Endtroducing.....

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Endtroducing.....
Endtroducing..... cover
Studio album by DJ Shadow
Released November 19, 1996
Recorded 1996
Genre Electronica, hip hop
Length 63:27
Label Mo' Wax
Producer DJ Shadow
Professional reviews
DJ Shadow chronology
Endtroducing.....
(1996)		 Preemptive Strike
(1998)

Endtroducing..... is the debut full-length studio album by DJ Shadow, released on November 19 1996 on Mo' Wax. It is noted for being built entirely from samples of other audio. The album received near-unanimous worldwide critical acclaim upon release.

Contents

[edit] Structure and release

Endtroducing..... is structured completely[citation needed] 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.

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

The album's cover depicts Solesides members Chief Xcel (left) and Lyrics Born (right) in Records, a record store at 710 K St, Sacramento, California[1]. The K Street location of Records closed in December of 2006, and have since relocated to the former Tower Records location at the corner of Broadway and South Land Park Drive.

[edit] Reception and influence

NPR included Endtroducing..... in its list of the top 300 American songs and albums of the 20th century,[2] and Spin placed the album at number 69 in its list of the 100 greatest albums between 1985 and 2005 in June 2005.[3] In 2006, the album was chosen by TIME as one of the 100 best albums of all time.[4].

Professional reviews:

  • Rolling Stone (1/23/97, pp.62-63) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "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."
  • Spin (p.134) - "[T]his remains a stone classic, channeling Afrika Bambaataa's genre-splicing, DJ-booth mysticism into a fully realized studio epic..." - Spin (1/97, p.81) - 9 (out of 10) - "...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."
  • Entertainment Weekly (11/29/96, p.92) - "Unfolding 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." - Rating: A-
  • Q (11/96, p.120) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "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."
  • Uncut (p.121) - 4 stars out of 5 - "It's an elegy from a vinyl mausoleum, a sonic fiction assembled by a keen-eared archaeologist."
  • Alternative Press (4/97, p.70) - 5 (out of 5) - "...an undeniable hip-hop masterpiece....DJ Shadow remembers that sampling is an art form."
  • Magnet (p.88) - "An instrumental album entirely composed of samples and influenced by both prog rock and Public Enemy was, at the time, revolutionary....Still unmatched in its carefree invention."
  • JazzTimes (4/97, p.65) - "Some consider...Endtroducing... a broadcast from hip-hop's near future. But that notion ignores how much this disc reaffirms the music's creative roots....Endtroducing is pretty damn good, with Shadow demonstrating an unerring ear for motif and texture, touching on everything from dub to funk to groove-jazz."
  • Option (1-2/97, p.73) - "Shadow makes records the way Robert Rauschenberg made his combines: from scraps, pop artifacts, the things other people throw away....While some of his tracks float serenely on a cloud of jazzy phrasing and ambient textures, Shadow always lands on his beat."
  • Melody Maker (9/14/96, p.49) - Bloody Essential - "...it 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."
  • Rap Pages (12/96, p.33) - "Innovative arrangements and structures of sound are present here, reflecting a mind that is constantly summoning collage forms."
  • Mojo (p.120) - 4 stars out of 5 - "A decade on, DJ Shadow's affirmatory essay on record collecting as a creative endeavour has lost none of its grandeur."

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Best Foot Forward" – 0:47
  2. "Building Steam With a Grain of Salt" – 6:39
  3. "The Number Song" – 4:34
  4. "Changeling" – 7:16
    • "Transmission 1" - 0:35
  5. "What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 4)" – 5:02
  6. " " – 0:25
  7. "Stem/Long Stem" – 7:47
    • "Transmission 2" - 1:29
  8. "Mutual Slump" – 4:00
  9. "Organ Donor" – 1:57
  10. "Why Hip Hop Sucks in '96" – 0:44
  11. "Midnight in a Perfect World" – 4:58
  12. "Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain" – 9:21
  13. "What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 1 - Blue Sky Revisit)" – 6:17
    • "Transmission 3" - 1:11

[edit] 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. "Live In Oxford, England Oct. 30 1997" - 12:35

[edit] Samples

The following lists some of the songs and sounds sampled for Endtroducing.[5]

Best Foot Forward

  • "It's My Turn" by Stezo
  • "Real Deal" by Lifer's Group
  • "He's My DJ" by Sparky Dee
  • "Poison" by Kool G. Rap & DJ Polo
  • "Dynamite" by Masters of Ceremony
  • "Cold Chillin' in the Spot" by Jazzy Jay
  • "Do or Die Bed-Stuy" by Divine Sounds
  • "Party's Gettin' Rough" by Beastie Boys
  • "You Can't Stop the Prophet" by Jeru the Damaja
  • "Concerto for Jazz/Rock Orchestra, Parts 1-4" by Stanley Clarke

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
  • "Planetary Motivations (Cancer)" by Mort Garson
  • "Music Makers: Percussion" by the Chevron/Standard Oil Company of California (1974) From an interview with George Marsh, jazz drummer, percussionist

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

Untitled (Track 06)

  • "Grey Boy" by Human Race

Stem/Long Stem/Transmission 2

  • "Tears" by Giorgio Moroder
  • "Love Suite" by Nirvana
  • "Linde Manor" by Dennis Linde
  • "Dolmen Music" by Meredith Monk
  • "The Human Abstract" by David Axelrod
  • "The Madness Subsides" by Pekka Pohjola
  • "Freedom" (spoken word) by Murray Roman
  • "Variazione III. (Tredicesimo Cortile)" by Osanna
  • The Dream Message from Prince of Darkness
  • "Blues So Bad" by The Mystic Number National Bank
  • "Oleo Strut" by Steve Drews (as part of Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co.)

Mutual Slump

Organ Donor

  • "Tears" by Giorgio Moroder
  • "Someone" by Bill & Tim
  • "PM or Later (Instrumental)" by The New Breed
  • "There's a DJ in Your Town" by Samson & Delilah

Midnight in a Perfect World

Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain

  • "'Pon a Hill" by T. Rex
  • "Walk on By" by Joann Garrett
  • Dialogue from The Aurora Encounter
  • "Moment of Truth" by Charles Bernstein
  • "2001: A Space Odyssey" by Daly-Wilson Bigband
  • "A Funky Kind of Thing" by Billy Cobham
  • "Let the Homicides Begin" by Top Priority
  • "Soul Brothers Testify" by The Original Soul Senders

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

[edit] References

  1. ^ www.the-breaks.com • View topic - who are those two dudes on the endtroducing cover?
  2. ^ NPR 100: Master List of top 300 Songs. National Public Radio. Retrieved on 2007-09-03.
  3. ^ 100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005. Spin (2005-06-05). Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
  4. ^ Tyrangiel, Josh; Light, Alan (2006-11-13). The All-TIME 100 Albums. TIME. Retrieved on 2007-09-03.
  5. ^ TheBreaks.com album samples. Retrieved on January 27, 2007.