Track Listing

1. Best Foot Forward
2. Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt
3. The Number Song
4. Changeling
5. Transmission 1
6. What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 4)
7. Untitled
8. Stem/Long Stem
9. Transmission 2
10. Mutual Slump
11. Organ Donor
12. Why Hip-Hop Sucks In '96
13. Midnight In A Perfect World
14. Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain
15. What Does Your Soul Look Like
16. Transmission 3

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4050 in Music
• Released on: 2002-03-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 63 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
DJ Shadow, a.k.a. Josh Davis, could be credited with bringing newfound introspection to the gloating sounds of hip-hop. Condensed with urban oscillations and scatological beats, Endtroducing... shutters with eclectic samples and aural montages that reach beyond the constraints of hip-hop style. Enhancing the mix with fundamentals of rock, soul, funk, ambient, and jazz, the modern fusions fail to go unnoticed, even by the casual listener. While most of the tracks are compiled by layering samples from vinyl treasures found in used-record bins, the production quality of the mosaic is unmatched. Darkened melodies carry throughout the album with its eye on the end of the tunnel. The narration samples come from numerous sources and keep the listener involved and waiting for resolution. With a message as fragmentary as an overheard conversation, Endtroducing... conveys no apparent conclusion, but begs the mind, body, and soul for some rewind. --Lucas Hilbert

CD Description
Though the sleeve notes of DJ Shadow's exhilarating long-playing debut speak of his devotion to "vinyl culture" and "sample-based music" (a guide of which is contained within), it's all just double-speak for hip-hop. Undoubtedly, this is the musical culture that lit up the life of young Cali-boy Josh Davis, inspiring him to construct these vocal-less, found-sound collages. Not the hip-hop that a dime-a-dozen MCs have turned into a cartoonish, excess-filled formula, but the hip-hop of such sonic anarchist producers as Afrika Bambaataaand The Bomb Squad. To put it mildly, DJ Shadow sides with the dope beats, not the bland blah-blah-blah.
Shadow's skills with a drum machine power ENDTRODUCING... as much as his innovative def-ness with a sampler--which says a lot for someone who's been called the Jimi Hendrix of sampling. The 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' or Dave Grohl's rhythmic attacks as he is citing old faithfuls like Clyde Stubblefield. His wide array of samples colour the album's beat-heavy text. Ethereal horns, ambient keyboards, orchestral strings, vocoder vocals, whole film scenes--each is made a part of the sweeping focus, part of a grand postmodern design.

Customer Reviews

I Am A Teacher....Of The Drum
From the moment 'Best Foot Forward' introduces Shadow (aka San Fransisco born Josh Davis) as "just your favourite DJ saviour", you know it's going to be a rollercoaster ride. From the chilled out bliss of 'What Does Your Soul Look Like?' to the frantic beats of 'Stem', this is the sound of modern music being re-invented. It's not just his exquisite choice of samples, it's the revlutionary way he uses them to create completely new pieces of music. The standout track for me (and many others) has always been 'Midnight In A Perfect World', with its delicious female vocal draped over that fantastic hook which makes you weak at the knees every time you hear it. All that and a pounding beat added to the fray make it an absolutely killer tune. But having said that all the tracks on this album have a remarkably polished quality about them, even the slightly rawer 'Napalm Death', and Shadow has somehow managed to capture a spectrum of different moods and make them work on one album. There is no easy way to sum up this album, all I can do is plead that if you don't have it, you must buy it. It is the defining album of its kind for the nineties, and I believe it will in later years come to be regarded as one of the classics of all time.

Electronic Excellence
I always find it strange when people talk about their favourite track on this album. The whole "experience" is what makes this album so good. There is not one stand out track: the whole thing plays like one continuous stand out track! The onslaught of almost maddening beats give way to sudden passages of tranquility that use each other to great effect through the contrast they produce. Playing like a modern day classical piece this is diverse and dark. Also like the best music it rewards repeated (even continuous) listening!

Immerse yourself in the darkness of DJ Shadow.
What more can I say about this epoch making album that hasn't been said already?Entroducing,for me is perhaps the greatest beat constructed audio journey ever committed to vinyl and cd.Dj Shadow has beautifully composed a mesmerising album of pure uncut bliss that awakens and reinvigorates the soul.Lush strings and spine tingling spaced out samples and sounds are fused like a match made in heaven with Shadow's penchant for sampling the deepest of drum patterns and heaviest of drum soaked breaks.Unlike many of his other contempories,Dj Shadow is more than simply a Dj,he's a musical genius and beat innovator and treats the sampler like a real instrument and has made sampling an art form.One could say that Dj Shadow is the Beethoven of sampling,ie,always challenging the boundaries of musical creativity and taking his form of music beyond the next level.I urge all discerning lovers of music to introduce themselves to Entroducing,your life will be enriched for it.