Apollo Brown - Clouds (2011) Instrumental Release that should NOT be slept on!

So, in my last post in the Independent Hip Hop Cops thread, I outlined that I'd purchased an album from The Left producer, Apollo Brown, entitled 'Clouds' which is a 27 track instrumental release...

Having listened to the album often over the past few weeks, I can only praise Apollo for being able to release such quality in his music so frequently, that can only be partnered by Stones Throw producer, Madlib. Last year, he teamed with Journalist 103 and DJ Soko and formed the group The Left, releasing Gas Mask, which was many peoples choice of album of the year. That said, Brown's Clouds really shows off a different side to his production, mellow, gripping and touches on exceptional, at times; with tracks like Tao Te Ching being an outstanding release.

If anything, some of the albums tracks become repetitive and the release lacks the instrumental touch of genius that is more apparent on Japanese releases. Sometimes, loops seem to go on for a long period of time and leaves the listener begging for a switch up, that sometimes only comes in very subtle touches... this can be a great touch to instrumental tracks when they're more frequent, but two changes in a track isn't enough to me...

However, it is nonetheless something that all instrumental junkies should pick up, some of my favourite tracks of this year will no doubt reign from this EP and here are some of my favourites, to go along with the above posted Playlist of the Month track - Tao Te Ching:

Apollo Brown has recently teamed with Hassaan Mackay for their project entitled 'Daily Bread', which I'll review in the near future.