With his album The Less You Know, The Better closing the circle to his legendary soundscapes with a hip hop spine, we take a look at the career of producer champion DJ Shadow.
His debut LP Endtroducing and his single collection Preemptive Strike re-wrote the template of what hip hop could be apart from over-sexed bling bling videos. And while creating emotive, cinematic instrumentals full of guitars, scratches and obscure sample snippets, Josh Davis, aka DJ Shadow became something of a saviour to b-boys and girls the world over.
But since those heady days of 1996, fans of Endtroducing still have to get used to the idea that Josh Davis is not the torch-bearer they demanded - in fact quite the opposite. With his LPs The Private Press (2002) and The Outsider (2006), his sound has proven to be as elusive and unpredictable as his pseudonym suggests.
As well as collaborating with artists such as Cut Chemist, Dr Octagon, Quannum, James Lavelle, and Mos Def, he also featured in the book Behind The Beat, which documented home studios of hip hop producers like Madlib and J Dilla.
On his new LP The Less You Know, The Better, DJ Shadow combines the best parts of his notorious perfectionism with a short attention span, which is being met with enthusiasm from most critics and of course from his loyal fans, despite confounding expectations. You can listen to the entire album on NPR music.
Davis said about his most recent oeuvre: “It should be totally timeless and be able to live in any era. I think I've done that with this one. It's different at times [...] but I don't think it's a huge departure from anything I've ever done. And I think my fans who have been there since 1993 will really like this one.”
About the choice of the album title, he elaborated: “Any good album title has multiple meanings, and I like choosing titles where I find myself repeating it, almost like a mantra. But this one's partly about being stuck overnight at some airport terminal in Dallas and having CNN and Fox blasting my brain out for no apparent reason. I always just sit there and say, 'Who asked for this?’”
Hear the maestro speak extensively about his life and art in a Fireside Chat on Red Bull Music Academy Radio:
Playlist:
Shadow - Lesson 4 - Hollywood BASIC
Zimbabwe Legit - Doin' Damage.. (Shadow's Legitimate Mix) - Hollywood BASIC
DJ Shadow - Influx - Mo'Wax
DJ Shadow - What Does Your Soul Look Like (Pt 1 - Blue Sky Revisit) - Mo'Wax
DJ Shadow - Changeling - Mo'Wax
UNKLE - Unkle Main Title Theme - Mo'Wax
DJ Shadow - Right Thing / GDMFSOB (Clean Instr. Version) - MCA
DJ Shadow - Blood On The Motorway - MCA
DJ Shadow - You Can't Go Home Again - MCA
DJ Shadow - 3 Freaks - Island
DJ Shadow - Dats My Part - Island
DJ Shadow - Def Surrounds Us - Deconstruction Prod.
DJ Shadow - I Gotta Rokk - Deconstruction Prod.
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