Endtroducing.....

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Tue Sep 07 2021

5

Questions of ownership. Whose property is that drum beat, this organ, that voice? Of authorship. If I use your art for my art, do I become its creator? If not, does that tune belong to the guitar maker or the composer? Of permanence. If placing that snippet next to this one, or looping it, or giving it a beat, changes its original meaning, does art ever have a final form? A man in a room filled with vinyl, exploring every groove in minute detail, sinking deeper into his musical fever dream, the answers always a fingertip away, if he'd just.....

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Thu Jun 03 2021

2

A load of samples expertly put together to bore you to death on a Wednesday morning. 2/5

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Mon Feb 22 2021

5

No idea about anything about this. Let's dive in. Best Foot Forward - Classic 90s rap intro. Not really music. Building Steam with a Grain of Salt - Lovely little piano line leads into a great hook. Quotes from a guy who MIGHT be JK Simmons? This track evolves into something that sounds a lot like Blockhead The Number Song - This reminds me of a Guitar Hero spinoff game called DJ Hero. Shadow has a great knack for mixing other people's melodies, drum beats, and samples. You could draw a direct line from DJ Shadow in the mid-90s to Girl Talk in the mid-2000s. Peppy with a lot of hard kicking drums. Changeling - A rainy, dreary, ethereal piece. Eventually a melody comes in that can only be described as Cyperpunk Weather Channel. What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 4) - Jazzy AF with a nasty little bass riff. Untitled - I have to imagine that this is the stinger at the end of Side 1 on the LP (and the cassette). Just a goofy little 20 second thing. Stem/Long Stem - A long medley of melodies Mutual Slump - This one didn't make a huge impression on me Organ Donor - I think this hook was LITERALLY used by Blockhead! Why Hip Hop Sucks in '96 - Frankly, I don't think it does! Midnight in a Perfect World - This one also failed to make much of an impression on me. Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain - Chill vibes What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 1 – Blue Sky Revisit) - Maybe the best track on the album? Overall this is excellent. You can hear the artists that influenced Shadow, as well as the artists he influenced. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent!

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Tue Jun 29 2021

5

This is a beautiful album it needs to be felt, and feel it I do.

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Mon Feb 15 2021

2

Still do not see what people see in this album. I can appreciate the samples, but not the resulting sound, I guess.

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Sun Feb 21 2021

5

A classic. Great

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Mon Jan 18 2021

5

Conhecia já. Amo. Perfeito. Sampling at its best. Um dos meus álbuns preferidos, queria morar dentro dele. Músicas preferidas: Changeling, Stem/Long Stem, e principalmente Midnight in a Perfect World

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Thu Sep 17 2020

4

Absolutely loved some of it. Some of it made me feel completely uneasy.

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Thu Apr 15 2021

3

Didn't like the beginning but by the middle it was getting interesting

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Thu Apr 29 2021

2

Elevator music + noise

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Tue Dec 29 2020

5

hello

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Wed Jan 13 2021

5

Elemental

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Fri Jul 16 2021

5

One of my favorite albums ever. For me, this is where electronic music began.

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Mon Jan 18 2021

5

Fantastic album, very awesome discovery

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Mon Jan 25 2021

5

Great! Chill, and good to work to

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Tue Jan 26 2021

5

I know it is only samples and not songs, but it was amazing :D

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Mon Sep 13 2021

5

Wow! Wasn't expecting to love this so much.

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Thu Sep 30 2021

5

Already knew it well. Classic. Bit depressing to be reminded it came out 25 years ago though!

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Mon Nov 01 2021

5

Absolute classic of hip-hop. I have so many nostalgic memories tied to this album. The sampling game here is just unparalleled.

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Thu Dec 02 2021

5

I'm very happy this album popped up, as it is already one of my favorite albums of all-time. It may be popular/over-rated in music circles on the internet, but I don't care about that. It's such an interesting, beautiful album with immense atmosphere. It captivates me like no other record has before, and that's just with samples and drums. Definitely has high replay value and is very memorable.

