i love endtroducing

I do like Endtroducing like you do. Great album. I've never thought of Endtroducting as a hip-hop album, though. Or trip-hop. Always seemed to me to belong more in the tradition of something like Godspeed You Black Emperor, this kind of grand, symphonic mood music. Can Shadow really be compared to any other trip-hop/hip-hop DJ? DJ Krush or DJ Cam or K&D or Kid Loco, none of those guys have 15-minute compositions that build into thundering crescendos.

It'll be interesing to see where he goes next. I was very dissapointed by UNKLE, and I think he's reached the limit of what can be done with the sample/loop approach (amazing to think that Endtroducing and earlier were all put together on a sampler, w/ very little studio tinkering. It shows some in the dependence on addition/subtraction of loops, but stil...)

I'm one of the few who wasn't disappointed by the UNKLE album, but it's a completely different type of thing, and I guess I just wasn't expecting anything like Endtroducing, given that it was certain to be patchy with the hit and miss nature of guest-star albums.

UNKLE was probably an example of a record where I had very specific (and possibly unfair) expectations which were not meant. Too late to give it another chance as I sold it a couple of years ago.

He also produced, as a 16-year old (or thereabouts), an album by Paris. You might remember him as the black militant guy who got in some sort of trouble for rhyming about assassinating George H.W. Bush while he was in office.

Oddly enough, one of Shadow's close friends at around the same time produced Professor Griff's solo album, although the two hadn't yet met. So, two "classics" of black militant hip hop were produced by two white teenagers.

it might be my favourite of all time anyway, erk

hold the phone, SHADOW PRODUCED PARIS???!! i never knew, 'The Devil Made Me Do It' is some fine fine stuff

Listening at work today it sounds pretty nice. But holy mother the Gab mix of "Midnight in a Perfect World" is so embarassing.

that's kinda pathetic.

This was worth listening to:

http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2008/07/25/segments/104378

It's still amazing to hear some of his source material and gain appreciation for his use of it. Is there some official or unofficial comp of his sample sources?

There have been several unofficial comps floating around, mostly as torrents.

Revisited this recently and it continues to hold up incredibly for me, just love this record so much. Still perplexed by how much worse the rest of his records are. Also, lol @ "Why Hip Hop Sucks in '96" -- i.e. the year of Reasonable Doubt, All Eyez on Me, The Score, ATLiens, It Was Written, Illadelph Halflife, Beats, Rhymes & Life, Ironman, Stakes is High, etc. Foreshadowing of his future corniness there.

most of those albums are bad though compared (especially compared to their prior work)

maybe just more boring than bad

i will never understand the lukewarm reception to the private press. sure, it's not anywhere near endtroducing, but what is?

'six days' is an absolutely brilliant tune and all of the b-sides from the album were better than even some of the material on the proper album.

i'd argue that the private press is actually more consistent than psyence fiction.

psyence ficton is better than endtroducing though (not better than what does your soul look like or the early singles)

psyence ficton is better than endtroducing

heresy.

six strong tracks vs only five on endtroducing imo

I love The Private Pres and Endtroducing... equally.

I def love Endtroducing more than The Private Press, but that's perchance unfairly so because the former is one of those albums that landed at the perfect time in my life for me to embrace. And I do like The Private Press, though I will say I prefer Psyence Fiction over that one.

Psyence Fiction has "Celestial Annihilation" and "Unreal" and "Guns Blazing" to compensate for Thom Yorke and Richard Ashcroft's maudlin antics.

i always thought the yorke track was pretty good, and the ashcroft track was great

i don’t understand how you can dislike sentiment and bombast but like dj shadow

Thom Yorke's "maudlin antics" appear on a very good track imo. Ashcroft's, err.. not so much.

i will never understand the lukewarm reception to the private press. sure, it's not anywhere near endtroducing, but what is?

'six days' is an absolutely brilliant tune and all of the b-sides from the album were better than even some of the material on the proper album.

