Description

Active from the early 1990s into the 21st century, DJ Shadow (Californian Josh Davis) has been called the Jimi Hendrix of sampling. His songs shift tempos in a blink, incorporating multiple time signatures, and it's to Shadow's credit that he's as comfortable hinting at Elvin Jones's or Dave Grohl's rhythmic attack as he is at citing old faithfuls like Clyde Stubblefield. Ethereal horns, ambient keyboards, orchestral strings, vocoder vocals, whole film scenes--each is made a part of his sweeping focus, part of a grand postmodern design.

Biography

DJ Shadows Josh Davis is widely credited as a key figure in developing the experimental instrumental hip-hop style associated with the London-based Mo Wax label His early singles for the label including InFlux and Lost and Found SFL were all-over-the-map mini-masterpieces combining elements of funk rock hip-hop ambient jazz soul and used-bin incidentalia Although hed already done a scattering of original and production work during 1991-1992 for Hollywood Records by the time Mo Waxs James Lavelle contacted him about releasing InFlux on the fledgling imprint it wasnt until his association with Mo Wax that his sound began to mature and cohere Mo Wax released a longer work in 1995 -- the 40-minute single in four movements What Does Your Soul Look Like which topped the British indie charts -- and Davis went on to co-write remix and produce tracks for labelmates DJ Krush and Dr Octagon plus the Mo trip-hop supergroup UNKLE Davis grew up in Hayward CA a predominantly lower-middle-class suburb of San Francisco The odd white suburban hip-hop fan in the hard rock-dominated early 80s Davis gravitated toward the turntablemixer setup of the hip-hop DJ over the guitars bass and drums of his peers He worked his way through hip-hops early years into the heyday of crews like Eric B Rakim Ultramagnetic MCs and Public Enemy groups that prominently featured DJs in their ranks Davis had already been fiddling around with making beats and breaks on a four-track while he was in high school but it was his move to the NorCal cow town of Davis to attend university that led to the establishment of his own Solesides label as an outlet for his original tracks Hooking up with Davis few b-boys including eventual Solesides artists Blackalicious and Lyrics Born through the college radio station Shadow began releasing the iReconstructed from the Ground Upi mixtapes in 1991 and pressed his 17-minute hip-hop symphony Entropy in 1993 His tracks spread widely through the DJ-strong hip-hop underground eventually catching the attention of Mo Wax Shadows first full-length Endtroducing was released in late 1996 to immense critical acclaim in Britain and America Preemptive Strike a compilation of early singles followed in early 1998 Later that year Shadow produced tracks for the debut album by UNKLE a longtime Mo Wax production team that gained superstar guests including Thom Yorke of Radiohead Richard Ashcroft of the Verve Mike D of the Beastie Boys and others His next project came in 1999 with the transformation of Solesides into a new label Quannum Projects Nearly six years after his debut production album the proper follow-up The Private Press was released in June 2002 The following year Shadow released a mix album Diminishing Returns and in 2004 he released a live album and DVD Live In Tune and on Time In 2006 his long-awaited third solo album The Outsider came out but instead of following the blueprint he used on his past two records Shadow enlisted help from Bay Area rappers like Keak da Sneak E-40 and Lateef as well as David Banner and Q-Tip Sean Cooper All Music Guide