DJ Shadow: classic or dud?

The delight in accomplishing such absurdly, arbitrarily and unnecessarily difficult tasks

I feel like this is a good description of the energy that comes through in his best material.

The Private Press still has it. I like that record overall, I should probably revisit. A few of the tracks are up there with Endtroducing material for me, but it starts to feel sort of scattered in the second half of the album, like an awkward back and forth between slow moody beats and fast, frenetic beats, at least that's my memory of it.

The More You Know is also a bit of a "return to form" if not on the same level. I should probably revisit that one too.

there are some sample heavy albums I look at as “endtroducing-adjacent” but with different vibes

since i left you = endtroducing on ecstasy
ptaki przelot = endtroducing in 80s poland

I consider Since I Left You my "Endtroducing 2".

Also DJ Frane's records help scratch that itch too.

Wish someone would drop an all sample based album that's blatantly illegal to show how beautiful the artform can be without legal limitations and just release it to the public domain as an act of protest or something

Oh nice timing there brimstead

Maybe I need to give Since I Left You another spin - the few times I heard it I thought it sounded a little too perfect. I don't know the other one.

Com Truise sometimes scratches an Endtroducing sort of itch even though it's synthy and not samply.

Four Tet 'Rounds' is definitely Endtroducing-adjacent/entirely samples.

I wonder what the post-Ableton warping Endtroducing is. Or maybe we only got mashups/edits/Girl Talk once sampling became easy and user-friendly. Thinking through all the L.A. beat scene stuff there were definitely samples, but it leaned much harder on original production.

Maybe I need to give Since I Left You another spin - the few times I heard it I thought it sounded a little too perfect. I don't know the other one.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Friday, November 10, 2023 12:22 PM

thought it was just me all these years! listening again for the first time since it was new and i still get absolutely nothing out of this music.

anyway yeah, endtroducing was lightning in a bottle and our friend mr davis just happened to be the one to catch it.

DJ Frane's Journey to the Planet of Birds is a legit masterpiece imho. Vibes more with Private Press era DJ Shadow. But I love all of Frane's albums. They're made with a lot of love and cannabis

did dj shadow sample anything from herbie mann’s stone flute? some serious gothtempo vibes there