DJ Shadow: DJ Shadow in Amsterdam, 2011-05-24
We at Solesides were at the Amsterdam DJ Shadow show on May 24, 2011.
It's been almost a year since we met Shadow (last time was July 2010 while his 'Shadowsphere tour version 1' visited Holland and by phone to do our recent interview with Shadow. So it was really great to catch up on things with him and the crew. More about the conversation we had with Shadow later on, but first, let's talk about the live show:
Given it'd sound daft and just wouldn't work, most electronic / DJ acts can't and don't try to perform 'fully' or 'properly' live. But, as far as we are concerned, there are some things they can do to stand out. First, they need to tear their tracks inside out and make them perfectly reworked for a dark, sweaty room full of lunatics. Then they need a striking visual show.
So here's DJ Shadow doing his 2011 tour, performing inside what looks like a giant paper-mache death star. It’s ‘officially’ called the ‘Shadowsphere.’ This sphere is a canvas for all sorts of sinister visuals, from an exploding Su-Bo to chainsaw-armed cartoon monsters on the rampage. Eventually the sphere opens and DJ Shadow is revealed as a type of glowing, sparkling giant getting down to business inside his small but perfectly pimped-out garden shed. Apologies if that sounds a bit rubbish, it's not meant to. It really, really worked.
As for the music? Don’t expect an old-school DJ Shadow / hip hop set: Those tracks we know and love from Endtroducing, The Private Press and The Outsider are destroyed. In the best possible way. Walkie Talkie is barely recognizable, now a cut n' paste, bass heavy monstrosity. There's a heap of drum n' bass, touches of dubstep and techno and very little in the way of hip hop. In short; the unexpected.
The music from the new album 'The Less You Know The Better' is varied, sonically adventurous with two tunes in particular (one of them is the new single ‘I gotta Rock’) with a cut-up rock riff turned into a punk funk cut ‘em up and a slow melancholic ballad (which is called ‘Redeemed’) with soulful vocals sticking in the memory.
As flowers slowly grow on the stage, ‘Stem’ is welcome respite, reworked to sound a little left of center, captivating and gorgeous. It's already an astonishing performance long before a new track 'Sad and Lonely' and ‘High Noon’ were chosen for the encore with its guitar riff and incessant drums lifting off into a techno-heavy bass conclusion.
Shadow made promises of more to come and since the new music sounds great already live, the new album is really something to look forward to.
During our conversation with Shadow, we talked about some other things than in our interview with him from earlier this month: Shadow advised us all to check out a documentary called '80 Blocks from Tiffany's' which is a 1979 documentary about the daily life of gangs within the South Bronx. Shadow said that he thought he knew all about hip hop, but even he learned new things. Also, he was just really impressed by the film. So we're definitely going to check this one out. You should do that too.
About the new album 'The Less You Know The Better'; Shadow will present the album to his label / universal music after the Paris show in June. Last year, he spent his time working on the album in a rental place outside of San Francisco. This year, he went to Nashville to work on the rest of the album. To be more exact; it were the Quadrafonic Studios, where Neil Young recorded 'Harvest'. Shadow added that he believes he is as close to perfection as he could ever get with this album. He says: "I really just want to try and achieve songs that when I listen to back to them I go ' I would not change a thing,' that is pretty rare for me in my own music, 99 times out of 100 there's something I wish I could have done differently or changed, but not on this one," he said. He continued: "What binds this record together is really just me trying to make the best music I could."
The Less You Know The Better is out in September 2011.
FILMCLIP: The encore at the Berlin Show, 2011 (Sad & Lonely - Blood On The Motorway)
Many thanks go out to the DJ Shadow crew; Josh, Jamal, etc. for making this all happen.
We at Solesides were at the Amsterdam DJ Shadow show on May 24, 2011.
It's been almost a year since we met Shadow (last time was July 2010 while his 'Shadowsphere tour version 1' visited Holland and by phone to do our recent interview with Shadow. So it was really great to catch up on things with him and the crew. More about the conversation we had with Shadow later on, but first, let's talk about the live show:
Given it'd sound daft and just wouldn't work, most electronic / DJ acts can't and don't try to perform 'fully' or 'properly' live. But, as far as we are concerned, there are some things they can do to stand out. First, they need to tear their tracks inside out and make them perfectly reworked for a dark, sweaty room full of lunatics. Then they need a striking visual show.
So here's DJ Shadow doing his 2011 tour, performing inside what looks like a giant paper-mache death star. It’s ‘officially’ called the ‘Shadowsphere.’ This sphere is a canvas for all sorts of sinister visuals, from an exploding Su-Bo to chainsaw-armed cartoon monsters on the rampage. Eventually the sphere opens and DJ Shadow is revealed as a type of glowing, sparkling giant getting down to business inside his small but perfectly pimped-out garden shed. Apologies if that sounds a bit rubbish, it's not meant to. It really, really worked.
As for the music? Don’t expect an old-school DJ Shadow / hip hop set: Those tracks we know and love from Endtroducing, The Private Press and The Outsider are destroyed. In the best possible way. Walkie Talkie is barely recognizable, now a cut n' paste, bass heavy monstrosity. There's a heap of drum n' bass, touches of dubstep and techno and very little in the way of hip hop. In short; the unexpected.
The music from the new album 'The Less You Know The Better' is varied, sonically adventurous with two tunes in particular (one of them is the new single ‘I gotta Rock’) with a cut-up rock riff turned into a punk funk cut ‘em up and a slow melancholic ballad (which is called ‘Redeemed’) with soulful vocals sticking in the memory.
As flowers slowly grow on the stage, ‘Stem’ is welcome respite, reworked to sound a little left of center, captivating and gorgeous. It's already an astonishing performance long before a new track 'Sad and Lonely' and ‘High Noon’ were chosen for the encore with its guitar riff and incessant drums lifting off into a techno-heavy bass conclusion.
Shadow made promises of more to come and since the new music sounds great already live, the new album is really something to look forward to.
During our conversation with Shadow, we talked about some other things than in our interview with him from earlier this month: Shadow advised us all to check out a documentary called '80 Blocks from Tiffany's' which is a 1979 documentary about the daily life of gangs within the South Bronx. Shadow said that he thought he knew all about hip hop, but even he learned new things. Also, he was just really impressed by the film. So we're definitely going to check this one out. You should do that too.
About the new album 'The Less You Know The Better'; Shadow will present the album to his label / universal music after the Paris show in June. Last year, he spent his time working on the album in a rental place outside of San Francisco. This year, he went to Nashville to work on the rest of the album. To be more exact; it were the Quadrafonic Studios, where Neil Young recorded 'Harvest'. Shadow added that he believes he is as close to perfection as he could ever get with this album. He says: "I really just want to try and achieve songs that when I listen to back to them I go ' I would not change a thing,' that is pretty rare for me in my own music, 99 times out of 100 there's something I wish I could have done differently or changed, but not on this one," he said. He continued: "What binds this record together is really just me trying to make the best music I could."
The Less You Know The Better is out in September 2011.
FILMCLIP: The encore at the Berlin Show, 2011 (Sad & Lonely - Blood On The Motorway)
Many thanks go out to the DJ Shadow crew; Josh, Jamal, etc. for making this all happen.