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Endtroducing.....

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Untitled

Endtroducing..... is the debut studio album by American hip hop artist DJ Shadow. It was released on November 19, 1996 by Mo' Wax Records. The album was conceived as an effort by Shadow to make an album completely based around sampling.[1] It is structured almost entirely out of sampled elements from genres ranging from hip hop, jazz, funk, psychedelia, as well as samples from films and interviews. All sampling on the album was done on an Akai MPC60 MKII sampler.[1]

Background

DJ Shadow released Endtroducing..... when he was 24 years old. Frequenting record stores to find music, he would often bring a small Fisher Price battery operated record player to listen to the records in the store. Obscure albums are of interest, while DJ Shadow tries to avoid obvious material in his recordings.

Structure and release

Endtroducing..... is structured completely out of sampled elements, including hip hop, jazz, funk, psychedelia, old television shows, interviews and percussion tracks. The entirety of the album was composed on an MPC60, a machine which Shadow would later pass on to Chief Xcel. The album has been cited in Guinness World Records as being the first album created entirely from sampled sources,[citation needed] although the liner notes of the outtakes album Excessive Ephemera note that vocals were contributed in the studio by Lyrics Born and Gift of Gab.

In 2005 DJ Shadow released a "Deluxe Edition" of the album with a second disc containing demos, alternate versions of original tracks, tracks exclusive to CD singles, and a vintage live set recorded on October 30, 1997.

The album's front cover depicts Solesides members Chief Xcel (left) and Lyrics Born (right) in Records, a record store at 710 K Street in Sacramento, California.[2] The K Street location of Records closed in December 2006, and has since relocated to the former Tower Video location at the corner of Broadway and South Land Park Drive. The back cover features Beni B (owner of ABB records) and a blind cat belonging to the shop owner. [3]

14 years after the initial release, Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt found new life when it was featured in the 2010 video game Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[4]
Robert Christgau(A+)[5]
Entertainment Weekly(A-)[6]
Pitchfork Media(10.0/10(reissue))[7]
PopMatters(10/10)[8]
Stylus Magazine(A)[9]
Rolling Stone[10]
Slant Magazine[11]
Sputnikmusic[12]
Alternative Press[13]

Upon its release, Endtroducing..... received almost unanimously positive reviews. Spin awarded the album a score of nine out of ten, with reviewer Sian Michel writing that Endtroducing..... "...layers slinky break-beats with sampled sounds--anything from church bells to War of the Worlds and, egad, Tears for Fears....a cosmic-chamber feel complete with choruses of fallen angels, plucked harps, Mellotron, and cello."[14] Jon Wiederhorn of Entertainment Weekly was full of praise for the album, providing it with a grade of A-, and went on to say of Endtroducing..... that "...like a surreal film soundtrack on which jazz, classical, and jungle fragments are artfully blended with turntable tricks and dialogue snippets, Endtroducing... takes hip-hop into the next dimension."[6] Further praise came from Rolling Stone who awarded the album four stars out of five, saying of Endtroducing..... that "The DJ built songs out of layer upon layer of sampled instruments and other sound fragments, most of which he processed, looped and re-arranged far beyond recognition....funky rhythms that never sound like they've been cut and pasted together."[10] Q magazine also responded favorably, writing in a four out of five stars review that "Shadow's brief is to develop a totally sample-based idiom, weaving a cinematically broad spectrum so deftly layered that the sampling-is-stealing argument falls flat."[13] Giving Endtroducing..... five stars out of five, Alternative Press said of the album that it is "...an undeniable hip-hop masterpiece....DJ Shadow remembers that sampling is an art form."[13] Uncut said of the album that "It's an elegy from a vinyl mausoleum, a sonic fiction assembled by a keen-eared archaeologist," awarding Endtroducing..... with four stars out of five.[13] Robert Christgau, in a review of high praise, awarded the album a grade of A+, saying of Endtroducing..... that it is "...music and chaos and satire and self-mockery and music all at once."[5] In an equally enthusiastic review, Melody Maker said that the album "...flips hip hop inside out all over again like a reversible glove, and again, and again, and each time it's sudden and new. I am, I confess, totally confounded by it. I hear a lot of good records, but very few impossible ones....You need this record. You are incomplete without it."[13] The album is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Legacy

