We've never covered an artist in the classical music genre on our blog, but we are this week. To me, DJ Shadow creates classical music for an electronic generation. I am listening to Entroducing as I am writing this and it never ceases to amaze me how I get chills with every subsequent listen; it is an album built solely around sampled sounds from records and a drum machine. It is the most unique listening experience I have ever had, and I listen to a lot of music!Although I call this modern classical music, it is considered by most to be hip hop, but to put a such a limiting label on such creative soundscapes is unfair. Shadows incorporation of break beats, jazz, funk, rap, vocal samples and sounds that are indecipherable are a testament to his genius. He has the ability to wrap this music around you and create this enormous, almost tangible, atmosphere that can feel larger than life at times.
He is addicted to music and sound and record collecting. His collection of vinyl is said to be in the 60,000 range, which is humbling considering I have just recently started my own. I understand the addiction of "digging" especially with someone who creates from the records he finds. Here is an excerpt from the movie Scratch where Shadow takes us to his own personal "Nirvana".
DJ Shadow is yet another stepping stone, along with Madlib, P-Funk, and Gil Scott Heron on your journey through hip hop appreciation and foundation before I select a traditional hip hop act for one of my future weeks. Please listen to this music loudly, and especially with Entroducing, listen to this music at night when you are undisturbed for a greater effect.
Shadow helped produce an album with trip-hop group U.N.K.L.E back in the late 90's and made this amazing song with Thom Yorke on vocals that is best known for this accompanying video. Enjoy your listening.
Josh Davis, aka DJ Shadow, has possibly heard more music than anyone else alive. His desire to find music is legendary, and this is immediately apparent when listening to his music, as he's able to take elements of literally every single genre of music and fit them together into a single unified whole that once unified, rivals the works of the greatest composers in the world's history of music. Justin's idea of Shadow's music fitting into a 'classical' point of classification is as fitting as any of the many other genres that can be attributed to his music, as the music that he creates is most assuredly one of the more unique sounds that any of us will ever hear.
ReplyDeleteI can guarantee that I have listened to 'Endtroducing...' more than any other album that we've covered on Music Togetherness that isn't called 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. I first listened to this album probably 7 or 8 years ago after reading about DJ Shadow online, and went through a phase immediately thereafter where I listened to it at least once every day for quite an extended period of time. The true measure of the greatness of this album, however, is the fact that after having heard it a countless number of times, the album still sounds completely fresh to me every time I hear it. This will forever be the single most haunting piece of music that I will ever hear. After the short intro, the album really begins with "Building Steam With a Grain of Salt", which contains my all-time favorite piano line. This album is quite obviously about an apocalypse, and the doom that this song seems to foretell gives me chills. Many of the samples from this record were taken from horror movie soundtracks, and this song contains a number of those samples. This is one of my favorite songs of all-time, and it's so good that it's actually hard for me to find words for it. (One of my favorite things about this album is that when listening to it on headphones, you can actually hear the vinyl crackle....it's great.) That song is immediately followed by "The Number Song", which is dominated by a forceful drumbeat that propels the song along at an amazing speed. This is the first sign of Shadow's amazing scratching and mixing abilities, as he's able to throw parts from different source record into the mix at amazing speeds. My favorite part of the song is the breakdown at about the 2:05 mark, where the beat starts to slow down and the horn plays, introducing the countdown that the song has been leaning towards since the beginning. "What Does Your Soul Look Like?" answers it's own question, in my opinion, as the whole song seems to be DJ Shadow bearing his musical soul....it's amazing. "Stem/Long Stem" is one of the more haunting tracks on the record, as it's led at first by a slowly plucked harp, and then barraged by a cascade of drums, interrupted by a short vocal break, and then begun again until it climaxes into a screech of stringed instruments that to me sounds like a gasp of breath after the racing drums that preceded it. This is then segued into a sort of hockey arena sounding organ (set firmly onto doom mode), and a nice slow ambient section that gives a break from the action for a second. "Mutual Slump" contains the only sample that I recognized when I first heard the album, as it contains a synth line from the Bjork song "Possibly Maybe". The drums really kill on this song, and I love what sounds to be like monks chanting in the background throughout the song. The doom-bringing hockey organ returns for "Organ Donor", and Shadow's re-working of it turns the player of that organ line into a virtuoso of the instrument. After Snoop telling us that hip-hop in '96 sucks because of "the money", we get to "Midnight in a Perfect World", which to me is the feeling that the world had in the 1950s when the Doomsday Clock was at 2 minutes to midnight, or however close it actually got to reaching that apocalyptic midnight point.....this song is the end of the world approaching. The final track on the album is kind of like the calm after the storm, in my opinion, as it almost has a sort of uplifting feel to it. It's like Shadow is telling us that the approaching end of the world is bad, obviously, but we still need to look around and see and appreciate the beauty in the world while we can. This is the single greatest instrumental album made in the entirety of modern music (1950 and beyond), and is one that I don't think will be approached by anyone, possibly ever.
