DJ Shadow goes IDM ?

they took down the site! dammit!

I nabbed it and put it up on FilePile Ethan - not much use if you're not a member but oh well. We should have set up an ILE open account.

Oh also it's rubbish so you're not missing anything.

It's quite amazing and you can still hear it here.

synchronicity: listening to the first few downloaded seconds of this track and a sampled voice sez: "what you gonna do now?". the only other song on my playlist is Missy's "Whatcha Gon Do?", also downloaded today.

Ugh. That's shite. What a shame. As if the world needed any more stuttering electronic music. That other track ("Giving Up the Ghost") isn't much better, either.

I liked the tune he did for the Dark Days soundtrack tho.

From the little message machine bit at the beginning, it sounds like Shadow made this as some sort of conceptual sampler-demonstration. Sort of.. "hush you naysayers, watch my craftsmanship work a 2 bar sample into an 8 minute piece". So he twists/alters the sample into all of these Squarepusheresque noises, drills, beeps and whatnot... flips the original sample but preserves its organic quality... mishmashes everything together, and there we have it. An impressive textural feat it is, but there's not much structure at all. It would have been a lot better (and would demonstrate a lot more) if he wielded his 2 bar sample as something more coherent rather than this splatter of twiddly fx.

Some news for DJ Shadow fans:

DJ Shadow - The Private Press

According to product information via the search facility @ HMV.co.uk, DJ Shadow's forthcoming album is called The Private Press, this is scheduled to be released 20th May (on Universal/ Island)

This title is confirmed at Universal - Portugal also via a Google search Universal Japan confirm this title as well.

Why this information is not being publicised so far in UK and USA remains a mystery.

Aie, I probably shouldn't comment on this track, as it's exactly the kind of thing I've been writing software to help create, as far as digitally based music in concerned. But I've talked quite enough shit such that Google will haunt me for the rest of my years anyway, so what the hell...

"Monosyllabik" needs editing. Extreme editing. As in... it really doesn't need to be over 9 minutes long. But if edited down, I think this would be an amazing song. Yup, there definitely seems to be the "My Red Hot Car" type thing going on here, though unlike "My Red Hot Car" this track seems more a groove, rather than single material.

"Give Up The Ghost" just didn't grab my consciousness the first time.

I have got an advance copy of the DJ Shadow - the Private Press album .. There will be doing a review on my website within the next few days = www.thawaxanorax.co.uk ....

oh bollocks i completely forgot to post arien's review of this before i left the country - SORRY ARIEN it will go up tomorrow!

http://mp3.hurley.nu/DJ%20Shadow/The%20Private%20Press/

one download at a time, enjoy

I just listened to track 2. It sounds pretty nice. Different from "Endtroducing", yet similar. It's still hip-hop flavored instrumental music, but there seems to be less turntable and more sequencer, which gives it a different feel - both more organic and more electronic.

The track "Giving up the Ghost" sounds great to me; unlike "Monosyllabik".

GET HOLD OF A PROMO LP OF PRIVATE PRESS HERE. DJS ONLY. LIMITED NUMBERS.

THE COMPANY HAS BEEN OVERLOADED WITH BOGUS REQUESTS. THE PREVIOUS ACCOUNT IN RELATION TO THE PROMO LP HAS BEEN CLOSED. PLEASE DIRECT ANY FURTHER REQUESTS TO:

you should all figure out hotline (myears)...it's been around for a few weeks now in full...I would just like to find some cover art though...a review: well, like Mo'Wax, it's evolved over the last few years. The hardcore who liked both for what they started out as probably won't be very happy. The rest should be divided and the new folk will be as ignorant as ever and will love this instantly with no concept of what ever came before as newbies are always wont to do...

personally i hear it being one step closer to Kid Koala...

on two listens to a borrowed promo it sounds like the absolute weakest thing he's ever done. what made Endtroducing great is that stuff happened on each song...more than one thing, even. not here. ugh.

After the first few listens, I'm going with huge disappointment. But, I'm holding out hope that it gets better with time.

I thought it sounded ace myself, especially like the cut chemist nu mark track at the end.

After listening to "The Private Press" I was relieved to hear that Shadow has made an amazing comeback after the awful spawn that was "Unkle" and their unblieveably hyped album "Psyence Fiction" - Shadow made his own stance in saying that he would never work with James Lavelle like that again in a studio and you can hear why on his new album. He really does show his own potential here as he mixes up electro, hip hop, trip hop and drum 'n' bass - who else can perform such an acomplishment on just one album. It may not be as original as his debut "Entroducing" but could it ever be!!! Listen now and resurrect your collection of trip hop.