“I will never understand why ppl were underwhelmed by The Private Press, when it was clearly not as good as the previous album, and not even as good as the b-sides which nobody heard”

picked up 'the less you know .. ' on a weird blue-possibly-bootleg-but-everything-looks-official cd a few months ago and its way way better than i ever expected.
loved 'private press' at the time (z-trip remix of 'right thing' was absolutely fantastic),
but we became disconnected at the time of 'the outsider', though i kinda like some of it now.

i always thought the yorke track was pretty good, and the ashcroft track was great

― djdirtbagstyle, Tuesday, October 29, 2019

I can't stand either of'em and these tracks bring out their worst tendencies.

I don't think they can be compared easily tbf. The Ashcroft one is so over the top, whereas 'Rabbits' is a ditty.

Private Press is still my favorite (true confessions: I never really connected with Endtroducing tbh)

I can't stand either of'em and these tracks bring out their worst tendencies.

guess you're not a fan of the goth rock stylings of UNKLE then.

I like the album well enough! I mentioned the tracks I love.

sorry, Lord Alfred, meant the post DJ Shadow UNKLE goth rock era.
those 2 tracks from PF basically pointed the UNKLE project down the path that he has exploited to the absolute max.

and the people who have stepped away for a while really should check out 'the less you know ..'

I like private press, also six days remix for that fast n furious soundtrack is a classic

“I will never understand why ppl were underwhelmed by The Private Press, when it was clearly not as good as the previous album, and not even as good as the b-sides which nobody heard”
― now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Tuesday, October 29, 2019 12:32 PM

what is your point with this kind of post? opposite of fun or productive conversation. endtroducing is clearly a landmark in 90s music and is pretty much unparalleled. being disappointed that the next album isn't as good is like being disappointd the wheel hasn't been updated and improved upon. as a smarter man than myself once said: impossible; meaningless.

back on topic, the highlight of psyence fiction has always been 'lonely soul' for me. the breakdown and coda is pretty well done.

yeah lonely soul is catchy!

Endtroducing is magical. the private press clearly has less magic going on, can’t imagine listening to it again. Nice sensations fix sample tho

endtroducing bsides? You mean like “red bus needs to leave?”

"You Can't Go Home Again" is the one for (on Private Press). It's like 160+ motorik that almost turns into jungle.

I also have a lot of memories associated with that album, hearing it for the first time on the student radio station in Milwaukee driving around late at night, and listening to it on vinyl in my first apartment (the tiniest room ever that used to be the foyer or coatroom of the building).

endtroducing & preemptive strike are the only shadow i fuck w/, the other stuff is not good

but those two have always held up

The Avalanches couldn't duplicate the magic of their 1st album either. I guess when you blow your lifetime crate-diggin wad, diminishing returns are inevitable.

preemptive strike doesn't have "lost and found (s.f.l.)" though

also there's an alternative version of in/flux that isn't on preemptive strike

endtroducing & preemptive strike are the only shadow i fuck w/, the other stuff is not good

This is kinda where I land too. I like some of the tracks on Private Press, but in a "wow, this is a pretty good imitation of DJ Shadow" sort of way. The only one that stands out is "Six Days."

The UNKLE album is a blur to me now. The "Rabbit In Your Headlights" video is fantastic, but I can't imagine wanting to listen to that song without it.

what is your point with this kind of post? opposite of fun or productive conversation

You bemoaned that you will never be able to understand a thing. I was productively pointing out that you seem to understand it quite well already, and can let yourself off the hook!

what is your point with this kind of post? opposite of fun or productive conversation

new board description etc

I fuck with Private Press but it's v inconsistent to me -- Fixed Income and Walkie Talkie are great and Six Days is good. A lot of the material feels sort of like failed attempts to branch out -- I get that he didn't want to just make heady trip-hop beats forever but he never really found a direction that worked anywhere near as well.

The live breaks sets with Cut Chemist are a lot of fun fwiw, maybe not essential but good.

and the people who have stepped away for a while really should check out 'the less you know ..'

― mark e, Tuesday, October 29, 2019 2:57 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I also remember thinking this was solid if not great when it came out but never felt much desire to relisten to it. Maybe I'll give it another spin

ha I just put on Private Press and went "ugh wtf is this shit" when Walkie Talkie came on

Best thing he ever did: “Dark Days”

It's just like sticking a fun scratch/battle routine in there.