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Fri Dec 10 2021

5

A hypnotizing cinematic sound and a masterpiece of reinvention by way of ingenious layering. Amazing dynamics along the way on this head-bobbing ride. I could stay inside this postmodern collage all night.

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Tue Dec 14 2021

5

Still love this album. The beats, the bass, the samples, the soul. Especially noticed the sample from Bjork's Possibly Maybe on Mutual Slump, which made me very happy.

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Fri Jul 29 2022

5

This album defined so much of my late teenage years, it was epic back then and it's still epic now. I give this 4 blazed years of PlayStation in your mates garage and a long walk home in the rain with your cans on.

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Mon Mar 29 2021

4

Really enjoying this album. Definitely one to come back to while riding my bike, chilling in the tub, or to have echoing through the house. Cool find!

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Tue Mar 02 2021

3

I love plunderphonics but its just drawn out too much

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Tue Apr 05 2022

3

It's sort of the epitome of what this list is all about. I would argue that it's absolutely one of the albums everyone should listen to at least once before shuffling off to the great beyond. That isn't to say you'll like it. I'm not even sure if I liked it or would bother listening again. I do know there's no album like this, and was happy to hear it. Something like a hip hop DJ trying to update jazz.

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Tue Sep 28 2021

2

Listened to this on a road trip, album pretty much finished, and I barely realised it was on. Not adding nor deducting points for working with Zack De La Rocha later down the track.

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Tue Oct 05 2021

2

Boring. Sampling is just such an uninteresting act. I don’t care for it.

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Mon Jan 31 2022

2

Somewhat catchy during certain parts, but not super memorable as a whole. It is hard for me to judge a DJ's work as it is typically relies on the work of others through samples. In this instance, I noticed a bit of Metallica's 'Orion' on one of these tracks so I am sure that there is a ton here that was not originally created by DJ Shadow. While he did use this piece in a unique way, it is hard for me to tell how good this really is outside of my personal enjoyment of it (which was average). I understand that it takes real talent and patience to create mixes on the level he is doing here; however, I am overall not as impressed as I probably should be by this work. If it had more that stood out or more of a cohesive album structure, I would probably like this more, but it just ended up coming across as what I would consider mediocre DJ work (even though this is probably considered one of the best given its placement on this list). There is nothing here that would make me want to come back to it. 2/5.

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Mon Nov 30 2020

1

Couldn't listen to it all.

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Tue Feb 02 2021

1

Not a fan

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Thu Jan 21 2021

1

I don't get this album, pretty sure that I listened to it before a couple of times but it doesn't inspire anything in me at all. Maybe it's an album of it's time but not for me.

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Fri Feb 19 2021

1

dont really like it

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Fri Mar 19 2021

1

What a waste of time! Not my music genre at all. Did not like a single track of that album

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Fri May 14 2021

1

Too experimental for my taste

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Sun Jul 04 2021

1

Not my cup of tea.

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Fri Oct 22 2021

1

Painful.

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Wed May 05 2021

5

One of the greatest. I love this, but am partial to private press

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Wed Jan 20 2021

5

Fantastic production! Heard DJ Shadows on a lot of features, but this is the first album I've listened to.

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Thu Jan 14 2021

5

Already have

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Sat Jan 23 2021

5

Many good beats

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Mon Jan 25 2021

5

Excellent

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Wed Mar 31 2021

5

An extra one for nostalgia

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Sat Jun 19 2021

5

Just an immense album. Instrumental hip-hop but more than that. Just listen to it. BT: Building Steam With a Grain of Salt, The Number Song, What Does Your Soul Look Like - Pt.4

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Wed Mar 24 2021

5

Utterly unmissable. Seminal. Timeless.

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Fri Mar 26 2021

5

i like this very much Cool Beats?? really cool beats

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Wed Jul 07 2021

5

listened to while walking through the Edinburgh meadows at 11pm in the summer. What an incredibly calming yet still groovable album. I adore this.

