Track Listing

1. Strike 1
2. Influx
3. Hindsight
4. Strike 2
5. What does your soul look like (part 2)
6. What does your soul look like (part 3)
7. What does your soul look like (part 4)
8. What does your soul look like (part 1)
9. Strike 3
10. High noon
11. Organ donor (Extended Overhaul)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66617 in Music
• Released on: 2003-02-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
This set compiles much of DJ Shadow's pre-major label material in one convenient package in an attempt to foil bootleggers and bring new fans up-to-date in the curriculum. The results are naturally varied, but all point to a marvellous evolution of talent. The collection is kept together primarily by its propensity for jazzy beats and psychedelic loops. Shadow (né Josh Davis) moves through everything from old school funk ("In/Flux") to grungy 1960s-style guitar rave-ups ("High Noon"). The centrepiece of the set, however, is a four-part composition called "What Does Your Soul Look Like", which is likely to be the first ever entirely sample-driven rock opera. It's a brilliant piece of work, laced with intriguing sounds, sound bites, and a detectable set of motion. It is also quite possibly better than anything on the critically -acclaimed Entroducing. --Aidin Vaziri

CD Description
PREEMPTIVE STRIKE is less a second full-length effort from the Bay Area's finest hip-hop-minded deconstructionist DJ Shadow, than a sextet of older odds patched together with a pair of newer ends. All of these songs have previously appeared as import Mo Wax 12"s, but only two ("High Noon" and "Organ Donor [Complete Overhaul]") have come in the wake of Shadow's debut.
It is easy to distinguish the old from the new. Pieces like the four extremely different parts of 1995's hip-hop symphony "What Does Your Soul Look Like?", which takes up about half the album, are spacious; the myriad of samples breathing in between fluid, husky beats and melodies liftthe music out of any pre-conceived sampledelic morass. Whereas "High Noon" is tight, edgy and fiery; all psyche guitar groove, tribal drums and preachy voices. So it seems that what Shadow's music may have lost over the years in zen-like meditation it has gained in intensity-per-measure, an important trait for a dance-floor-commanding DJ.

Customer Reviews

Buy Entroducing and Private Press first.
Im pretty new to DJ Shadow, though i had quite thoroughly listened to Endtroducing and Private Press before obtaining this. Personally i found the centerpiece "What does your soul look like" a little dull, a fleshed out version of "What does your soul look like, pt4." on Endtroducing.
However, everything else is hugely entertaining, the highlights for me being the unforgettable "Organ Donor" and the sublime "High Noon"

My advice however is: Buy Entroducing and Private Press first.

Great Tracks but we've been given this before!
For those of you who don't already have Endtroducing, stop now, click off this page and buy that now.

For those of you who are still here I can tell you now this album is more shadow, which is a VERY good thing - however, I personally feel just a touch "fobbed off" by this release - you ownly really get 5 new tracks (Two parts of "What does your soul look like" are simply mirrored from Endtroducing) and the remix of Organ Donor is nothing too new and groundbreaking. However, there are three tracks on this album that are up there with his best - High Noon, an upbeat guitar driven track and What does your Soul look like parts 2 & 3 are nothing short of amazing...

Worth it for these three tracks alone but shurley this is an EP relase rather than a full album?

Some of DJ Shadow's finest moments
OK, yes, a few of these songs have been readily available on other releases. But that aside, I would go as far as to say that Preemptive Strike contains some of Shadow's greatest moments.

As epic as Entroducing is, this collection pushes the envelope even further. What Does Your Soul Look Like part 2 is nothing short of vast in scale with its dramatic strings, crashing drums and mournful vocals. In contrast, part 3 is delicate and minimal, a meandering flute and tinkling piano taking centre stage. Every defining characteristic of Entroducing (delicate ambience, long patient pauses, impeccable drum breaks, slow, smoothly paced song dynamics) is taken that bit further in these songs. Despite being a collection of separately composed tracks, the album flows surprisingly well, with Organ Donor and High Noon as the perfect closers.

Put simply, Preemptive Strike is an absolute must for any fan of Entroducing.