DJ Shadow
- Release
- 10/10/2012
About
DJ Shadow (born Josh Davis) is widely credited as a key figure in developing the experimental instrumental hip-hop style associated with the London-based Mo' Wax label. Inspired by hip-hop's early years, he then grew to absorb the heyday of crews like Eric B. & Rakim, Ultramagnetic MCs, and Public Enemy; groups which prominently featured DJs in their ranks.
Josh "Shadow" Davis had already been fiddling around with making beats and breaks on a four-track recorder while he was in high school in the NorCal cow-town of Davis, but it was during college that he co-founded his own Solesides label as an outlet for his original tracks. Hooking up with Davis' few b-boys (including eventual Solesides artists Blackalicious and Lyrics Born) through the college radio station, Shadow began releasing the Hip-Hop Reconstruction mix tapes in 1991 and pressed his 17-minute beat-head symphony "Entropy" in 1993. His tracks spread widely through the DJ-strong hip-hop underground, eventually catching the attention of Mo' Wax.
Shadow's first full-length, "Endtroducing...", was released in late 1996 to immense critical acclaim in Britain and America. "Preemptive Strike," a compilation of early singles, followed in early 1998. Later that year, Shadow produced tracks for the debut album by U.N.K.L.E., a long-time Mo' Wax production team that gained superstar guests including Thom Yorke (of Radiohead), Richard Ashcroft (of the Verve), Mike D (of the Beastie Boys), and others.
His next project came in 1999, with the transformation of Solesides into a new label, Quannum Projects. Nearly six years after his debut production album, the proper follow-up, "The Private Press," was released in June 2002. The following year Shadow released a mix album, "Diminishing Returns," and in 2004 he released a live album and DVD, "Live! In Tune and on Time." In 2006 he released another long awaited full-length album "The Outsider," which featured rising Bay Area Hyphy rappers including Keak Da Sneak and E-40. "The Outsider" also featured a single with Q-Tip (of A Tribe Called Quest), which led to Shadow's first appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman.
Between 2007 and 2009 Shadow released three volumes of "The 4-Track Era Collection," a series of his earliest recordings. The 4-Track Era project was exclusively available through his web store, ShopDjShadow.com. In the midst of all of these solo projects, DJ Shadow collaborated with fellow hip-hop DJ Cut Chemist. Together they created a series of mixes that fused soul, funk, and rock, in the framework of a cohesive concept involving using only 45 rpm records (7 inches). These mixes include Brainfreeze, Product Placement, and The Hard Sell, which would be debuted at the Hollywood Bowl.
Shadow's website relaunched in August 2009, enabling him to sell digital downloads direct to his fans through his own autonomous storefront. 2009 also saw the announcement of Shadow's involvement with DJ Hero, an Activision video game which features Shadow as a playable character within the game. Shadow also contributed several mixes to the game.
2010 and 2011 saw a tour throughout Europe and North America entitled "Live From The Shadowsphere."
In 2011, DJ Shadow released "The Less You Know, The Better," a much anticipated full-length studio album, which met massive acclaim. 2012 included Shadow's heralded "All Basses Covered" DJ set-tour, as well as "Total Breakdown, Hidden Transmissions From The MPC Era (1992-1996)," an archival project; and "Reconstructed: Best of DJ Shadow," a greatest hits album.
Electronica/Dance | Hip Hop/Rap
Links
- Djshadow.com
- Facebook.com/djshadow
- Twitter.com/djshadow
- Youtube.com/djshadow
- Soundcloud.com/djshadow
- Online Press Kit
Source
Reconstructed: The Best of DJ Shadow + Reconstructed: The Definitive DJ Shadow - Released September 25, on Universal Music Enterprises
DJ Shadow, rightly regarded as one of the most influential and consistently innovative artists to emerge from music in the last 20 years, has four collections of his finest recordings released on September 25, 2012 via UMe. Reconstructed: The Best Of DJ Shadow will be released on one single CD and double vinyl, while Reconstructed: The Definitive DJ Shadow will be issued as a multi-disc box set. Limited to 500 copies worldwide, each set will be individually signed by DJ Shadow and will include 8 discs, 1 x 12” vinyl record, as well as a booklet, featuring an essay by acclaimed music writer Dave Tompkins, and numerous photos, some exclusive, by long time Shadow collaborator B+. With stunning artwork and design by Trevor Jackson, the box set is the most ambitious and comprehensive retrospective ever assembled to represent Shadow’s output. “It’s never an easy task to sum up a career in one release,” says Shadow, “but this box comes pretty close. This is the definitive, final document of the sound I’m most known for.” The box will be available exclusively from DJShadow.com.
