Old-school samples, novel sound

By Brian Biekman     11/9/11 6:00pm

When creating Endtroducing… DJ Shadow's goal was to make an album constructed entirely from samples. He dug through his collection of more than 60,000 records and visited stores with a battery-operated record player. Shadow sampled from jazz, old school hip-hop, dialogue from films and interviews and even a heavy metal track. He avoided the obvious samples one would find on Girl Talk albums and searched for the obscure. The most well-known track Shadow sampled was "Orion" by Metallica, while other samples come from artists even the most outspoken sonophile wouldn't know, such as Lifer's Group and H.P. Riot. When listening to Endtroducing… one can understand how meticulous DJ Shadow was. He cut up simple drum beats and tied them together to make his own break beats. He built his own chords from the different samples. If one listens closely, he or she can even hear the fuzz from the old records DJ Shadow sampled. Somehow everything is perfectly interwoven into this organic masterpiece. Even after all my time listening to Endtroducing… I still have to remind myself that DJ Shadow did not write a single note or drum beat.

One of the greatest tracks on Endtroducing… is "Building Steam with a Grain of Salt," the first track after the album introduction. The ominous piano melody and one note harmony suck listeners into DJ Shadow's world and prepare them for the hour-long musical journey. At the end of the song, an excerpt from an interview epitomizes the album and the philosophy behind sampling.

"It's not me that's coming… the music's coming through me," DJ Shadow said.

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"Why Hip-Hop Sucks in '96" is a 44-second track that contains only an old school Dr. Dre-esque beat with a voice chanting "It's the money" echoing about 20 seconds in.  It is a critique of the G-Funk era of hip-hop that Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg dominated. The track is probably more relevant today than it was in 1996. Just replace the G-Funk beat with any Lil Wayne beat and auto-tune "It's the money" and you've got "Why Hip-Hop Sucks In '11."

"Midnight in a Perfect World," the best track on the album, is one of the greatest pieces of instrumental music ever assembled, regardless of the genre. With a hypnotic hook, an angelic voice singing indiscernible words, a head-nodding drum beat and a few simple piano notes, listening to "Midnight in a Perfect World" is pure bliss. It elevates listeners instead of playing with their emotions.

The entire album flows together as well as Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon or Radiohead's ?Kid A. It is sometimes hard even to discriminate between tracks until about the 10th time around. Like all great albums, it feels more like an album than a collection of songs.

DJ Shadow is not a copy/paste sampler. He is a chemist, mixing elements of music together until he creates something fresh, totally unlike ?the original.

Endtroducing… does more than redefine instrumental hip-hop; it transcends the genre to reach new heights that cannot be brought down ?by labels.

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