout * Todd Lown – photography * Chris Bryant – photography

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2009 albums DJ Signify albums Albums produced by Blockhead (music producer)