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Thu Apr 15 2021

5

Me recuerda a cuando descubrí a dj shadow, brutal

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Wed May 12 2021

5

- mix of old school hip hop electronic instrumental vibes - each track blends right in with the next - lots of sampling - enjoy the journey it takes you on; feels a bit like a movie soundtrack in that regard rather than lofi/trip-hop style music

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Sun May 23 2021

5

track 1 - sets up the album great, nearly all samples track 2 - starting track 2 sampling one word of a sample from track one very meta, great example of how a sampler is an instrument. This album and this song got me through college, great song to throw on while studying/programming. "The music's coming through me" track 3 - starts off with a song that has breakdown but doesn't even sample that part but choses a second sample to use for it. oldschool rap sound. track 4 - super mellow transmision 1 - always loved that film sample track 5 - never was one of my favourites from the album, sneaky kraftwerk sample hidden in there. track 6 - don't remember this song, what is this sample haha track 7 - banger. love the film sample at the end continuation of previous one. The drums are perfect over the strings/organ. Organs are later fleshed out in organ donor song, Giorgio Moroder - Tears. Great transition into the 2 songs this essentially is. Great version of this with heat sample that came out later. The sample at the end is a comedy sketch but the way it is played makes it sound like a madman from a film or a one man show or something. transmission 2 - love that musical sample, super chill then into another film sample about transmission from aliens. track 8 - alien sample previously into a chewie sample. Dj shadows wife talking, scratches, semi nonsensical lyrics around wookie sounds and screams and crossfader sounds. track 9 - simple sample but perfect mix/additions to not be too boring another great study/programming track. track 10 - cool little continuation with different keys after. "Why Hip Hop Sucks In ’96" = "It's the money" track 11 - jarring and chill at the same time somehow. That is gift of gab sampled at the end and the Gab Remix of this is excellent also. That version expands further on this song as being about the Doomsday Clock at the likely / upcoming end of humanity. track 12 - another odd alien film sample over banger drums and sparing bass, bird chirping and guitar. very long. track 13 - radio/transmissions at the start set the mood for the eerie/melancholic outro. The drum samples on this album really help make it. transmission 3 - final / "repeat" alien sample, always loved those samples and this one as it lowers / fades out with more information being given and the twin peaks sample is an odd ending to an album. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpbWz7QvJAo - most samples

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Thu Jun 10 2021

5

this is actually pretty good. I like it. Favorite tracks: Building steam with a grain of salt, Stem/Long Stem

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Mon Aug 16 2021

5

Very Nice. Great drums. Love the samples. First listen score : 10/10

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Sat Aug 21 2021

5

4.7 + Love this record almost as much as “Donuts” by JDilla, another legendary DJ (RIP). Sophisticated, evocative.

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Thu Aug 26 2021

5

Oh yeah this one's a favourite. Had this on vinyl for a few years. Stands as a giant in this style of music. Loved revisiting it! 5/5

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Tue Sep 07 2021

5

Awesome chill beats

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Mon Oct 11 2021

5

This is still really good! 4 or 5 , that's the question. I think the Zeitgeist for me takes it to 5

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Fri Oct 15 2021

5

Amazing album, one of my favourites. Why don't I own this on vinyl yet

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Thu Oct 21 2021

5

Una obra maestra, yo pienso. "Organ Donor" me maravilló, pero en sí, muy satisfecho con este disco, con todos sus sonidos 10/10.

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Thu Oct 21 2021

5

no tenía idea de dj shadow. pero se ganó mi corazón. 100/10 a este disco. Aburrido, dark, maravilloso. Favs: Stem y Organ donor.

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Thu Oct 21 2021

5

Me mama.