All the music across the three formats is drawn from Shadow’s 20-year career - from the early pre-Mo Wax days, right up to the present and his most recent album, The Less You Know, The Better. Perhaps most exciting to Shadow fans is the inclusion of two brand new tracks, including the pop masterpiece “Listen,” featuring legendary vocalist Terry Reid.
Josh Davis, aka DJ Shadow, changed the game in 1996 with the release of his universally acclaimed debut album Endtroducing... Made entirely from samples, Endtroducing... was like nothing that had come before. As the New York Times stated, “the critically acclaimed ‘Endtroducing’ ... helped define the then cutting-edge genre of instrumental hip-hop: dance music with symphonic sweep built from scores of samples dug out of eclectic and often obscure recordings.” And TIME Magazine named it as one of 100 top albums since 1954. Sixteen years on and it remains as potent and revered an album as it was on release. Shadow followed up two years later by making the lion's share of the music on the 1998 U.N.K.L.E. album, Psyence Fiction, an album with James Lavelle, featuring Thom Yorke, Ian Brown and Richard Ashcroft amongst others. By the time he released The Private Press, 2002, Davis felt he had taken emotive instrumental music created entirely from samples – as far as it could go and the new record took Shadow into new territories confounding those who were waiting on Endtroducing... Part 2. The Private Press remains one of the most underrated follow-up albums. The Outsider (2006) saw DJ Shadow making a hip-hop record featuring some of leading exponents of the Bay Area’s then burgeoning Hyphy scene while last year’s The Less You Know, the Better, was, according to according to Stool Pigeon magazine, “a testament to his enduring sampling genius.”
The track-listings for all formats are as follows:
Single CD:
1. Midnight In A Perfect World
2. High Noon
3. I've Been Trying
4. This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)
5. You Can't Go Home Again [Radio Edit]
6. Scale It Back (Featuring Little Dragon) [Single Edit]
7. Listen (Featuring Terry Reid) (Previously Unreleased)
8. Stem [Single Edit]
9. Six Days
10. Won’t You Be (Previously Unreleased)
11. Organ Donor (Extended Overhaul)
12. Lonely Soul (Featuring Richard Ashcroft) [7" Version]
13. Blood On The Motorway
14. You Made It (Featuring Chris James)
15. Redeemed
16. Dark Days (Main Theme)
Vinyl:
Disc One
Side A
1. Midnight In A Perfect World
2. High Noon
3. I've Been Trying
4. This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)
Side B
1. You Can't Go Home Again [Radio Edit]
2. Scale It Back (Featuring Little Dragon) [Single Edit]
3. Listen (Featuring Terry Reid) (Previously Unreleased)
4. Stem [Single Edit]
Disc Two
Side A
1. Six Days
2.Won’t You Be (Previously Unreleased)
3. Organ Donor (Extended Overhaul)
4. Lonely Soul (Featuring Richard Ashcroft) [7" Version]
Side B
1. Blood On The Motorway
2. You Made It (Featuring Chris James)
3. Redeemed
Box Set:
Disc 1: Endtroducing…
Disc 2: Entroducing… Bonus Disc (Rarities and B-Sides)
Disc 3: The Private Press
Disc 4: The Outsider
Disc 5: The Less You Know, The Better
Disc 6: The Best Of The Rest (Bonus CD)
1. Listen (Featuring Terry Reid) (Previously Unreleased)
2. Won’t You Be (Previously Unreleased)
3. Lost And Found (S.F.L.)
4. Hindsight
5. Skullfuckery (Featuring The Heliocentrics)
6. Hardcore (Instrumental) Hip-Hop
7. Divine Intervention (Featuring Divine Styler)
8. Lonely Soul (Featuring Richard Ashcroft) [7” Edit]
9. High Noon
10. Dark Days (Main Theme)
11. Camel Bobsled Race (DJ Shadow Mix by Q-Bert)
Disc 7: Live from Glasgow 2011
Disc 8: (DVD) In Tune and On Time
Box Set 12”:
Side A
1. The Number Song (Cut Chemist Party Mix)
2. Be There (Featuring Ian Brown) (Underdog Mix)
3. Six Days (Remix)
Side B
1. Enuff (DJ Fresh Remix)
2. I Gotta Rokk (Irn Mnky Swagger Mix)
3. Scale It Back (Kev Willow Remix)
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FOR ALL MEDIA INQUIRIES: Universal Music Enterprises: |
Dispatch Details
| Release Title: | Reconstructed: The Best of DJ Shadow + Reconstructed: The Definitive DJ Shadow |
| Record Label: | Universal Music Enterprises |
| Country: | United States |
| Release Type: | Physical |
| Preferred Retail Link: | Click here |
| Distributor: | UME |
| Release Format: | Album |
