Endtroducing...

Josh Davis, also known as DJ Shadow, makes that kind of impact with the arcane record samples he artfully merges into cohesive, thoughtful, revelatory aural collages. He is obsessed. He digs up sounds you and I have never heard before, and maybe a thing or two we have heard before, and fuses them into some brilliant new heterogeneous dream with the power to stir the subconscious and induce sheer awe.

Once I bought his CD and broke free of the hold that "Building..." had on me, I got accustomed to the other twelve tracks of the album. There were many pleasant surprises. I found "Midnight in a Perfect World" just as addicting as the song that got me hooked in the first place, a loping, seductive, scratch-heavy, impossibly beautiful five minutes and two seconds. "Changeling" was another fast favorite, like a lush sunset after a long summer day. "Stem/Long Stem" creeped me out with pernicious string samples surrounding a single lonely chime. And although it took some time, "Mutual Slump" eventually won me over with its dual personality: crashing percussion and ugly guitar riffs on the one hand, and a mournful, echoing backdrop offset by a shy girl's spoken diary on the other.

Many have already mentioned what an impact this album had on a number of prominent artists such as Moby and Radiohead. DJ shadow's influence has reverberated for several years now in the music industry. But for me, I can only attest to what it did for me when seated next to an unreachable girl, in the midst of my quixotic quest, on a gray and rainwashed early spring afternoon.

It was nothing short of an epiphany.


Splice World   April 25, 1999
26 out of 29 found this review helpful

"Entroducing..." is perhaps one of the most amazing albums in the world of music. While an album that is built entirely off of samples may have some think of Puff Daddy's theft of '80's songs, Shadow is far from the sampling of Puff Daddy. Shadow loops interesting samples from forgotten and obscure songs. He layers samples from different records and uses odd effects to create strange soundscapes. If you give this album a listen, you will be hooked. Check out "The Numbers Song" (a Metallica guitar loop mixed with soul and hip-hop records? Where else have you heard that?), "Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain", and "Midnight In A Perfect World". For more Shadow, check out Preemptive Strike which features his first masterpiece "In/Flux" and the entire "What Does Your Soul Look Like" EP. Pick this up and prepare to be amazed.


Producing one of the best albums ever   July 12, 2004
Manny Hernandez (Palo Alto, CA)
21 out of 23 found this review helpful

From the opening sample of "Building Steam With a Grain of Salt" where a voice is heard saying "Producing..." you know you are listening to an outstanding piece of work. In order to better understand this, you have to position yourself at the time this album came out.

You have to realize Trip Hop was already in full fledge: Massive Attack and Portishead had already come out with their own thing, but DJ Shadow came with a different proposal in 1996 when he produced 'Endtroducing...'. Through the magic of samples, he blended in a way many have tried to copy, yet no one yet matched, genres such as rock, soul, funk, ambient, and jazz, into a final product that transcends time. If you need further proof of that, think how long it's been since this album came out (1996) as you are reading this, sit back, listen to it and be amazed, as so many have been amazed to this day.

After listening to 'Endtroducing...' almost daily for three weeks now, turning back and thinking of acts such as Fatboy Slim almost feels awkward, considering his sample-based 'Better Living Through Chemistry' came out almost a full year after Shadow's debut. Granted that everyone has a place in music, DJ Shadow's genius with sampling work simply is above and beyond, making this not only his breakthrough, but also one of the best albums ever.

Other favorite tracks: "Changeling", "Untitled" and the grandieuse "Mutual Slump". If you want to take a dip into an evolved form of his work, check out his side project, U.N.K.L.E., in particular 'Psyence Fiction'.


One of the best and most revolutionary albums ever   December 18, 2000
20 out of 23 found this review helpful

This is very well one of the greatest albums ever made. And the reason is because it is music. It's like a jazz album. And for me it's the best jazz album I have ever heard since Kind Of Blue (Miles Davis).

It's not techno, infact it's the farthest thing from it. For me it's a mix between jazz and hip hop. Dj Shadow grew up as a hip hop kid, collected records since he was younger than 13 or something, and made this album.

The extraordinary thing about it is that it is 100 percent samples. Not many people will believe it when they first hear it, because it's crafted together to sound like it isn't samples. For example, how many people have heard a hip hop track with a deep piano sample (that also isn't "funky" whatsoever) throughout the whole song? Or emotional female vocals to fill in empty spots (that's also a sample)? Or better yet, how many have ever heard, in their whole lives, a song that has a classical bass loop, mixed with a female vocals, mixed with a funky wah wah guitar, and a heavy slowed down hip hop beat? When I first heard it I thought to myself "oh he must be playing that piano" or "oh he's probably got a keyboard that can do that" or "his girl is probably doing the vocals there". But it isn't like that at all, his keyboard, piano, and girl who can sing is his records!

This album is different, and that is the great thing about it.

Now another fun thing to figure out is where the hell did he get all those damn samples? There's some samples on this album that NO ONE knows about! And that's another extraordinary thing, it truly shows how much he worked on this album.

I saw a review back here that said his beats weren't raw and rugged, well this is as raw as it gets. And a few said that it was very hard to dance to, well if you want something like that then go buy an album by a guy who has a drum machine that goes up to 400 bpm and a keyboard that has a few keys on it. Another one said that this isn't the best drum and bass record they've ever heard, well read the above comment. And finally, I read one review that said his DJ skills are like those of a dj who plays at a bar, well he has many many records, and if he's been around his tables for that long, he probably knows a lot more than a bar dj about djing.


Still a remarkable album...five years later.   December 3, 2001
David S. Minjares (Montebello, CA. USA)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

(This is Part One of a Two-Part Review.)

In November 1996, I was reeling from a summer in hell. After leaving a corporate-affiliated job and trying to figure out heads or tails about my future, I stumbled upon becoming an actor until I was able to start to make ends meet again.

On the closing night of a play I was in, I killed time in a Pasadena record store and stumbled upon a motherlode of music that would not only help cure me of post-play depression but would also help to make a painless transition into my current ( and more sober) state today. They were two used albums by trombonist Julian Priester & Mose Allison and the CD debut of DJ Shadow known as "Endtroducing".

Listening ot this album at 3:00 the next morning (after all the end-of-play festivities and well-wishings), I knew that the investment was a good one.

Mo' Wax, though being a great label, really has not put out many notable long-players that really stand the test of time. This has stood up very well five years later. In fact, this really is one of the very best albums that not only helps to maintain the constantly struggling vinyl culture but shows turntablism as a true art.

"Endtroducing" also stands alone as being one of the most emotional albums of this genre. There are so many textures and surprises spread throughout this masterwork, that you realize that this is more than just a white b-boy with amazing skills, but a modern day artist who knows about what makes a good groove connect with the listener. The man's use of samples, breakbeats and scratchings tell an awful lot about the history of music and it's 'revolutionary' transtions & expressions.

From the Steve Reich-influenced "Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt", to the excellent fusion piece "Changeling" to the atmospheric & beat-heavy "Midnight In A Perfect World", Shadow has mastered music that will not only haunt you for years to come but show how much an artist was able to stretch way beyond the then (1996) limitations of commercial hip-hop, smooth jazz and flashy techno-noodling.

Five years later, "Endotroducing" still remains in my collection, still creating that inner-magic and making time stand still. This could have been an emotional journey and introspection into the rights & wrongs of that cursed year. Instead, it makes me surer of the future and proud to still appreciate in the soul-deep that great music truly can create.

And that would only come full circle, five years later, with Shadow, Mo' Wax and David Axelrod.

(This piece is continued with the Mo' Wax David Axelrod CD review.)