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Tue Nov 02 2021

5

perfect

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Tue Nov 16 2021

5

This is a lot of nice beats and I think it’s full of material that’s been sampled a lot. “Before we get started” right in the first song. I really liked listening to this. Favorites: building steam with a grain of salt, changeling, stem/long stem. I read the Wikipedia and it’s an album full of vinyl samples layered into new material

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Tue Dec 14 2021

5

A classic hip-hop / trip-hop album from the nineties: great samples, great atmosphere and very coherent. I listened to it again and still like it very much.

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Tue Jan 04 2022

5

Kuuntelin tätä joskus yläasteella/lukiossa. Building Steam on musta ainakin ollu aina ihan tajuttoman kova biisi. Nyt kolahti kovaa myös esim. Stem. Todella hyvä levy, jotenkin yöllinen tunnelma (teksteissäkin toki mainittu keskiyöt ja kuut mut se myös _kuulostaa_ yöltä.) Oli parempi ku mitä muistin.

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Fri Jan 07 2022

5

Wonderful stuff

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Sun Jan 23 2022

5

I got this album when I was 15 or so. I've loved it ever since. Moody, atmospheric, with beats that sounded like nothing else ever at the time. It introduced me to the concept of crate digging for which I am so grateful. Dig out the extended mix of Organ Donor if you can. The 90 seconds you get on here almost feels cruel - like here is the best song ever but you can only play for a moment. I forgive it, because Building Steam, The Number Song, Midnight and What Does Your Soul Look Like also deliver at that level, and I suppose he had to make it all fit on wax somehow (hint, drop Why Hip Hop Sucks in 96 - while it remains true in any year, the joke wastes 40 seconds!) Before Timbaland and Dilla, there was this, and damn it was good - a real shame his tracks are almost too distinct to be rhymed over (though RTJ do a great job).

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Sun Jan 23 2022

5

Gets boring at times, but I like it. It sounds like something that could inspire some of the genres that I really like today. Mostly electronic x-core-esque, but also the hip-hop of some of the samples. It has a vibe, not a strong one, but one. "Number Song" slaps hard! "Changeling" reminds me of the loading music for Mario Kart Wii Online for some reason. The darker songs almost have a sewerslvt kinda vibe. Love it. "Midnight In A Perfect World" is pretty bad actually. If it'd lose the vocals it'd be great. A 4 or a 5, this is awesome. About 8.5/10

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Sat Jan 29 2022

5

He really nailed the pacing and atmosphere of this. The book review is corrwct in saying it instantly sounds familiar. Love it.

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Wed Feb 02 2022

5

I'm a sucker for dark, creeping, atonal beats and this has them in abundance. Loved it thoroughly.

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Sun Feb 06 2022

5

Baš sam ga ponovno u cijelosti preslušao prošli tjedan. Znam da puno o tome vodim brigu i dosadan sam možda, ali ovaj album dođe do savršenstva kad ga se sluša u kasne noćne sate. Sve su pogodili. Instrumentali, nokturalni osjećaj, mješavina trip/experimental/instrumental hip hopa + plunderphonicsa. Odlični prijelazi u dijelove albuma preko transmisija - imaš filing kao da je nekakva radio stanica. Ako baš moram najdraže izabrat to bi bile: Building Steam With a Grain of Salt, Stem/Long Stem i Midnight in a Perfect World. Preporuka svima jer ovo je obavezno štivo ovakvog žanra. Čak i za one kojima ne paše toliko hip hop (Anita), vjerujem da je bar instrumental prihvatljiviji.

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Wed Feb 09 2022

5

Sick drums, funky beat, hypnotic mix

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Thu Feb 17 2022

5

Trance-like, hypnotic, relaxing, laid back. An album that I had heard before but upon recent, multiple listens, it definitely grew on me and I realize its significance. It's like listening to the Chill station on Sirius XM, which actually may not exist without this. Classified as instrumental hip-hop. Stoner hip-hop could also fit. Built over a two-year period almost entirely out of samples from funk classics and bad horror soundtracks.

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Wed Feb 23 2022

5

Have always known of its existence, but never properly sat down and listened. It's truly a marvel.

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Mon Feb 28 2022

5

5 stars.

