(DJ) Shadow(s) of time
October 20, 2010
DJ Shadow – Endtroducing
Sometimes listening to music sets you off on a tangent. So now and then I’ll type away in a stupefied reverie about nothing and everything…
I can’t pinpoint the first time I listened to DJ Shadow, or when I first came across the name, but it must’ve been sometime around the turn of the millennium. To be honest, I’ve only recently properly delved into Endtroducing. That hasn’t prevented the album – through its iconic cover art and intriguing track titles (‘Why Hip Hop Sucks in ‘96’, ‘What Does Your Soul Look Like’) much more than its music – from leaving an indelible mark on my development.
Now, I can’t listen to tracks like ‘Midnight in a Perfect World’ without revisiting in my mind the context of our meeting. In 1996, when DJ Shadow was blowing up, I was at the height of my Britpop idolatry – Oasis, Blur and, to a lesser extent, Ash… Sure, other artists would soon follow and usurp these acts in my fresh mind, but for now the larger than life characters and the pure drama of it all complimented the rousing choruses and nah-nah-nahs.
Back then I’d genuinely look forward to experiencing a new album; no CD player in the car meant the drive home would involve me fondling the jewel case and eagerly thumbing through the insert. If the booklet contained song lyrics I would’ve already concocted my own hummable versions by the time I could finally pop the album into the family CD player in the living room.
It was around this time that I started consuming the music press. I was a dedicated Anglophobe and I’d read Q magazine front-to-back. I accepted without question the months of delays at my local newsagency, which meant I’d usually be half-a-year behind in the music cycle. This no doubt contributed to the extent to which I cocooned myself in music – I certainly didn’t have a social networking concept of music at this stage.
Fastforward slightly to the year 2000, and while I was a regular listener to JJJ, it was mainly through reading that I built a canonical knowledge of music. I’d see names like Aphex Twin, the Beta Band, Boards of Canada, and, of course, DJ Shadow well in advance of actually hearing them. Through an implied system of influence and recommendation these artists would gain a mysterious, epochal status. For instance, I distinctly remember a piece just after the release of Radiohead’s Kid A that explored that albums influences and ‘borrowings’; many of the names mentioned were new and strange to me but over time, in an admittedly indirect fashion, I came to hear them and appreciate them.
It was also in Year 10 that I began, to this day, my one and only genuine musical endeavour. With my best friend I formed Stylus. We both had only rudimentary musical talent, but luckily were early adopters of software like HipHop eJay and Acid2.0. We embraced a cut/paste aesthetic, citing the Avalanches and their recently JJJ-endorsed ‘Frontier Psychiatrist’ as an influence. And we took it seriously. With (retrospectively) unbelievable patience, we spent hours trawling those lonely free sample web sites on dial-up Internet, excitedly sharing our finds via ICQ. We set up an Angelfire web site full of animated gifs and a ridiculous list of thank-you’s. Oh yeah, and released two albums.
Many of the samples we used were audio-bites from obscure TV shows and films, which existed for us only in decontextualised forms. Every so often I encounter them in their original context, and it sends me back once more to my musical upbringing.
Anyway, I’ve diverged. And made very little point, bar some vaguely solipsistic statement. Enjoy.
