Endtroducing

DJ Shadow

album cover

Cut-Paste to the Nth Power

This recording is built entirely from fragmented pieces of other records. When it was released, in late 1996, sampling had been part of hip-hop production for a long while, but few in the genre approached it the way Josh Davis (aka DJ Shadow) did: He collated scores of tiny audio "events" into recurring rhythms, then surrounded that beat with ephemeral odds and ends, including dialog from movies and assorted bits found on '60s sound-effects records. His drums are often not drums at all, but fragments of sounds played backward, heavily processed, and choreographed into intricate patterns.

The California-born Davis developed a reputation years before this debut appeared, as part of a small coterie of underground DJs specializing in instrumental hip-hop. He could make radically funky sounds out of literally any source material, from Tangerine Dream to Nirvana to old jazz records. And on top of that funky music he layered lushly textured audio that suggested ominous doings ahead.

It is the slashing stuff around the beats that sets this influential album apart: Davis approaches each piece the way a pop song-writer would, seeking to communicate specific ideas or foster introspection, while transporting listeners into astonishing detailed sound-scapes. His "Midnight in a Perfect World" aspires to an idealized vision of place. His multipart "What Does Your Soul Look Like" ponders that big question across a sumptuous open canvas.

And while the center of attention is often the quick-stepping and sometimes fitful beats, Endtroducing is arguably more significant for its color palette. These are rich multidimensional collages, with doomy chords that hover like mushroom clouds, and shimmering textures that are layered into a total-immersion listening experience. That's the genius of DJ Shadow: Though it's painstaking work manipulating old records into new sounds, he never seems stuck in some laboratory. He's out on the streets, soaking up life as it rushes past.

Genre: Electronica
Released: 1996, Mo Wax/Universal
Key Tracks: "Best Foot Forward," "What Does Your Soul Look Like," "Organ Donor," "Midnight in a Perfect World"
Collector's Note: Endtroducing was reissued with a disc of bonus material in 2005. The highlight is a twelve-minute live DJ Shadow performance.
Next Stop: Dr. Octagon: Dr. Octagonecologyst
After That: DJ Spooky: Songs of a Dead Dreamer
Book Page: 229

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About 1,000 Recordings

Celebrate the joy, the revelation, the mystery, the fun, the sheer shivers-up-the-spine pleasure of great music.

Essential operas. Milestone rock albums. An education in the blues. The world of world. Classical from Bach to Bartók to Beethoven to Brahms. And dozens of unexpected gems, surprising discoveries, and long-lost masterpieces.

This is an online version of the list (published alphabetically in the book). The entries in the book break down genre bias and broaden every listener’s horizons—think Miles Davis to Claude Debussy to the melodic story-songs of The Decemberists. And the writing is passionate, informed, opinionated.

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