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Tue Mar 01 2022

5

One of the all time greats

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Tue Mar 01 2022

5

Still as groundbreaking and fresh as the day it was released. A modern masterpiece.

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Tue Mar 01 2022

5

Brilliant album, Stem/Long Stem is genius and the rest is varied enough to keep you interested and high quality throughout

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Mon Mar 21 2022

5

Elevates the skill of sampling to the highest art form, Shadow brings a chill out hip hop vibe from classic vinyl and has the heads bopping in the room. It’s such a well crafted album - the entirety sounds like movements from a symphony, so brilliantly is it assembled. Above all else it pushes the boundaries of what sampling is and can do and shows the world this ain’t just stealing from the work of other artists (all artists steal all the time - that’s how you make something new) but is homage, tribute - that Shadow’s instruments are turntables and samplers and hooks and riffs makes him no less a musician. A five star classic.

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Tue Mar 22 2022

5

Cracking album. Holds up well today.

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Wed Mar 23 2022

5

Rad. An old classic

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Fri Mar 25 2022

5

Greatest damn thing ever

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Tue Apr 05 2022

5

Szok. Nie znam dobrze trip hopu, ale wszystkie klasyczne albumy, jakie z tego gatunku słuchałem bardzo mi się podobały. A tutaj mamy właściwie gościa, który wymyślił nazwę i w dużej mierze wymyślił brzmienie! I to brzmi dobrze, a nie sztampowo. Atmosfera jest niesamowita. Tempo jest tak zróżnicowane, że właściwie się w żadnym momencie nie znudziłem. Nie ma tragicznych utworów ani zapychaczy. Parę jest po prostu fenomenalnych - Building Steam With A Grain of Salt czy Stem / Long Stem (Medley). Ale gość osiągnął tu idealny balans między posiadaniem charakterystycznego brzmienia i posiadaniem unikalnych piosenek, niezlewających się tak jedna w drugą. Z tego co widzę album był przyjęty bardzo dobrze i zupełnie ma swoje miejsce tutaj, biorąc pod uwagę opinie publiczności i krytyków. No i stworzył podwaliny dla instrumentalnego hip hopu. Ja sam uczciwie daję 5. I to mocne 5.

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Tue Apr 05 2022

5

Took me by complete surprise. There's something really pleasurable about this music. Ambient-ish in nature, combined with very interesting sampling it created a specific vibe which I really enjoyed. Overall a worthwhile experience. I feel this album definitely inspired many later artists. I may have found a new album friend :) Highlight: What Does Your Soul Look Like (Pt. 1 / Blue Sky Revisit)

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Tue Apr 05 2022

5

‘All my life,’ remarks one among the hundreds, maybe thousands of samples on 'Endtroducing…..'- samples as numberless as the stars in the sky- ‘I felt content to stargaze… Now I only want to melt.’ I feel like I’ve experienced both on this amazing LP. If I’m not mistaken, this is a bit of conceptual downtempo, trance electronica composed around the general theme of extraterrestrials broadcasting from the future, ‘using you brain’s electrical system as a receiver… in order to alter the events you are seeing.’ The aliens continue, ‘Our technology has not developed a transmitter strong enough to reach your conscious state of awareness, but this is not a dream. You are seeing what is actually occurring for the purpose of causality violation.’ This is a direct quote from the final track, that completes the story line parceled out over the length of the LP. I’m purposefully avoiding the use of the term ‘lyric’ because these are not really songs in any conventional sense. Rather, they (several at a time) are deconstructed from their original recordings and then reassembled, repurposed really, into something new, something quite beautiful actually- ‘Midnight in a Perfect World’ being one perfect example. 'Endtroducing…..' delivers deep, rich and steady funky bass lines around which synthesized sounds swirl, samples rise and fall, and seriously syncopated drums dazzle. Undergirding the whole thing is that nostalgic crackle and pop of old school vinyl being caressed by a diamond needle as it spins away on the turntable. Never was techno more seductive, not to mention creative. DJ Shadow offers an unexpected 7/4 prog rock time signature on ‘Changeling/Transmission 1,’ and ‘Stem/Long Stem/Transmission 2’ features enough tempo and melodic changes to keep the listener entranced. Perhaps enchanted might be more appropriate, finding myself, often, on the borderline of falling into a meditative state. To be honest, I embarked on this listening mission with a negative bias, informed that DJ Shadow had composed this mostly instrumental work almost entirely of samples, and exclusively on one machine. I’ve listened to other similar works and quickly grew weary of the redundancy and lack of creativity. Not so on 'Endtroducing…..' Not so at all. I was hoping at the End it was only just Beginning.