In the years following the release of Endtroducing..... high praise has continued to be forthcoming. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album five of five stars, saying that "...it's innovative, but it builds on a solid historical foundation, giving it a rich, multi-faceted sound. It's not only a major breakthrough for hip-hop and electronica, but for pop music." In a review of the album's "Deluxe Edition" in 2005, Pitchfork awarded Endtroducing..... the maximum score of 10.0/10.0, saying that it "... taps that inner-whatever better than most of the albums of its day, and it swims so easily that it established an entire genre of instrumental hip-hop-- count how many records come out every month and are dubbed 'Shadowesque.' Building the album from samples of lost funk classics and bad horror soundtracks, Shadow crossed the real with the ethereal, laying heavy, sure-handed beats under drifting, staticky textures, friendly ghost voices, and chords whose sustain evokes the vast hereafter." Also in a review of the Endtroducing..... "Deluxe Edition" in 2005, PopMatters gave the album 10/10, and went on to say that "it is a uniquely evocative and intimate disc, a stridently personal statement masquerading as a genre-defining dissertation." Spin was also full of praise once again, stating that "This remains a stone classic, channeling Afrika Bambaataa's genre-splicing, DJ-booth mysticism into a fully realized studio epic..." In a review by Sal Cinquemani for Slant the album was given five out of five stars, saying that DJ Shadow had created "...an ominous and multi-textured masterpiece of hip-hop postmodernism." "A decade on," said Mojo, "DJ Shadow's affirmatory essay on record collecting as a creative endeavour has lost none of its grandeur," giving the album four out of five stars.

Accolades

Publication Country Accolade Year Rank
Mojo UK The 100 Greatest Albums of Our Lifetime 1993-2006[15] 2006 19
Pitchfork Media US Top 100 Albums of the 1990s[16] 2003 7
Q UK 90 Albums of the '90s[17] 1999 *
Rolling Stone US Essential Recordings of the ‘90s[18] 2002 *
Slant Magazine US Best Albums of the '90s[19] 2011 10
Spin US 90 Albums of the '90s[20] 1999 15
Top 100 Albums of the Last 20 Years[21] 2005 69
125 Best Albums of the Past 25 Years[22] 2010 58

(*) designates unordered lists.

Personnel

Track listing

  1. "Best Foot Forward" – 0:48
  2. "Building Steam with a Grain of Salt" – 6:42
  3. "The Number Song" – 4:39
  4. "Changeling" – 7:52, "* Transmission 1"
  5. "What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 4)" – 5:09
  6. – 0:25
  7. "Stem/Long Stem" – 9:22, "* Transmission 2"
  8. "Mutual Slump" – 4:04
  9. "Organ Donor" – 1:57
  10. "Why Hip Hop Sucks in '96" – 0:42
  11. "Midnight in a Perfect World" – 5:03
  12. "Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain" – 9:24
  13. "What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 1 - Blue Sky Revisit)" – 7:29, "* Transmission 3"

Deluxe edition bonus disc

  1. "Best Foot Forward (Alternate Version)" - 1:16
  2. "Building Steam with a Grain of Salt (Alternate Take Without Overdubs)" - 6:43
  3. "Number Song (Cut Chemist Party Mix)" - 5:14
  4. "Changeling (Original Demo Excerpt)" - 1:00
  5. "Stem (Cops 'N' Robbers Mix)" - 3:48
  6. "Soup (Single Version)" - 0:44
  7. "Red Bus Needs to Leave" - 2:45
  8. "Mutual Slump (Alternate Take Without Overdubs)" - 4:21
  9. "Organ Donor (Extended Overhaul)" - 4:29
  10. "Why Hip Hop Sucks in '96 (Alternate Take)" - 0:54
  11. "Midnight in a Perfect World (Gab Mix)" - 4:55
  12. "Napalm Brain (Original Demo Beat)" - 0:35
  13. "What Does Your Soul Look Like (Peshay Remix)" - 9:24
  14. "DJ Shadow Live in Oxford, England, Oct. 30, 1997" - 12:35

The bonus disc was also released as the vinyl only set "Excessive Ephemera", limited to 1500 copies.[23]

Samples

The following lists some of the songs and sounds sampled for Endtroducing.[24]

"Best Foot Forward"

"Building Steam with a Grain of Salt"

  • "I Worship You" by Lexia
  • "I Need You" by H.P. Riot
  • "I Feel a New Shadow" by Jeremy Storch
  • "Soul Food" by Frankie Seay and the Soul Riders
  • "Planetary Motivations (Cancer)" by Mort Garson
  • "George Marsh on Drums: Interviewed by Terry McGovern" from the LP Music Makers Percussion, released by the Chevron/Standard Oil Company of California

