You don’t write about Endtroducing. You philosophise about it. It’s that kind of record.
For devotees, it goes beyond the standard where-were-you-when-you-first-heard-this-album. DJ Shadow junkies will wax lyrical about the journey they were on, who they were fucking, how it altered the direction of their life. In the liner notes of the 2005 Deluxe Edition, critic Eliot Wilder begins an essay on the album with a discussion of post-modernism and Shadow’s place within it – and ends with him journeying down a deserted road in the Mojave, listening to Endtroducing for the first time. You can guess the outcome. It’s that kind of record.

But let’s assume you haven’t heard it. In its most basic terms, this is Shadow’s debut album, originally release in 1996. It is the first album constructed entirely out of samples. It features some background vocals from Quannum homies Gift Of Gab and Lyrics Born. And it contains thirteen of the most impossibly haunting, beautiful, twisted and melancholy pieces of music ever created.

Take this writer’s favourite: ‘Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt‘. This track shows the kind of sensitivity and nuance that jazz musicians boast about, building on a highly atmospheric and touching piano sample with delicate choruses, before launching into a slamming, ear-splitting live drum break, all cut-up and twisted by Shadow himself as he takes the samples (by Lexia, H.P Riot, Frankie Seay and The Soul Riders, Mort Garson and George Marsh, among others) and turns it into a track that, in a perfect world, would be a national anthem somewhere.

Look, we can’t put it any clearer than this: it doesn’t matter what genres you like, who you bump in your ride, who you’re fucking or where your life is at this point. You will love this record.

Words Rob boffard

—–

Check DJ Shadow online
Buy Entroducing