D.J. Shadow
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Endtroducing , 7.5/10
Preemptive Strike , 7/10 (comp)
U.N.K.L.E.: Psyence Fiction , 5/10
The Private Press , 5/10
The Outsider (2006), 4/10
U.N.K.L.E.: War Stories (2007), 5/10
The Less You Know The Better (2011), 5/10
The Mountain Will Fall (2016), 4/10
Our Pathetic Age (2019), 4/10
Action Adventure (2023), 4/10
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Summary.
Instrumental hip-hop was largely legitimized by a Los Angeles native resident in London, DJ Shadow, born Josh Davis. A legendary turntablist, Davis used prominent bass lines and scratches to detonate his extended singles Entropy (1993) and In/Flux (1993), and basically bridged classical music and hip-hop on elaborate, multi-part compositions such as What Does Your Soul Look Like (1995). Endtroducing (1996) was possibly the first respectable album of all-instrumental hip-hop, entirely composed on the sampler but nonetheless lushly orchestrated.
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Il Californiano D.J. Shadow (Josh Davis), soprannominato da una sciagurata rivista britannica "il Jimi Hendrix dei giradischi", divenne famoso in Gran Bretagna prima che in patria facendo leva su una discreta abilita` tecnica e soprattutto su una conoscenza enciclopedica della musica popolare, tanto bianca quanto nera. Il singolo Legitimate Mix (1992), il brano di 17 minuti Entropy (Solesides, 1993), In/Flux (Mo'wax, 1993) di tredici minuti, e Lost And Found (Mo'wax, 1994) ne fecero una figura mitica: Shadow porto` in primo piano le frasi di basso e gli scratch e si mise a comporre musica classica hip hop.

Il summa della sua arte si trova nei quattro movimenti di What Does Your Soul Look Like (Mo'wax, 1995), il suo singolo piu` elaborato, nel sonnolento tema blues e jazz del primo movimento, e soprattutto nella giungla di figure organiche di basso, di melodie e contro-melodie sparse per gli strumenti dell'orchestra (flauto, violini, sassofono, pianoforte), di accordi ipnotici di chitarra e di ritmi mutanti del secondo movimento. Il terzo movimento comincia come un pezzo orchestrale, ma poi si scatena (finalmente) in un cadenzato ballo da discoteca forte di una melodia sincopata dall'organo e dal flauto in maniera quasi minimalista. Purtroppo il tema jazzato del quarto movimento, sciorinato dai fiati su un fitto tappeto ritmico, viene rovinato dai campionamenti.

Endtroducing (Mo' Wax, 1996), in gran parte scolpito con un Akai MPC, era stato il suo primo vero album. Il fatto rivoluzionario e` che si tratta di un album di hip-hop strumentale, interamente composto per campionamenti, e orchestrato in maniera lussureggiante. Il suo stile di composizione non usa note, accordi e contrappunti: usa l'editing, i loops, il sampling, i beats. Il disco e` disseminato di piccoli suoni e rumori che sono stati decontestualizzati e ricostruiti. Il suo e` sound-painting che usa come "palette" le rovine della civilta` occidentale.
Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt, l'hardcore funk di The Number Song, la fantasia psichedelica di Midnight In A Perfect World e il nuovo singolo Stem (arpa, corno, violini, voce) non sono canzoni, sono paesaggi sonori i cui disparati elementi vengono integrati in una fotografia omogenea.

Il singolo Organ Donor (1996) si regge su una figura minimalista dell'organo nel registro prediletto dal primo Terry Riley, ma con un piglio austero che fa pensare semmai a una toccata di Bach. Un minimo di creativita` e di atmosfera si trovano in Hindsight. Il piu` recente, High Noon (1997), e` anche il piu` movimentato, benche' ben lontano dalle frenesie del techno, nonche' uno dei piu` densi, a conferma che il suo talento di orchestratore continua a crescere.
Sull'album figura soprattutto un medley di venti minuti, Camel Bobsled Race, organizzato da un altro disc jockey, Q-Bert. Gli scratch del giradischi non sono nulla al confronto del suo prodigioso sforzo di arrangiamento.

Preemptive Strike (Mo' Wax, 1997) raccoglie ("campiona") i singoli dei suoi primi anni di attivita`. La moltitudine di eventi sonori, gli scratch ironici, la parata di campionamenti e le liriche impegnate non cambiano il fatto che Influx (1993) e` semplicemente una jam di soffice funky-soul di terza mano.

Davis compone sinfonie per suoni campionati.

(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)

U.N.K.L.E. is DJ Shadow with James Lavelle (the founder of Mo'Wax). The project debuted with the EP The Time Has Come (Mo Wax, 1994), but truly came into its own with the full-length Psyence Fiction (Mo Wax, 1998), and its fusion of breakbeat-based music and pop music. Assigning vocals songwriting chores to a group of distinguished friends (rappers as well as rock singers such as Talk Talk's Mark Hollis, Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Verve's Richard Ashcroft), the duo can focus on "conducting" the synthetic orchestra of turntables, strings, electronics, rhythm-machines and real musicians. Unfortunately, the result is a hodgepodge of styles that would have better served by a series of singles. The gangsta rap Guns Blazing, the easy-listening hip-hop of Unkle Main Title Theme, the trip-hop balladry of Lonely Soul and Rabbit In Your Headlights are merely average in their respective styles and quite tedious when grouped together.

DJ Shadow's The Private Press (MCA, 2002) is a disappointing, transitional album, that leverages his previous achievements (Walkie Talkie) to construct new ideas (Six Days) but without the vigor and the focus to turn them into a new style. The eight-minute Blood On the Motorway is the epitome of DJ Shadow's problems: it is packed with great ideas but ultimately it is boring to death.

Freeze (Pirateria Fonografica, 2003) is a (mostly live) collaboration between DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist.

Diminishing Returns (2003) contains two monumental remixes.

DJ Shadow's The Outsider (Universal, 2006) was the most conventional (vocal) hip-hop album of his career yet. The 17 songs are a detour in a career that was going in a different direction Besides aiming for commercial success (This Time, Three Freaks), they roam a vast soundscape, from punk-rock to power-pop, from soul to funk, content with proving that Davis can do it all. At best, this is lite DJ Shadow for the masses.

Best Of Mo Wax 12's (Mo Wax, 2007) collects DJ Shadow's early singles from 1993-2000.

James Lavelle continued the project U.N.K.L.E. with Richard File replacing DJ Shadow on Never Never Land (2003). U.N.K.L.E.'s subsequent albums, Never, Never, Land (2004) and War Stories (Surrender All, 2007), were mediocre Lavelle collaborations with (respectively) singer-songwriter Richard File and with a crowd of celebrities (Cult's Ian Astbury, Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme, etc). End Titles: Stories For Film (2008) collects leftovers. Where Did The Night Fall (2010), that replaced File with Pablo Clements, was more of a band effort.

The mediocre single I Gotta Rokk was a bad omen for The Less You Know The Better (Verve, 2011), which in fact did not fail to disappoint. It was a schizophrenic experience, drifting from a regular song like Sad and Lonely to Stay the Course (with rappers Talib Kweli and Posdnous), from Scale It Back (a collaboration with Little Dragon) to the sample-based Tedium, from the faux metal of Border Crossing to the jazz-hop of Run for Your Life. The album is a frustrating experience, as one senses the musician's wild talent but the music rarely uses it. Very little works, most "songs" are simply tedious/trivial, and the choice of singles was odd at best.

The Mountain Will Fall (2016), Our Pathetic Age (2019), and Action Adventure (2023), which consists of an instrumental disc and a vocal disc, are facile and uninspired.

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