I feel bad for him because he's actually become a really good producer (as in non-sample based), but so are a lot of people, and that's not what his fans want to hear from him.

xp

I'm sure he got plenty of scratch from "Nobody Move" getting used in a ton of trailers etc. for like six months solid

private press is very good imo, especially blood on the motorway and six days.

a lot of you guys saying the "only songs you fuck with" on private press are not even mentioning the best track (you cant go home again, jordan otm)

i think Private Press dials up the emotional levers in an appealing way, less interested in the dusty breaks that give endtroducing a distinct identity but launched a ton of imitators, private press is kind of unique in its way

Yep. What attracted me at the time was how the album sounded faster and schlockier than Endtroducing....

This thread's been reassuring today. I hadn't heard either album in years and it's made me stream them both all afternoon.

I agree that TPP is great. I like the "Six Days" remixes a lot as well.

there was a (very unofficial) white label remix of 'blood on the motorway' that was exceptional. worth seeking out, imo.

this guy.

yeesh the one towards the end of pp that has the beat that (initially) sounds like “low rider” or “locked out of heaven”... idk it just sounds like bleh electronica to me. def prefer the first UNKLE album.

greater risks, greater rewards

To be clear, I fuck with every track on private press, up to and including you can’t go home again

there’s some really intense deep ~vibes~ that occur midway through “changeling”, specifically the buildup to the entrance of the distorted synth lead.. it just hangs on one chord for a long time while the drums get a little more busy. but the background of samples gets really dense and the resulting texture is so dreamy and awesome. It has a strange hypnagogic quality to it. then echoey sax peaks out from fog, appearance of distorted synth lead like rays of sunlight. damn that was corny, i’m sorry.

Yeah I like near every track on Private Press, and also prefer it to Entroducing. The former has more color and variety, while the latter is more clustered around a single mood

never knew him but been listening to Blockhead's Downtown Science from 05 (was Aesop Rock's producer at least according to the bio) but anyway cool Shadow vibes

lol at comparing “You Can’t Go Home Again” to “Locked Out of Heaven” - that would have made a decent alternative title.

Anyway, that, “Six Days” and “Blood on the Motorway” are the three best tracks.

the great thing about private press was that the majority of sample sources were a lot more obscure than endtroducing. i remember being on a dj shadow email discussion group around the time and the rumor initially was that the title of the album was an indicator that all of the sample sources came from privately pressed and independently produced records. that turned out not to be true, but there were quite a few small label-issued albums sampled throughout. one of my favorite rediscovered records from that time period was this one and i initially found it in the attic of an old thrift store in reno before i knew it had been sampled by shadow. got it home and on the turntable, only to discover the piano bit from the end of 'mongrel meets his maker', which was super fun. album's really good, by the way. kind of a funky ecm-ish vibe. the version of 'norwegian wood' is, uhh, not what i was expecting.

also, yeah: i was working in a very rock-centric used record store at the time and we had a five disc changer. every employee on staff would pick an album and we'd load it up and hit shuffle. i played private press one day with one of my coworkers who was an old school new waver and the intro to 'you can't go home again' completely bamboozled him.

the six days rmx that was in toyko drift is great

heard this on a jazz station recently and was like ah yeah it's a dj shadow sample. Later in the day it hit me outta nowhere that it was sampled on diplo's first album, which is a great fake dj shadow rjd2 whatever album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA6YqW-I3wM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fIimwo42_c

I heard this and felt like the drum intro was a Shadow sample, but I can't place it. Also I don't know how easily he could have sampled something on video/DVD at the time.

In any case, the way he used drum samples on this record blew me away at the time (when I was in high school and had no idea what he was even doing) and continues to do so today. He was decades ahead of his time the way he managed to make chopped up drums sound organic and impossible at the same time.

i'll never forget listening to this on xmas morning '99

Now that I'm finally streamlining even my Zeppelin and Stones into playlists, this album will always get played from start to finish. Top 100 for life.