DJ SHADOW: anyone else find "the private press" disappointing?

the album is, as with much of Shadow's work, a soundtrack to a film that doesnt exist so very imaginative and evocative. i'm finding it fits well with the TV series Six Feet Under which is on in the UK at the moment - many of the tracks deal with death and fate in a melancholic and reflective way, a bit of dark humour in there as well as always thanks to the ever clever samples

i'm also a MAJOR fan of "six feet under", i live in the states and recently got HBO. they are re-showing the first two seasons right now and every sunday evening i'm THERE at 8. i think season two is starting this coming sunday evening, can't wait for that!

Glib answer: At least it's better than Psyence Fiction.

and i do think You Cant Go Home Again might be one of the 'weaker' moments on the new album...at least its certainly not among my favourites on it

But Private Press had me giggling and gasping from the get go, which worried me. Was Shadow a little too willing to give up the goods this time around? But PP resonates more deeply with each listen too. Sure it's not flawless--in fact, it covers so much stylistic ground, you'd have to be terminally openminded to like it all, I think.

Basically, I see it like this, now that he's shown us what he can do, and he's made his masterpiece, Shadow's free to show off a little, taunt us with the goopier aspects of his sensibility (BoTM=Journey + Depeche Mode, exactly Nate), see how many chainsaws he can juggle. I don't expect to hear a more amazing piece of music that "You Can't Go Home Again" this year.

i like shadow's more full-on angry moments like PARIS!!!

High Noon.

That said, it's not worth any 30 seconds of the Bomb Squad at their peak. I don't find the rhythms particularly attuned to funking or trancing. The dude's short attention span and anal streak are perfect if you don't hunger for funk's hypnotic and spontaneous extremes. And the way he cuts up beats on that album, even if listeners took it as some kind of formalist liberation, strikes me as both stiff and hypermusicianly. It feels accomplished without accomplishing much.

What was great about the album was that it didn't have a rapper, and that it forced you to stop listening for a rapper--though I don't know if it ever justified itself as instrumental music the way "Pipeline" or We do. In other words, it made way for better albums, like the Private Press.

That said, it grows on you a LOT with repeat plays, and it'll probably make my top 30 this year.

scratch is definitely worth seeing. makes a good effort to talk to older djs, although focus is mainly on current/recent ones. q-bert, mmmike, babu etc. several i hadn't heard of before.

Imagine if it had come out in 1896...hoho...sorry.
Actually that is what I've been calling DJ Shadow's music: 19th century hip-hop.

Even so, I agree with Derek, underwhelming. Said it before just enough material for a decent E.P.

What about people who thought Endtroducing was decent but The Private Press is a masterpiece? It was actually the fact that it was by DJ Shadow that made me initially doubt my attraction to the album, and I would never have listened to it on my own bat except that I had to review it.

I like the RJD2 record as well - even if it does tail off unbelievably towards the end. I think Deadringer's best moments outweigh the Private Press because his choice of samples is far more interesting. Shadow tends to rely more on technique - think how awesome Monosyllabic could've been if he'd picked an exciting four-second snippet of music to build a track around as opposed to the dull sample he plumped for.

Incidentally, was Endtroducing really that groundbreaking and surprising when it was released? Did it really sound like something that came from nowhere? Because although I came to the album about two years late, it didn't seem like that to me.

I don't know where Shadow found those vocals for "Blood on the Motorway", but man they make Donnie Iris sound like Otis Redding. I liked the Latryx album, but the road rage rap with Lateef didn't do anything for me.

Take those two away and what is left is quite solid.

I was listening to a lot of stuff like this back then, and no, it would've fit right in with the rest of it.

Track by track, yeah, but as an overall piece of work, a full album (which I think it holds together as) what would the precedents be?

Then again, maybe I'm bitter because I shelled out $30 for the import about a month before it was released in the States.

what i'm really wondering is where the singer on 'Chaos' is now...she was sweeeet - forgotten her name but it was something weird. never heard of her since but she should be as big as Hope Sandoval surely...

Or: http://citypages.com/databank/23/1125/article10518.asp

Ignore the cheesy headline.