"He really does show his own potential here as he mixes up electro, hip hop, trip hop and drum 'n' bass - who else can perform such an acomplishment on just one album"

Like, every bighead in town. Why is this seen as a good thing anyway? Better to blend rather than vainglory juxtapose.

Anyway it's all crap cept for Monosyllabik. And worst: it's CHEESY. Go listen to the new Req LP, or wait for RJD2.

Man i just wanna say that Shadow is a great artist...i am downloading "Givin up the ghost" now and i don't think i won't like it cos Shadow is the best...i got all his albums and singles he rocks...can't wait till i buy the new album...

DJ SHADOW SITE: HTTP://WWW.SOLESIDES.COM

AMAZING STUFF. DOWNLOADS, MUSIC, NEWS. EVERYTHING.

HTTP://WWW.SOLESIDES.COM

ohhhh gosh i'm a 16 year old french guy and i can say:Today,the 24th of March,new DJ Shadow tune the private press is ILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

brian, or anyone, I was confused by your comment about Monosyllabic being 9 mins long. my mp3 says 6:47

DJ Shadow is changing directions. It may not appeal to everyone, but who would want to be stuck in a "Trip-hop" (urrgggh) pigeon-hole anyway? In the words of Air French Band, "We change or we die."

Is that why "10,000hz. Shitstain" sucked so badly? I've heard a bit of "Private Press," and I think what people are lamenting is the loss of the flowing organicisms of "... Endtroducing." That always sounded more like soul to me than anything else, in overall atmosphere -- an effort similar to Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," for instance, or the Shuggie Otis album. Time will tell, I guess, if "Private Press" has that level of cohesion that so many fell in love with .. not just on Shadow's album proper but UNKLE, the "What Does Your Soul Look Like?" continuum, etc..

that's a great pun dare!!

I don't think DJ Shadow is changing directions at all. Private Press is like Entroducing, only even more so. He's expanded on the so-called "narrative" elements of the first album (I say so-called because I've never been able to hear them), left the funk even further behind, and carried on in the orchestrated tapestry of sound direction that was represented by stuff like Midnight in a Perfect World.

He really is making prog hip-hop. He's taken a music that was originally about dancing and grafted all this pseudo-sophisticated technical wizardry on top of it. So you get a lot of mid-tempo breakbeats, not much bass, and an intricate top end full of minor chords, synth washes and "epic" atmospheres. You also get weak soft-rock vocals and too many interludes (I guess they're in for the "narrative").

The problem with all that is that Shadow is not a musician, he's a a DJ. His melodies are weak-to-nonexistent, his arrangements are all peaks and valleys, and sorry, the idea that DJs are "telling a story" was old in '93. The only tracks with groove on here are by-the-numbers electro and Monsyllabik (which I've come around to thinking is the best track on the album, mainly because it's more Innerzone Orchestra than Squarepusher). It didn't have to be that way: "Influx" is still one of the most conceptual hip-hop tracks ever. The key thing is, it also has a killer bassline.

Ben, this may be nitpicking, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean that Shadow is a DJ as opposed to a musician. It seems that there's an assumption that is being made about sampling being less musical than 'proper' songwriting maybe?

I agree with you that there is a certain tameness to the album and the prog-like nuances, so championed on Entroducing, really leave something to be desired here. But I'm not sure that criticizing this sort of thing for being unmelodic makes much sense. And while Shadow is certainly a DJ, his role here doesn't really involve the mixing/spinning aspects associated with the superstar-DJ nonmusician mix-album types. He's a producer/composer/arranger.... a trackwriter if not a songwriter, but a musician nonetheless.

Also.... why redeem "Monosyllabik" when it is one of the least melodic and most "pseudo-sophisticated technical wizardry" based tracks on the album?

I am not at all trying to say that DJs are inferior to musicians (that's a really tedious argument...). Just that what a DJ does is different to what a musician does (to simplify massively, the former works with beats and textures, the latter works with chords and melodies; you can also substitute different labels if you're hung up on the relative cultural status of "DJs" and "musicians"). The methods of construction and the skill sets achieve different goals by different means.

