Endtroducing.....

Old school sampling.

Interesting album, nothing really stood out to me on first listen, found myself skipping around after a bit. Have a hard time deciding how I feel about sampling style records like this. Has a mood and style, but I find the arrangement a little piecemeal.

Good for store. Didn't really care one way or another. Solid 3

Interesting. I feel that this album is a potential grower. There's some good samples and the ambience is appreciated. But I wasn't fully engaged because I wasn't 100% in the mood. But I do feel the right situation or mood would make this album better. I'll probably give it another go down the road.

Not heard this album before…not my favorite. There were some tracks early in the record that were very cool, samples blended together seamlessly but the second half of the album felt like less music more narrative sound bites and maybe too down tempo for my taste.

A nice chill lofi electro album but nothing too special

Heard a lot about it, listened to a few tracks here and there, but now the whole album, just wow. Amazing and experimental from front to back

I'm not a big fan of this type of music so I'm not sure how to listen to/review it, but I think it sounded fairly nice from my limited perspective. Just not really my thing. I'm sure it's amazing for many folks out there.

This album arrived exactly when I needed it, amazed I've never heard it before. Thoroughly enjoyed it, will definitely put it into regular rotation

Changeling is in 7/4 thats cool nice vibes overall

An interesting view into the beginnings of trip hop

Lots of interesting textures and clever use of samples. Not my usual but I enjoyed this!

While the defining samples are tied to their era, there's a steady groove.

Def a mood

"What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 1" me encantó. Qué increíble que DJ Shadow (a quien no conocía hasta ahora) haya compuesto temas así usando solo samples. Hasta batió un record de Guinness por ser el primer disco en estar grabado casi en su totalidad mediante samples.

mid

Would gladly drink lava instead of listening to this shower of shit again

2.5/5 - There is beauty in the subtle and simple and when the songs build with several instruments all complimenting each other is when this album is at its best. However these moments of beauty are undercut by experimental choices, often feeling out of place and therefore interrupting the positive moments. Ultimately making a lot of the songs feel disjointed. Organ donor is my standout track.

I'm not usually a fan of albums that use such a large amount of samples but this was alright. I'd like to listen to a version of this album without drum beats.

very confident album on the whole and despite the change in vibes between songs the whole experience was very smooth and not jarring. I like the mix of instrumentals and vocals Building steam with a grain of salt is cheeky and I love it Changeling and what does your soul mean to me are very soothing to me

Nice instrumental, but very bland to listen to

3/5 Death grips before they were cool Very unique Good exercise music

Really original

This is stuff I could hear playing in a lounge to relax / do work in. I want to be in that lounge. The songs are fun while still not needing all of your attention. Production is wonderful as well, the sampling is crazy on this thing. Great album, perfect study music.

Surprisingly great listen!

atmospheric and very massive attack-esque, nice :D

Without the context this album is pale and uninteresting.

Hip hop instrumental, love it!

Not my style, but certainly a great album.

Very chill but not boring, perfect for traveling by train in the morning and start the day happy. A bit of happy vibes and nice lyrics.

groovy AF. 4 stars.

Alright but not my thing

decent

Incredible

Some interesting sounds and samples. Enjoyable for sure, but not one I will be revisiting.

Standout Tracks- All

"Endtroducing....." by DJ Shadow is often hailed as a landmark album in the realm of instrumental hip-hop and electronic music. Released in 1996, it's constructed entirely from samples, showcasing DJ Shadow's innovative approach to beat-making and production. The album's tracks, like "Building Steam With a Grain of Salt" and "Midnight in a Perfect World," are complex, atmospheric, and demonstrate a deep knowledge of crate-digging. DJ Shadow's ability to craft intricate soundscapes is impressive. However, while "Endtroducing....." is celebrated for its groundbreaking production techniques, its accessibility can be limited. For some listeners, its instrumental nature and experimental style might make it challenging to engage with on a casual level. Additionally, it's an album that influenced countless others in the genre, which can lead to a sense of familiarity when listening to it today. In summary, "Endtroducing....." is undoubtedly an influential work that pushed the boundaries of electronic music, but its complexity and historical context may not resonate with everyone, warranting a 2/5 rating.

Mostly instrumental and repetitive. No bangers.

Good vibes

Love it

An album made entirely of sampled material…the first of its kind. Vibrant, heart pumping, and difficult to imagine how it’s so fully realized given it’s place in history.

- Even better than I remember it. Can't quite get to five stars, but its real close. - Maybe the best-composed plunderphonics album of all time? Shadow is really doing some incredible stuff here.

Interesting experiment, but I felt it more like background music.

This was an old favourite back in the day, so glad to see it come up today. The album has some stand out tracks, Midnight in a Perfect World for example, but there's also some weaker tracks mixed in like Napalm Brain, that never seems to go anywhere. I love the feeling of a movie soundtrack here, lots of interesting sounds, ambient one minute, hip-hop another, even elements of jazz, funk, rock from time to time. I'm probably going off nostalgia slightly, but I feel this still deserves a full 5-stars, mainly for the sheer effort of taking so many samples and making them into something that sounds seamless.

really good. rainy day vibes a lot of the time but great songs through and through.