"The Number Song"

"Changeling"

"Transmission 1"

"What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 4"

  • "The Vision and the Voice, Part 1 - The Vision" by Flying Island
  • "Monica" by The People's People
  • "Numbers" by Kraftwerk

Untitled (Track 6)

  • "Grey Boy" by Human Race

"Stem/Long Stem"

"Transmission 2"

"Mutual Slump"

"Organ Donor"

  • "Tears" by Giorgio Moroder
  • "Someone" by Tim and Bill
  • "There's a DJ in Your Town" by Samson and Delilah

"Why Hip Hop Sucks in '96"

  • "There's a DJ in Your Town" by Samson and Delilah
  • "Snap" by Cleo McNett

"Midnight in a Perfect World"

"Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain"

  • "'Pon a Hill" by T. Rex
  • "Walk on By" from Jo Ann Garrett
  • Dialogue from the film The Aurora Encounter
  • "Moment of Truth/Ghetto Shakedown" by Charles Bernstein
  • "A Funky Kind of Thing" by Billy Cobham
  • "Let the Homicides Begin" by Top Priority featuring Percy P
  • "Space Odyssey - 2001" by The Daly-Wilson Big Band
  • "Soul Brother's Testify" by Chester Randle's Original Soul Sender's
  • "Fun and Funk (Part II)" by The Fantastic Epic's

"What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 1: Blue Sky Revisit"

"Transmission 3"

References

  1. ^ a b "DJ Sample Sampling Mastermind". Keyboard. NewBay Media. 1977. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  2. ^ "who are those two dudes on the endtroducing cover?". the-breaks.com. Retrieved 5 September 2011.
  3. ^ Lutz, Arthur; Charlot, David (14 July 2004). "DJ Shadow - Our favourite DJ saviour [part 1 : The musician]". soundsmag.org.
  4. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "DJ Shadow: Endtroducing... at AllMusic. Retrieved 5 September 2011.
  5. ^ a b Christgau, Robert. "DJ Shadow: Endtroducing...". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 5 September 2011.
  6. ^ a b Wiederhorn, Jon (29 November 1996). "Music Review: 'Endtroducing...'". Entertainment Weekly (355).
  7. ^ Dahlen, Chris (9 June 2005). "DJ Shadow: Endtroducing... [Deluxe Edition]". Pitchfork Media.
  8. ^ O'Neil, Tim (10 June 2005). "DJ Shadow: Endtroducing... [Deluxe Edition]". PopMatters.
  9. ^ DJ Shadow - Endtroducing… (Deluxe Edition) - Review - Stylus Magazine
  10. ^ a b Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian David (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4, revised ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 247. ISBN 0743201698.
  11. ^ Cinquemani, Sal (2 November 2002). "DJ Shadow: Endtroducing...". Slant Magazine.
  12. ^ Med57 (10 April 2005). "DJ Shadow - Endtroducing". Sputnikmusic.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ a b c d e "DJ Shadow, "Endtroducing..."". mymusic.com. Retrieved 5 September 2011.
  14. ^ Michel, Sia. "DJ Shadow Endtroducing…". Spin (Jan 1997): 81.
  15. ^ "The 100 Greatest Albums of Our Lifetime 1993-2006". Mojo. 2006. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  16. ^ "Top 100 Albums of the 1990s". Pitchfork Media Press. 2003. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  17. ^ "Q 90 Of The 90's". Q Magazine Lists. rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 5 September 2011.
  18. ^ "Essential Recordings Of The '90s". Rolling Stone Lists. rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  19. ^ Slant Staff (14 February 2011). "Best Albums of the '90s". Slant Magazine: 10. {{cite journal}}: Text "Best Albums of the '90s" ignored (help)
  20. ^ "Spin's Top 90 Albums of the 90's". Spin Magazine (USA) Lists. rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 5 September 2011.
  21. ^ "100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005". Spin Magazine. 2005. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  22. ^ "125 Best Albums of the Past 25 Years". Spin Magazine. 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  23. ^ "DJ Shadow - Excessive Ephemera". discogs.com. Retrieved 5 September 2011.
  24. ^ "TheBreaks.com album samples". Retrieved January 27, 2007.
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