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Wed Apr 13 2022

5

Absolute classic.

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Thu Apr 14 2022

5

This just really really good. Never listened before but yum.

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Tue Apr 19 2022

5

DJ Shadow never raps a single line but is one of the most consequential hip hop producers ever. He builds long contemplative beats featuring unusual instrumentation with virtually everything being sampled. This album, typically regarded as his best might best be described as trip hop though I hear some industrial sounds that would later be incorporated into hip hop. DJ Shadow is a master of layering and composition. He strips other music for parts and when he’s finished, the whole is certainly greater than the sum.

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Wed Apr 27 2022

5

FIVE STARS An all-time classic and a personal favorite of mine. This is the seminal album of the "Jimmy Page of the sampler". Put your earbuds on and play this wonder as you're walking or driving through a big city at night. Urban heaven. Sublime and enticing. A feeling of eternity. It's *this* good. As is usually the case with those five-stars albums, I won't write a full-blown review about this particular record, because others have already written wonderful stuff about it and there's not much I can add that I feel could be relevant and interesting. It's just a gem. Go and listen to it a.s.a.p. Number of albums left to review or just listen to:  more than 900, I've temporarily lost count here Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens:  approximately a half so far (including this one) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: a quarter Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more important): the last quarter

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Thu May 12 2022

5

Excelente! No lo había escuchado jamás

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Mon May 16 2022

5

Game changer! Still holds up well too, doesn't sound dated.

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Tue May 17 2022

5

4.5

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Mon May 30 2022

5

The GOAT. 5

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Wed Jun 01 2022

5

This album was so pivotal for me. It was instrumental in moving away from indie in the mid 90s to trip hop and turntablism in the late 90s. I don’t think any other record will ever have that much of an influence on my musical tastes and cause such a seismic shift in on of the major passions in my life. Listen back now, it is kind of boring at times but I can’t really go anything other than 5 stars.

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Mon Jun 06 2022

5

Really cool jazz-hiphop-electronic mash up

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Tue Jun 14 2022

5

Five stars all day everyday and it's not even my favourite DJ Shadow album. I listened twice just to prove a point to you all. I'm not sure what that point was, may be that I'm a dick, but that's for you to decide.

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Wed Jun 15 2022

5

I can't say enough good things about it. Not a single piece of original music on it yet it's completely unique. Possibly the best hip-hop album ever despite not featuring any rapping

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Sat Jun 18 2022

5

Absolutely brilliant album. For me, the album of the decade. So innovative, so painstaking in its approach. So many imitators (Avalanches etc.)

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Sat Jun 18 2022

5

Phenomenal album

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Fri Jun 24 2022

5

OMG I FREAKING LOVE THIS ALBUM <3

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Mon Jun 27 2022

5

Love this album. Having just listened to Violator by Depeche Mode and thinking about how far synth pop came from 1980-1990, it's very interesting to think about the fact that this album was made only 6 years after Violator. It feels like all the rules changed in the intervening years. The mixture of hip-hop with electronic music creates the real power of this album. The drums bang hard on most of the tracks. The rest of the musical score feels like flavor added to the rhythm section. It's a much different approach to electronic music than was prominent before this time, but it really works and it had a massive impact on the future of electronic music and hip-hop 5/5

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