Sample heavy and manic. Music for DJs to listen to, but not music to enjoy for its own sake (IANADJ).

nice solid album with good groves and interesting mixing

9/10 crazy good hip hop I really loved just about every song

Felt like background music

Pretty cool. Noticed that there was a brief melody in "Stem" (used elsewhere in the album) that was sample by Canadian rap group "Swollen Members on their track Fuel Injected.

Düster-melancholischer instrumental Hip-Hop aus den 90‘. Schöne Schlagzeugrhythmen

Solid tracks. Seminal album for sure. 4.5/5

Encore du Hip-hop, mais pas degueu du tour

Already listened to this one before. I think it's a phenomenal album.

Great beats and a chill vibe. Not much in the way of lyrics, but a good sound.

Some fair music ruined with remixing....

Blja

absolutely wonderful, especially at night, has a vaporwave-like quality to it, and the chords and melodies evoke so much, you dont need anything else than that and those sick drums

Nothing about this is explicitly bad, but it is sleepy vaporware stuff that ends up feeling a little hollow

Great sampling but is that really what music is about?

It's interesting. Was kinda boring in the beginning and it had me worried, but there's some cool stuff on here. Despite the length, it went by kind of fast, so I guess that's something. My favourite song was Stem/Long Stem (Medley).

not doing it for me at all. the "DJ" part is grating

I can see the appeal, but I’m just not impressed by a mashup of what others have created…

Didn’t like it.Boring album of mainly beats,too long for no reason and just a boring experience.

It was like a lot of DJ music kinda repetitive. It was fun but not really my thing.

Enjoyed this one - a very important to the genre!

And then everyone promptly filed out of the club.

C+ Best Foot Forward* 3 Building Steam With a Grain of Salt 3 The Number Song 3 Changeling 2 Transmission 1* 3 What Does Your Soul Look Like , Pt. 4 2 Untitled* 3 Stem / Long Stem (Medley) 3 Transmission 2* 3 Mutual Slump 3 Organ Donor 3 Why Hip-Hop Sucks In '96* 3 Midnight In a Perfect World 3 Napalm Brain / Scatter Brain (Medley) 2 What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 1 (Blue Sky Revisit) 3 Transmission 3* 3 This felt more like an electronic album rather than a hip-hop one.

Great workout music!

It's a real testament to how well this was put together, that listening to it almost 30 years later it still sounds kind of fresh. Aside from one or two tracks, I can't put a tune to a title, and when it comes on it always pleases me. So much of 90s music has aged pretty terribly, especially hip hop tinged stuff of the time. But this stands as a somewhat timeless classic. Easily one of the top ten albums of its era.

I am happy that I had the opportunity to find this artist.

I like this a lot. Nice drum rhythm EDM. Cool samples and funky tracks at times 4.1

Interesting instrumentals.

I've always been a big fan of this album and it was a joy to listen to for this exercise. Fave tracks are many but probably Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt and Midnight In A Perfect World are stand outs.

Taint my fave DJ Shadow album (Hello "The Private Press"!) or my fave work by him (Hello "Psyence Fiction"! Wait..... there's no Unkle on this list?! Harrumph!) but it's still plenty solid. Really dig his cinematic sound. Fave tracks - "Building Steam With a Grain of Salt" and "The Number Song" are 🤯

I did work to this album and forgot it was on for most of the time it played.

Lots of samples stuck together, but what is the end result? It's not music you can dance to, it's not music you can chill or relax to. It won't make you think, it won't make you feel happy, it won't make you feel excited, it won't make you feel sad. It won't make you feel anything except bored. It's not interesting and it's not clever. What it is, is a load of old bollox. Rating: 1.5/5 Playlist track: Midnight in a Perfect World Date listened: 12/09/23

très slow comme album et très simple. surement expliquer par la simplicité de l'équipement. still très intéressant pour les moyens utilisés. 6.5/10

Wish I had known about this album 27 years ago! Great sampling choices and composition. He could have delved even more in places and gone full concept album, and I would have been even more pleased. Need this one for car trips.

not something i would normally listen too, but its interesting

A precursor to Lofi Girl, in a way. Chill music to work or relax to.

Pretty good for background and/or focus. Wouldn't necessarily put this on just for fun, though.

One of my favs, mellow trip hop thats both calming and intense.

i'm sure there are a lot of important and interesting beatmaking ideas going on here, but i think if there are any, they are lost on me. the beats are nice enough but a whole album of them is a little much for my taste. to me, this works well as background music but not so much as active listening. and that's kinda what it feels like, an album of background music at some trendy clothing store or something. not bad but just doesn't interest me much.

my kind of music.

Didn’t know what to expect, I’ve heard of this without really hearing it. Really enjoyed it, reminded me of the Byrne/Eno Bush of Ghosts with record scratches and breakbeats.

