- A wonderful grab bag of pre-hip-hop styles from an eminent (and talented) musical historian.
- One of DJ Shadow's best tracks lasts for barely 30 seconds. But its sentiment, forever Ziploc fresh, remains timeless. "Why Hip-Hop Sucks In '96" from his landmark debut Endtroducing....., took square aim at popular contemporary hip-hop of the era that relied on familiarity instead of ingenuity. In this mockumentary snippet, a downtempo groove that in about 20 seconds in, we hear Josh Davis sarcastically sing/say in a blip of a trickster tone, "It's The Money." Endtroducing....., DJ Shadow's Rosebud, affected trends, minds and a significant wing of record-digging culture. Like De La Soul's earlier endeavors, the album entertained being in love with the entire record store, not just the sections you knew. It questioned what authentic hip-hop was and who had the right to create and critique it. A monumental feat upon arrival, leaning towards the backpack-and-baseball-cap side of things, it presented a dialogue about the commercialization of hip-hop.
In the meditative psalm that opened Endtroducing....., "Midnight In A Perfect World," Davis gave listeners options for when the party got tired. Sounding like Of Montreal manipulated with pitched down block-rockin' beats, this track, recorded at The Glue Factory in San Francisco, pieced together lyrics from Organized Confusion at the beginning of the track, a sorrowful piano section from the 1969 song "The Human Abstract'' by David Axelrod, flipped parts of "California Soul" by Marlena Shaw and sewed together yet more patches, making the theme song for millions of rave "chill rooms" over the next decade. Anticipating the direction of hip-hop at the time, and how it had been commodified and marketed, Shadow showcased the genre's original collage form, as foreseen by John Cage: "in the future records will be made from records." That's the rarefied air Endtroducing..... levitates through.
Action Adventure, Davis's seventh album, feels freer, nose-diving into the dollar bins that heads haven't checked as new points to reference just yet. Divorced from his previous work, with no concern for catching up to the Lil's or Yungs, he didn't write any of the 14 tracks for any vocalists. And that's where the excitement and the unpredictable nature of the album come from.
"The idea of a quote-unquote electronic producer or beat maker reaching out to vocalists has been done to such an extreme that I have found, more often than not, when I reach out to a vocalist, it isn't so much like, oh, great, let's do something completely different, as it is, what's your social media reach? What's your budget?," Davis told SPIN last month. Action Adventure is a freewheeling odyssey into his vast wellspring of unexpected beat designs. There's even a jump-up drum & bass joint à la DJ Hype with the energetic "A Narrow Escape." It's not Davis's forte—and it's not great—but it gives you an idea of the temperature of the project—not so serious, just damn fun. Davis is taking big swings, purposely stomping through giant puddles like a kid again, eager to see how stain patterns form.
So even when he misses, he still hits. With restrictions off and crazy combinations on, we get Josh Davis as the resourceful new wave producer on "Ozone Scraper," where elements of The Cars and Devo feel like they're enhanced with beat head energy. Davis dumps the quirk and amps up the kick, making those synths snap up crisp. The melodic lines soar above asymmetrical haircuts at a quick trigger. "You Played Me," inspired by an eBay auction of 200 tapes that were recorded from a radio mix station in the DMV area in the '80s, is the big beat freestyle R&B that was championed on Disco 92 WKTU in New York City during the '80s. It's alive with roto tom hits, multiple handclaps, and just a bit of oversinging to give it that proper terrestrial FM radio glaze. These reconstructions—of a vast spectrum of beat music that hip-hop either came from or was inspired by—represent electronic music's grandparents.
The wonky atmosphere of the keyboard fiesta "Friend or Foe" encompasses all the vibrant colors and eccentricities that you might associate with a Brainfeeder record—think Dorian Concept or Brandon Coleman. Next up, "Fleeting Youth" takes on a studious approach, incorporating archival piano tones that evoke a sense of a different era. And just as we're about to fully pirouette into our feelings about the past, Davis slaps us with that familiar yet alien bouncy red ball of breakbeat enormity on "Reflecting Pool." It begins with dance floor foolhardiness and winds down with secret spy contemplation by way of Bad Company drum & bass keyboard stabs. This is what DJ Shadow does like no other. He's a historian, constantly diving into a pile of 45s, cassettes, and LPs headfirst, searching for basslines, horns, vocals, and drum brakes. He takes this physical media seriously, creating tomorrow's kick drum lullaby from the crumbling embers of the 20th century.
Tracklist01. Ozone Scraper
02. All My
03. Time and Space
04. Craig, Ingels, & Wrightson
05. Witches Vs. Warlocks
06. A Narrow Escape
07. You Played Me
08. Free For All
09. The Prophecy
10. Friend Or Foe
11. Fleeting Youth (An Audible Life)
12. Reflecting Pool
13. Forever Changed
14. She's Evolving