#329 DJ Shadow, 'Endtroducing.....' (1996)

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A landmark record in instrumental Hip Hop, DJ Shadow’s debut record was made almost entirely of samples. The samples comprised Hip Hop, Jazz, funk, psychedelia and heavy metal, as well as films and interviews. DJ Shadow, AKA Joshua Davis, was heavily influenced by Public Enemy’s ‘It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back’ and in turn, this album was a major influence on Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer,’ according to Jonny Greenwood.

I can appreciate this album’s greatness and its influence on Hip Hop and Alternative music, and while I did very much enjoy this album, I felt it was a bit of a slow starter and longer than it needed to be. One hour and three minutes of samples is a bit exhausting. There could be no more literal description for a song than track 2, ‘Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt.’ It’s 6 and a half minutes of nothing, really. Similarly, ‘The Number Song’ takes 2 minutes for the party to get started. I enjoyed ‘Changeling,’ but once again, it’s 7 minutes of pretty much the same thing. DJ Shadow is masterful, and the music is enjoyable, but I often found this album slipping into the background, occasionally popping its head up to remind me that no, it’s still not done yet. My ears really pricked up during ‘Transmission 2,’ a little interlude that foreshadows ‘Midnight In A Perfect World’ a few tracks later, which happened to be the first single from the record. On this he samples ‘Sowing The Seeds Of Love,’ one of my favourite songs by Tears For Fears. Ultimately, as we head closer towards the middle of the list, I felt that better albums have preceded this one.

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