The Wedding Present + more across Manchester Academy.
DJ Shadow: Action Adventure
Mass Appeal
Available October 27th at Sister Ray
Four years on from Our Pathetic Age the maestro DJ Shadow (aka Joshua Davis) slams right back onto the scene with his 7th album which spans a career of massive innovation that kickstarted the trip hop scene. Wayne AF Carey is on the case…
In my opinion DJ Shadow revolutionised the whole Trip Hop scene. Funky hip hop beats slowed right down to a mellow level that got us all thinking. Take Portishead as an example who got the ‘coffee table’ middle class into a tether. Not that they were bad, they just didn’t have that same buzz that Shadow created. Endtroducing, his debut still shits all over everything you can upload, listen to, and mix up today. A classic album that every mother and his fucker must have heard. He’s back with a total bang, ditched the guests and produced a modern classic.
Opening track Ozone Scraper is a techno classic that melds Kraftwerk with Giorgio Moroder in one feoull swoop with unfragmented beats that thrill you from the start. Futuristic as fuck. My count is one at the moment… All My is a Dubstep mellow groove that just sounds classy. A two minute piece of the genius. Time And Space is a long piece that verges on a bit of space psych and builds slowly into the beat from Afrika Bambaataa’s Planet Rock with the magic of Kraftwerk stitched in to make it as futuristic as Hip Hop intended to do from the start.
Craig, Ingels and Wrightson is almost certainly a tribute to great runners from the USA. A mellow tune that sounds eerie yet exhilarating in delivery. Witches vs Warlocks is pure Shadow magic. Dubstep laced with some great sound interlacing with experimental stuff that gets the synapses flowing. It’s just majestic. A Narrow Escape is Trip Hop at it’s best that goes all all Drum n Bass on my boney arse with a proper futuristic twist full of mad shit that only Shadow can produce.
You Played Me is excellent old school hip hop house that takes me right back to listening to Stu Allen with his ‘Bus Dis’ show back in the Eighties. A real step back in time. Joshua has a serious love of all the beauty from that era listening to this belter. Free For All is just mental. Who the fuck can mix a country guitar riff with dubstep and get away with it? I’ve actually never heard anything like this before ever. It’s insane! The Prophecy is pure Trip Hop if you’ve ever heard it. A magnificent display of the magic of Shadow in one foul swoop. Dark and foreboding it’s a masterpiece that could be used on many film soundtracks. It’s the way he fucks with the drum patterns that get me.
Friend Or Foe is pure Seventies / Eighties film soundtrack stuff. Our Greater Manchester lad TVAM has been doing this for ages and I’m sure Josh has been listening! Fleeting Youth is just full of strings and floating noise which gives me an image of Floating Points. It’s beautiful stuff that calms you the fuck down for the closing last tracks. Reflecting Pool goes all Dubstep again with that mental Burial sound we know and love. Just remember that Burial probably fucking nicked his sound anyway! Woah! It goes all weird then back to mellow again which totally fucks me up! Forever Changed is a morose bastard that harks right back to Midnight In A Perfect World which to me is one of the most perfect tunes ever written. A beautiful tune but not the end! She’s Evolving is a mental tune with some weird as fuck drum samples that put my head in a spin.
Personally I’d say this is the best album he’s done since Endtroducing but who am I? A great comeback from a great talent who’s been in hibernation waiting to release a monstrous set of pure brilliance.
Words by Wayne Carey, Reviews Editor for Louder Than War. His author profile is here
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Where did you hear the album? It isnt out just yet?
Writers will be sent albums well in advance through a secure download or stream, so we can get familiar with them
It’s “fell Swoop” not “Foul Swoop”
Mondegreen variant. Read Macbeth…
It’s “one fell swoop”.
You misused this phrase, twice.
With a name like Jizzboy I’d beg to differ. Problem with young kids and old heads these days, they don’t study history enough. Both phrases are technically sound. But then again I generally review music and don’t ‘jizz’ about inane facts. Listening and reviewing the music is my job…
Your review sounds like you got paid by the record label. Who else would write such hyperbolic drivel?
As for the “Mondegreen variant. Read Macbeth…”, that’s literally just taking the first Google result, and not understanding that it tells you that you’re wrong.
I did get paid by the record label! Sue me!
DJ Shadow revolutionised the whole Trip Hop scene…hmmmmm, I’m a fan, but
Massive Attack, Tricky……
Nuff said..
Anyway, apart from the opening track, this album kicks!