ReplyDelete'Endtroducing...' Album Rating: 100%
'The Private Press' is a good album....it's only crime is that it followed a legendary album. It's impossible for me to listen to this record without comparing the two, as they're fairly similar in style in most aspects, but still, this album fails to live up to it's predecessor. "Fixed Income" gets things going by doing a lot of what was being done before it, with some extremely dark, grimy samples being mixed with some great live drums (the live drums are what Shadow does best, and he veers from this a little too often on this album for me). "Walkie Talkie" is the first change in style for Shadow, as he gets into the boastful DJ sound that so many others have, although he still does it better than the rest. "Giving Up the Ghost" is by far the best song on the album, as it would have fit right onto 'Endtroducing...'. It returns to the haunting sound of that album, and the drums are incredible, especially when mixed with the atmospheric samples that accompany it....it fits the title of the song well, as I can imagine a death when hearing this song. "Six Days" is the first song to contain a real vocal arrangement, and is a sort of slow, contemplative song that hasn't been seen much in Shadow's catalog to this point. "Mongrel..." is basically of a piece with "...Meets His Maker", whose title when taken together brings up some pretty depressing imagery, but whose music taken together is pretty fantastic, especially the piano section at the very end of the song(s). "Right Thing" interestingly enough has some Daft Punk elements to it, and is definitely a change of pace for Shadow, and while it's not something I'd like to see him do a lot of, it works in short bits. "Monosylabik" is a sort of drum n' bass song, and is definitely not something I'd like to see Shadow do more of. "Mashin' on the Motorway" sees Lateef the Truth Speaker talking about driving stupidly, and the song has a fairly nice on the road feel to it, although the ending of it is pretty predictable. The aftermath of that song is given to us on the next song, "Blood on the Motorway". This is a sincerely beautiful song, and sort of gives you the feeling of entering the world after ours....Shadow is great at creating imagery with sound. "You Can't Go Home Again" closes things out with a really nice repeated piano line, and although it contains more of the programmed drums that I don't like to see from Shadow as much, the song works on a lot of levels. Overall, if this album were made by anyone other than DJ Shadow, it would be a great one....but when compared to what the man's capable of, it merely comes off as good.
