ENDTRODUCING.....
DJ SHADOW
BY THE MID-90S, TECH WAS EVERYWHERE – BUT OUTSIDE HIP HOP, SAMPLING WAS LARGELY SEEN AS A FLY-BY-NIGHT GIMMICK. IT WOULD TAKE A RECORD-HUNTER ON THE WEST COAST TO DIG DEEPER AND FORGE A FRESH MELDING OF MAN AND MACHINE…
ANDY JONES
Two years in the making, Endtroducing only brushed the UK Top 20 but its effect was enormous
Nicky J. Sims/Redferns/Getty
In the early 90s, sampling was often seen as more of a novelty – think “N-nn-n-nineteen”, Ride On Time – than an artform. DJ Shadow would re-examine and elevate the entire concept, using surprisingly simple gear to prove just how important the human element could be in the tech-human partnership.
The DJ – born and raised Joshua Paul Davis in Sacramento, California – was first inspired by his father’s record collection, featuring the likes of Isaac Hayes, ELO and Three Dog Night, but it was at a Public Enemy concert that these new and old worlds collided. The band sampled an Isaac Hayes track for Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos, and Davis recognised the sample; “I remember thinking, ‘God, I could do this,’” he told Keyboard magazine in 1997. “I was interested in the lyrics and the starkness of the music and the beat, but it was the little record scratches and things, and trying to locate where they came from, that excited me.”