Midnight and a Perfect Album (Endtroducing..... - DJ Shadow)

Member Name: ihatebroccoli

Product:	Endtroducing..... - DJ Shadow
Date:	21/05/01 (1155 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Original, Soundtrack-like in parts, Very enjoyable, even if you're not that keen on regular brands of hip-hop

Disadvantages: None

I am amazed that this album has escaped me until now. Usually when I hear of an album by “DJ something or other”, or anything with “DJ” in the title, I am pretty sceptical, as it usually indicates some dance compilation where all the songs have already been mixed by someone else, and there’s nothing really new. This album is nothing like that. First of all, it’s not a dance album, and second of all, it features some of the most ambient and “soundtrack-like” music I’ve ever heard. You can tell I like it!

I first discovered music from this album whilst visiting a graphic design website – they had track 11 “Midnight in a Perfect World” playing alongside some animation, and I was immediately impressed. I had no idea what the music was, and emailed the webmaster to see if they’d tell me, they replied that it was off “some old DJ Shadow tape”, but that they couldn’t remember exactly which song it was. I was determined, and set about finding out, eventually after posting the question in a particular forum, I got my answer, and set about obtaining the rest of the album to see if there was anything else I would like. I was pleasantly surprised.

Having known absolutely nothing about the man behind the music, or been particularly interested in anything hip-hop before, I was really surprised how good this album is. It’s the combination of so many musical elements, which makes it so successful I think. Of course there’s absolutely loads of samples, but it’s the way it’s all put together which shows the creativity of its creator.

The front cover of the album is two guys browsing in a record store. I have to admit, that when I first saw this album online, I thought the picture of the cover art was actually an advert for the online record store. The “Transmission 1, 2 & 3" pieces are apparently used in John Carpenter'
s film, "Prince of Darkness”, but the majority of tracks consist of hip-hop beats, and retro sound effects. Here’s a list of the tracks and some of my comments.

~~Track List:

01 Best Foot Forward (0:48)
A short funky blend introducing the album and promoting Shadow. Although this track is very short (a matter of seconds), it manages to encompass a lot of different styles – the very beginning sounds like it’s off a 70s show or something, then transcends into a bit of rap, a bit of hip-hop, and then echoes out like a legend. Sets the scene, but don’t be too put off it you don’t like hip-hop.

02 Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt (6:41)
Opens with a repetitive old piano sound (like from an old horror movie or something), and Josh Davis (I assume) talking over the record, explaining his work. This is a reassuringly long record (one of many on the album). You definitely get your moneys-worth with tracks like this. A very atmospheric track which moves over into a waa-waa sound about half way through. A consistently good track.

03 The Number Song (4:38)
A track with a little more action, The Number Song is a darker track with less of the atmospheric quality of other tracks on the album. It reminds me of a track off the soundtrack to the film The Crow in a lot of ways.

04 Changeling (7:51) [Transmission 1]
This song is comprised of so many different parts; it’s like a life-changing swirl of sound. This has to be my favourite track off the album, well, either this or Building Steam, or Midnight. You can’t help but nod your head to this one. It’s catchy, its funky, its weird, and has an extremely catchy guitar sound riff throughout. Recommended (it was pretty hard to turn this track off in order to review the others).

05 What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 4) (5:08)
I have no idea why, but this track reminds me of the surfing film Endless Summe
r II. It’s a really relaxed track, like the sort of stuff you could just laze about listening to. Not sure about the deep-voice vocals which appear now and again – sounds a bit too much like the Frog Song for my liking ;-)

06 Untitled (0:24)
A bit of a “Tarantino” track if ever there was one, and at around 24 seconds, the shortest track on the album. I love the voice-over lyrics “Eyes as big as Jolly Ranchers”. It’s funky, it could’ve been on Pulp Fiction, I can’t help but do the funky head nod to it. Makes me want a “Royale Wid Cheese” (and I’m a vegetarian!)