ReplyDelete'The Private Press' Album Rating: 76%
Also, the video for "Rabbit In Your Headlights" is probably the greatest music video ever made. The entire thing is an allegory for Jesus Christ dying for the sins of the world (you can actually hear the man muttering "Christo" in French), only to be resurrected at the end to defeat wickedness for all time. The imagery of the man with his arms outstretched as the car hits him and is crushed is one that will remain with me for the rest of my life.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit when I heard we were doing an artist called DJ Shadow I assumed it was going to be some rapper that Justin was going to introduce us to. All I will say for now is that I was pleasantly surprised that I was wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe first track on “Entroducing” reminded me a lot of Herbie Hancock, which at first got me a little worried that this was going to be another week of something that I was not a huge fan of. On to “Building Steam with a grain of salt” and I have to say I am very happy about what I am hearing. While I would say that it reminds me of Thievery Corporation in that it is mixing different sounds, it definitely has more of an urban vibe to it. I have grown to love music like this that has nobody singing and you can just let your mind go wherever it takes you. “The Number Song” really reminds me of something you would see in one of the Matrix movies, with a little bit of the Crystal Method thrown in. I could definitely hear myself listening to something like this when I am working out, it could definitely get me motivated. It is not until “What does your soul look like Part.4” that I really see where Thievery Corporation took a page out of his book. This could easily have been a track on any of Thievery’s albums. I am really impressed that each track is so diverse, yet all flow together really well. “Stem/Long Stem/Transmission2” at first reminds me of some background music to some Nintendo game, it then starts sounding like a beautiful piece of art. I now see what Justin is talking about when he talks about this being modern classical music. I am going to have to go back and listen to this one a few more times in order to get the full effect of it. “Midnight in a Perfect World” is another song I really enjoyed, he really knows how to create great atmosphere music. “Napalm Brain Scatter Brain is really interesting, I like the slow work up in tempo, and it seems like a song so ahead of its time. I do realize that this album came out in 1996, but think about the stuff that came out that year. It really makes me appreciate DJ Shadow and the futuristic strides he made for artist nowadays. DJ Shadow is an artist right up my alley, I am looking forward to the next album.
Every 5 weeks or so, I become more privy to why this genre appeals to Justin. Overall, I feel this is probably my favorite artist of his to date. This takes the hip hop element of the Beastie Boys ‘The In Sound From Way Out’ and adds in a very mysterious sound you typically only hear in Sci-Fi movies. Throughout this album, I found I was taken away to a far away land. I typically picture someone walking through a burned down city searching for signs of life. There is that feel of fear, uncertainty and hope all filled into a 3-6 minute track. If I am going to listen to this genre, this is precisely what I am looking for. ‘Building Steam from a Grain of Salt’ introduces us to the bread and butter of DJ Shadow’s style. The piano is simply amazing in this track. ‘The Number Song’ sounds exactly like a Beastie Boys song, or maybe Beastie Boys sound exactly like ‘The Number Song’. ‘What Does Your Soul Look Like’ sounds like a song featured in a porno. Similar to Korn’s ‘Porno Creep.’ ‘Stem/Long Stem/Transmission 2’ was easily my favorite track on the album. I can’t help but picture myself in the movie ‘Cube’ or maybe the video game ‘Tenchu.’ You really get that feeling of being lost in a mysterious environment and it is so intriguing. ‘Mutual Slump’ makes me feel like I am in ‘Requiem for a Dream’ as it is quite trippy. I also really like ‘Organ Donor’. It brings in the keyboard from ‘Long Stem’, but then adds in some funk that is extremely catchy. However, I have to say that I was a little disappointed with the last 3 tracks or 22 minutes worth on this album. I couldn’t get into these tracks at all and honestly couldn’t wait for them to end.
ReplyDeleteThe Private Press had a lot more lyrics and electronic than I would like and therefore did not like this near as much as Endtroducing. Fixed income was a great opener, it was cool to hear him feature the guitar for the first time. You can picture going on a late night cruise and enjoying the small things in life. I have no idea what he uses to make that fart noise in ‘Walkie Talkie’, but it is really cool and overcomes the undesirable female rap. ‘Giving Up the Ghost’ was just ok for me. The featured instrument sounds like a harp which I am not used to hearing so that was really the lone highlight for me. I really liked ‘Mongrel’s’ beat and was almost disappointed in its length, but was pleasantly surprised to hear that beat continue in ‘…Meets his Maker.’ The Private Press goes a little overboard with the electronic in Right Thing, Gdmssob, and Monosylabik. This is very much not for me. There isn’t a message in any lyric, a tune that takes me away from my troubles, or even a hook to snap my fingers to. I am however, a fan of a lot of his song titles. Again, the last 16 minutes was disappointing and did not have any of the hooks that I came to love about Endtroducing.
Slowly but surely I am coming around on this genre. There were some really great tracks that I intend to add to my collection.
