DJ Shadow: The Foreshadower - Black Book, Summer 2002
By: John Albert
The enigmatic DJ Shadow steps into the light.
The new music on DJ Shadow’s long-awaited new album, The Private Press, has the haunting feel of memory, but it sounds like nothing else that’s come before it. This record may be rooted in the earthly hip-hop movement that Shadow loves, but it also pushes the musical boundaries into spacier, more experimental territory. “Hip-hop taught me that it’s all about taking what’s around you,” he says, “subverting it, and spitting it out in a new context. It’s really as broad as any other type of music – maybe more so because it incorporates and embraces all forms of music. It’s sort of the ultimate musical art form.”
The album’s warm seductive bass lines move against restless, psychedelic guitar riffs. Kinetic turntables are skillfully scratched in front of sparse piano chords. The song structures themselves are ever-changing and epic. Played in a moving car, this music infuses passing imagery with a welcome intensity, without ever intruding on one’s thoughts. For a population continually bombarded by banal sound bites, Shadow’s brand of hip-hop offers a welcome sanctuary. It draws us back from a desensitized state and serves as an emotional amplifier, playing like the inspired score of an as-yet unwritten life.
A renowned turntablist, Shadow is also a proficient conversationalist, humble like Kung Fu’s Caine but with a better vocabulary. Referring to the cinematic quality of his work, he explains, “Early on I think I realized I could draw inspiration from other art forms. In Endtroducing…. I used a lot of literary techniques like foreshadowing to tell different layers of the narrative. I was working on the new record last year when I saw the film Memento, and it really clicked with me. It was very nonlinear, which ended up as kind of the overall theme of the album. I actually wrote [nonlinear] on a piece of paper and put it right in front of me.”
While it’s been six long years since Shadow’s acclaimed Endtroducing…. Legitimized sampling as an art unto itself, the Davis, California, native has been plenty busy in the interim. He provided the mood-enhancing score to the startling documentary Dark Days, about homeless people living in abandoned New York subway tunnels. He collaborated on the popular UNKLE projects, which featured vocals by the Verve’s Richard Ashcroft and Thom Yorke of Radiohead. And he also worked with fellow West Coast turntablist Cut Chemist on two popular remix CDs while producing a record for his old friends, the California-based hip-hop outfit Blackalicious.
Now, on The Private Press, DJ Shadow utilizes turntables and samplers to create a surprisingly organic-sounding record. Such songs as the tripped-out “You Can’t Go Home Again” and the plaintive, soulful groove titled “6 Days” sound as if they were performed by a group of inspired musicians from some unknown time and place. Asked if he has ever considered switching to a live band, Shadow answers thoughtfully: “My chosen template is vinyl. It has boundaries, and I think finding new things to do within those boundaries is interesting. But as far as sampling, when I started working on this record I wasn’t sure if I was going to have to resort to incorporating live instruments or not. I didn’t know if I had enough energy to run the length, but after a month I realized, oh man, there’s still so much I want to say with sampling.”
As such, The Private Press soundtracks our uneasy modern existence, rhythmically lulling us into a state of hyperawareness. Who knows what lurks in the heart of hip-hop’s future? DJ Shadow knows.
DJ Shadow’s The Private Press (MCA) is set for release on June 4.
His guilty pleasure fast food for the road?
Cracker Barrel – “I don’t know,” he laughs, “they’re just slamming.”
By: John Albert
The enigmatic DJ Shadow steps into the light.
The new music on DJ Shadow’s long-awaited new album, The Private Press, has the haunting feel of memory, but it sounds like nothing else that’s come before it. This record may be rooted in the earthly hip-hop movement that Shadow loves, but it also pushes the musical boundaries into spacier, more experimental territory. “Hip-hop taught me that it’s all about taking what’s around you,” he says, “subverting it, and spitting it out in a new context. It’s really as broad as any other type of music – maybe more so because it incorporates and embraces all forms of music. It’s sort of the ultimate musical art form.”
The album’s warm seductive bass lines move against restless, psychedelic guitar riffs. Kinetic turntables are skillfully scratched in front of sparse piano chords. The song structures themselves are ever-changing and epic. Played in a moving car, this music infuses passing imagery with a welcome intensity, without ever intruding on one’s thoughts. For a population continually bombarded by banal sound bites, Shadow’s brand of hip-hop offers a welcome sanctuary. It draws us back from a desensitized state and serves as an emotional amplifier, playing like the inspired score of an as-yet unwritten life.
A renowned turntablist, Shadow is also a proficient conversationalist, humble like Kung Fu’s Caine but with a better vocabulary. Referring to the cinematic quality of his work, he explains, “Early on I think I realized I could draw inspiration from other art forms. In Endtroducing…. I used a lot of literary techniques like foreshadowing to tell different layers of the narrative. I was working on the new record last year when I saw the film Memento, and it really clicked with me. It was very nonlinear, which ended up as kind of the overall theme of the album. I actually wrote [nonlinear] on a piece of paper and put it right in front of me.”
While it’s been six long years since Shadow’s acclaimed Endtroducing…. Legitimized sampling as an art unto itself, the Davis, California, native has been plenty busy in the interim. He provided the mood-enhancing score to the startling documentary Dark Days, about homeless people living in abandoned New York subway tunnels. He collaborated on the popular UNKLE projects, which featured vocals by the Verve’s Richard Ashcroft and Thom Yorke of Radiohead. And he also worked with fellow West Coast turntablist Cut Chemist on two popular remix CDs while producing a record for his old friends, the California-based hip-hop outfit Blackalicious.
Now, on The Private Press, DJ Shadow utilizes turntables and samplers to create a surprisingly organic-sounding record. Such songs as the tripped-out “You Can’t Go Home Again” and the plaintive, soulful groove titled “6 Days” sound as if they were performed by a group of inspired musicians from some unknown time and place. Asked if he has ever considered switching to a live band, Shadow answers thoughtfully: “My chosen template is vinyl. It has boundaries, and I think finding new things to do within those boundaries is interesting. But as far as sampling, when I started working on this record I wasn’t sure if I was going to have to resort to incorporating live instruments or not. I didn’t know if I had enough energy to run the length, but after a month I realized, oh man, there’s still so much I want to say with sampling.”
As such, The Private Press soundtracks our uneasy modern existence, rhythmically lulling us into a state of hyperawareness. Who knows what lurks in the heart of hip-hop’s future? DJ Shadow knows.
DJ Shadow’s The Private Press (MCA) is set for release on June 4.
His guilty pleasure fast food for the road?
Cracker Barrel – “I don’t know,” he laughs, “they’re just slamming.”