I think Shadow is a great DJ, and not such a great musician. When he tries to achieve "musical" effects through "DJ" methods, he falls flat. I like to listen to his beats, his cuts and his samples; I don't like to listen to his sad little piano refrains repeated over seven minutes. Too often these days, he's giving me the latter.

Therefore, I like Monosyllabik because it isn't trying to give me melodies and emotional development. (When I refer to pseudo-sophisticated technical wizardry, I'm not really referring to means of composition, I'm referring to these baroque structures he builds instead of beats these days). And because I actually think it's quite funky, of course in a very abstract way.

Here you go people, full tracklisting of the DJ Shadow Albumn The Private Press. And a corker it is too, Chow

1. The Letter From Home 1:12 2. Fixed Income 4:50 3. Un Autre Introduction :48 4. Walkie Talkie 2:27 5. ( interlude ) :52 6. Giving Up The Ghost 6:31 7. The 6 Day War 5:01 8. Mongrel.... 2:22 9. ....Meets His Maker 3:00 10. Right Thing / G D M F S O B 4:21 11. Monosylabik 6:47 12. ( interlude ) :20 13. << ????? >> 2:49 14. Mashin' On The Motorway 3:00 15. Blood On The Motorway 9:12 16. You Can't Go Home Again 7:04 17. The Letter From Home :54 18. << ??? >> (Shadow, Chemist, Numark playing live)

Guys,

I downloaded a copy of monosyllabik and was so excited. Then I listened to it and was immediately appalled. I waited throughout the whole track for 'hook' or just for something interesting to happen. Even though the track seems to have been devised with a production technique in mind rather than a tune, it does grow on you.

I think Shadow made a mistake in revelaing how he made the tune because its prompted a lot of people to think hes become 'prog'. He should have said after a couple of months or so when people had grown to like it.

It plays an important role on the album (although I've not heard it all) as it is a real contrast with the smooth, laid back grooves such as 'blood on the motorway'. You can't listen to it expecting 'midnight in a...' again but you must listen carefully to the progression of the sounds and how they change through cycles. The song becomes a fascinating science after a couple of listens as you try and familiarise yourself with it.

I do agree its a bit odd though. Interesting but odd. A welcome change Bruce

Where can I download a couple songs from the new album.A link or two would be much appreciated.thanks

I've been enjoying the album, but its nothing like endtroducing. The soft rock vocals on 'The 6 Day War' take some getting used to.

I think the album will grow on me though.

And another thing... All the guitar riffs sound like the intro to a Metallica ballad.

As both a musician and a DJ, I have to disagree with some of the above statements slamming this album. I think Shadow mixes the rhythmic and musical elements quite well, and seems to have a clear vision going on 'Private Press'. 'Endtroducing' is still one of my favorite discs of all time, but I had to tell myself before listening to the new one that I couldn't go in expecting Endtroducing Part Two. He's moved on, six years later, and has crafted a disc that, while it may take some time to absorb, stands up pretty well on its own.

And to the UNKLE hater in an earlier post, I don't see how you could hate that disc so much - it was uneven, sure, but "Lonely Soul", "Rabbit..." and the offshoot single Be There with Ian Brown are greatness...

Just checked out the new album artwork, and after having been listening to an burned copy of the album (Thank you AdioGalaxy, and yes I am still going to buy an official cd and LP) I think that it really lends to the overall feeling of the album. Having been reading some of the above responses and having heard the album I have to say that I am dissapointed in the fact that some people just had negative aspects to focus on. Granted it is a change from "Endtroducing...", but I think many would be more dissapointed if "Private Press" had sounded similar. Without change, growth is impossible. Had the entire album sounded like Monosylabik, it would still be great to me.

DJ Shadow is pretty darn good. If you like him, that's great! If you don't, then it doesn't matter. As DJ Shadow says in the liner notes for the Private Press "Negativiity is the language of haters.."

If DJ Shadow loves hip-hop so much, why doesn't he play some?

Yes, Dom is right, since it has to sound like DJ Premier to be hip-hop!

interestingly enough, I listened to the "Private Press" for the first time yesterday and I myself have to assume that he's much more a turntablist than a fan of hip-hop. He seems to be attempting to create mood music (jazzy and distanced enough I wanna call it Be-Hop) through turntablism, and little at all sounds like hip-hop to me. Frankly, I don't care if you made your uninvolving lite-jazz with actual instruments, two turntables or a harmonica held to your ass. It's still fuckin' lite jazz.

Yeah man, fuckin' rock on.