I only have a few minutes here, but I'm going to get a start. Sorry to Justin, who should be here soon to eat food and see Iron Man II, for posting late and for having to finish on Sunday.
ReplyDeleteI like the eerie feeling on "Entroducing." A horror movie fan, I was excited to hear David say a lot of this had been taken from horror movies. So it's not something I'd probably listen to over and over again or everyday, but I did enjoy this week for the skill and taste. A part of this was featured on DJ Hero, which David forgot (he was a character after all), so it wasn't completely new to me.
The piano on the first track is haunting, but moving into the second track I was less impressed to hear such a different feel than I had been expecting after the first track. I really appreciate the parts I can see that Justin compared to classical music, whereas the parts that make it hip hop were not as enjoyable to me.
I didn't really get into another track until "Stem." Don't take this the wrong way but it reminded me of this yoga CD we used to listen to in class that I really enjoyed. I liked it because of its dreamlike quality which, like this track, reminds me of A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Moving on... I didn't really enjoy the beat heavy "Mutual Slump" until the lyric part kicked in. The organ track on "Organ Donor" was the one on DJ Hero, which I love. "Why Hip Hop Sucks" I did not like. The base of the sound sounds like "Gin and Juice," but I didn't enjoy it. That speaking-static part on "What Does Your Soul Look Like" creeped the living hell out of me. And "it is happening again"?? Really? I wanted to scream. (In a good, but scared shitless, way.) Overall, I liked the creepy tracks on this album, but not the rap/hip-hop inspired ones.
ReplyDeleteI like how "Private Press" starts out, with that talking bit from an old movie. It kind of made me expect more of the same from the last album. "Fixed Income" continues with what seems like a slightly more electronic sound than the first album, but I liek the change. "Walkie Talkie" was different. Almost more like what I expected this week to sound like before we started. That being said, I didn't much like it. I liked "Giving Up the Ghost," although without lyrics, I'm not sure I understood it completely. Similarly, there's a lot going on "Right Thing."
ReplyDelete"Blood on the Motorway" was creepy kick ass with that organ intro, moving into the piano, probably my favorite track on this album. Overall, though, I prefer "Entroducing." This was a little weird and a little bit more "electronic" than I would have liked."
I thought a lot about this kind of music. I think any of this is cool to listen at a party. Maybe a Halloween-type night out clubbin'. I don't think it's something I'd listen to on a regular basis, but if the mood struck me.
All it takes to really like a track is a sound or a beat or a flow... so for me, it's really a taste of preference. Technically, I think both albums were better than sound. DJ Shadow proved he knows what he's doing, he knows what sounds are complementary of each other. Whether you enjoyed one album over the other depended upon what sound you preferred, then what emotions you preferred to have invoked. For me.
This weekend helped me
Forget that last line, it was a missed edit.
ReplyDeleteDid not forget to post!! Been a very busy mother's day weekend so I am planning on posting this evening. My apologies!
ReplyDelete“The Private Press” starts off once again with a very interesting intro. I kind of like how it introduces you to the album, and sets the tone for what’s ahead. I liked “Fixed Income” and all the different layering effects. It had almost a oriental vibe to it which I really enjoyed. Then going into “Walkie Talkie” was the first time I felt that the music was overcome with the hip hop aspect. I am very particular about the type of rap/hip hop music I get into and this was not really for me. “Giving up the Ghost” at first sounded a little redundant with the same beat over and over, however as I continued to listen and the tempo picked up I actually started to enjoy the song more and more. It gets even more interesting when you start to hear what sounds like hand saws going off in the background. It kind of gives the song an almost creepy feeling. “Mashin on the Motorway” was a fun song, and I can really relate to the road rage aspect of this song, as I find myself curing at my fellow drivers on a daily basis. Quite an interesting way song and unlike anything I have ever heard. “Blood on the Motorway” gave off almost an 80’s vibe to me, but that it was a fitting follow up to its predecessor. Overall I do thing that “Entroducing” was a much stronger album, but that DJ Shadow shows he has a lot of imagination and is not limited to what he can come up with. Great pick by Justin and I will definitely be checking out his other albums.
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