DJ Shadow HHV Records 8 Items

Sample Fanatic and World Record Holder

The Californian Joshua Paul Davis was fascinated early on by the sampler’s evolution into a standalone instrument in the hip-hop of the 1980s. This instrument, which could be learned and performed just like traditional string and keyboard instruments, eventually formed the foundation of his producer career. He started as a disc jockey at the end of the 1980s for his university’s campus radio station in Davis. In the midst of the local scene, you could find him as DJ Shadow behind the turntables and in record stores, where he dug up forgotten treasures to use as samples for his genre-fluid mixtapes. Disney’s hip-hop subsidiary, Hollywood BASIC, took notice of him, and DJ Shadow was hired to create a series of remixes. His talent as a young sample fanatic was also recognized in London, where the pioneers of trip-hop at the Mo’ Wax label released his single In/Flux in 1993. While he manned the turntables for the second album of controversial Californian rapper Paris, lyrics are hard to come by in his solo productions. Apart from short sample interludes and word fragments, he lets the music speak for itself, as he finds lyrics “too specific.” His first full-length album, Endtroducing… in 1996, showcased the potential of this concept with sometimes sentimental, sometimes exhilarating, and always unique beats, earning him a Guinness World Record for the “First Completely Sampled Album.”

With a Sense for the Curious

Just like guitarists and pianists with their respective instruments, DJ Shadow is armed only with the AKAI MPC60. The single collection Preemptive Strike came out in 1998, and he soon made a prominent appearance on the first album of the UNKLE project, providing deep samples and some scratches, featuring the likes of Mike D from the Beastie Boys, Jason Newsted from Metallica, and Thom Yorke from Radiohead on Shadow’s productions. His name lives up to his reputation: he overshadows most contemporary beatmakers with his knack for the unusual. “I like it when something sounds unique” – as simple as it is brilliant. Remixes of songs by U2 and Portishead were now on the agenda, and inspired by the Hyphy movement in Oakland, he produced the LP The Outsider in 2006 – for exploring this new terrain, Davis received both praise and criticism. But the DJ is always looking to the future: “Repeat Endtroducing over and over again? That was never, ever in the game plan.”

Sounds Like Colors on the Palette

In 2007, he recorded the mixtape The Hard Sell during a rehearsal with Cut Chemist, and the two embarked on a tour the following year. Staying true to his versatility, in 2011, he once again drew from samples of various eras and genres for his solo LP The Less You Know, The Better, creating a timeless work that also questioned the pace of modern technological developments, especially the distribution of music on the internet. Because experimentation never stops, DJ Shadow ventured into the realm of film music on the LP follow-up, The Mountain Will Fall, always with hip-hop influences and notable guests such as Run The Jewels and Nils Frahm. Our Pathetic Age in 2019 brought together the two sides of the detail-oriented DJ: in the first half, he unleashed his instrumental skills, while the second half featured a Who’s Who of US rap stars, including Nas, Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, De La Soul, Pusha T, and others. The sample giant, however, does not always limit himself to the traditional way of building beats: “Working with sounds in any way is like a color on my palette.” Different colors create shades in the overall picture, and it’s the elements from different disciplines that can make a work timeless. DJ Shadow turns this craft into art.