07 Stem/Long Stem (9:22) [Transmission 2]
The longest track on the album, sounds like an episode of Inspector Morse at the beginning. It’s like a mystery; you have idea what’s waiting ahead. It seems as though it’s split into three sections as well, with the mysterious repetitive acoustic guitar sound at the beginning, through to something, which sounds as though its off “The Sky at Night”, or some other space programme, through to a sample of the track Midnight in a Perfect World.

08 Mutual Slump (4:03)
My least favourite track it’s a bit too “noisy” for my tastes. I do like the kind of Indian instrument sample sound though, which appears every now and then.

09 Organ Donor (1:57)
This track sounds like something created by The Doors, if only they had been more into technology. It’s organ music accompanied by a buzzing drum track running alongside. The music is wild and sweeping, and wanders up and down the scale, and the main tune is a bit reminiscent of the song from Trigger Happy TV, (the spy theme – Faithless “Drifting Away”).

10 Why Hip Hop Sucks In '96 (0:41)
You can almost see people bouncing the suspension in their convertibles – it’s like The Fresh Prince of Bel Air in a matter of
seconds. A nice interlude nevertheless.

11 Midnight In A Perfect World (5:02)
The opening sounds like it’s going to be a real hip-hop no brainer, but then the vocals pass, and the real music kicks in, and it’s beautiful. I can see now why the website I’d found originally had chosen to sample this track. It’s a perfect, calming cacophony of sound. Very memorable tune, waa-waa type keyboard sound and harmonious vocals. A very relaxing sound, if it’s not already been on some chill-out album or other, it should have been.

12 Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain (9:23)
Another of my least favourite tracks – I think it is a little too diverse in styles for my taste. There’s all sorts on here – The ending is very easy to listen to and relaxing, whereas the beginning consists of speech alone for about the first 50 seconds. Still very funky, but not a consistent sound – it’s a little too varied to relax to. I think this track is growing on me though.

13 What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 1-Blue Sky Revisit) (7:28) [Transmission 3]
Another reminder of films for me, this time, Spike Lee movies – like Do the Right Thing. It’s like a hot day in New York City, relaxed, jazzy, almost makes you want an iced-tea. The last in the transmission series. A great ending to a great album.

~~History Lesson:

Josh Davis (aka DJ Shadow) grew up in the Northern Californian hip-hop DJ scene. In 1993 he signed to Mo’ Wax records, a London-based company, and after releasing a few singles in 1995, joined up with Mo’ Wax CEO James Lavelle to produce an U.N.K.L.E record. Endtroducing was released in 1996, and Mo’ Wax cashed in on its success by releasing Preemptive Strike – a CD collection of Shadow’s early 90s material. DJ Shadow is apparently currently working on his next solo album, due for release in September.

If you go to www.cdnow.com a
nd do a search for this album, you can listen to samples of every single track on this album, but beware, the sections of the tracks chosen are not always representative of the whole track. So, if you don’t like the bit you hear, it may not mean you won’t like the rest of the track.

Some of the tracks are only 30 or 40 seconds long, and then other tracks are 7 to 9 minutes long. The album has some really beautiful tracks on it, in particular Midnight In a Perfect World, and Changeling, as well as Building Steam with a Grain of Salt.

Apparently the Japanese release of this album includes 2 bonus tracks “Red Bus Needs to Leave”, and “In/Flux”.

I’d go as far as to say, if you don’t particularly like hip-hop, you’ll still like this, and if you do like hip-hop, be prepared for a change of pace. Nothing is set in stone throughout this album. The genres are swept through, sampled, and put on the pile. Everything changes in the tracks on this album, and it is perhaps the soundtrack quality of some of these tracks, which holds my interest the most.

You can listen to it just to relax and chill out, or when driving, or pretty much whenever. It is tremendously listenable (if that’s a word).

For more information, check out www.endtroducing.com

If you like this album, try:

U.N.K.L.E – Psyence Fiction

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