I like this album, I think DJ Shadow used sampling to create something artistic and different sounding. Having said that I thought the weird blast beat on stem was a strange choice. Overall I’m conflicted about sampling as it can be quite lazy and can alter my enjoyment of the original songs that were sampled. This album still gets a 4/5 as it has an interesting and mysterious atmosphere to it.

Some good beats and he’s obviously very skilled, but an out of this is too much and repetitive.

Beats are great, but without lyrics this is relegated to background listening for me. There's a place for that, but it isn't what I was hoping for.

It reminds of Nujabes, with a lot more sampling from drums. Really nice music. I especially liked What does your soul look like and organ donor.

Some interesting stuff on here for sure. Will need to listen again some time.

I originally listened to this album for a school project. I had looked at a list of electronic music artists and picked dj shadow because the name sounded funny. After writing about the track "changeling", I decided to listen to the rest of the album and fell in love with it. mastapiece.

This didn't do much for me. I like foreground music, and generally prefer music with lyrics... this felt like it was just a bit too clever for its own good.

LOVE LOVE LOVE samples! LOVE. This is brilliant in its own right, incredibly talented, but not something I would listen to regularly.

very chill, all vibes, lets go highlights: -building steam with a grain of salt -changeling/transmission -what does your soul look like -midnight in a perfect world

This one is a grower. I definitely didn't appreciate it the first time I heard it, now I hear it as a trip-hop masterpiece and one of the most influential albums in electronic music. Do I like some of the things this influenced more than this? Yes, absolutely. It's still great though. 🤷

ganska ambient fiilis

I wish I had bigger feelings for this album, but in the end it was a bit too mid for me.

A little slow / repetitive at times but i liked it.

it is not the type of music that I listen to, therefore, I did not enjoy it

classic

Groundbreaking turntablism. I can't think of anything like it. Majestic.

a fun mix of tracks that are amazing and ones that sound like going grocery shopping after work. had me wondering if my laptop's speakers broke at one point but i guess that's what makes the experience complete.

Liked the overall sound of the album, some pieces were reaaally sweet but i don't think it's really my thing ! It's just me though I think you could really love it.

Haven't listened to this whole album in years, forgot how good it was to have on while working. 3.5/5

Boring. Scratchy dj sounds. Can't get into the background of his songs.

This would play well in a contemporary art museum… somebody call Meow Wolf. I appreciated the song names, solid work there. “Mutual Slump” was perhaps made when he was in a slump. It felt like the slump of the album, I couldn’t get behind it. “Organ Donor” is something everyone should have on their driver’s license. It is an average song. “Building Steam with a Grain of Salt” is a great song with a great title. If I had owned a large boombox in the ‘90s, this album may have been on the play list.

I love this album, I’d give it 10 stars if I could. There’s just something that hits different about these 90’s dj’s before everything was done digitally. Dude took a basement full of vinyl and an mpc and changed music as we know it. Shadows sampling is super clean, and his catalogue is crazy dense, but when he strips everything back on napalm brain for a high hat solo… this dudes cut from a different cloth. Also: what does your soul look like pt 1 is one of the greatest acid jazz tracks ever produced. Those drums!

Did I get locked after hours in a 1995 Tower Records?

Stem/Long Stem was pretty good, and there were points of groove to me, but overall, it wasn’t my cup of tea.

Nah

I've heard a lot of buzz about this album on the 1001 albums subreddit, so I had really high hopes for this. I tend to enjoy music that employs a lot of sampling, and this album was no different. These songs were incredibly pleasant to listen to, and I thought they were incredibly well produced. It's really impressive that DJ Shadow built this entire album almost completely off of sampling and that he used minimal equipment to do it. I'll definitely listen to this album again soon.

The musics coming through me

Not a rap fan

Fine for background music.

Interesting beats but failed to really hold my interest during the duration of the album. Very worth a listen however.

Classic, always a pleasure to return to.

Chill

Probably the first DnB album I've listened to all the way through. No reflection on the artist, but it didn't make me want to explore him nor the genre further. Sorry, just not for me.

This is actually pretty chill. Don't mind it.

Wow I really liked this

I personally am not that into this genre of music. The album was good, even tho i wouldn’t listen to it in my free time by choice. I also think sometimes the beat was repeating to much which made the song a bit boring in my opinion. I do however suggest this for people who need music to focus or just for background music when you’ve got guests over. I think it would create a very comfy vibe.

First listen Saved 3/13 Top track: Stem / Long Stem

It was quite a rollercoaster. But exactly what he does, experimental. I loved it, it was a unique experience for me and I like that. Quite a fun album

Ein Werk, wortwörtlich: das ist alles aus samples gebastelt. Was für eine Mammutaufgabe. Und was man erst alles dafür gehört haben muss. Bisschen lang vielleicht.

good album, enjoyed the tunes and mixes.

Really cool album. Never heard of DJ Shadow, crazy that this sound was produced in the mid 90s. Seems like it was also probably way ahead of its time (saying also cause I reviewed Gorrilaz yesterday). Some sick tracks, but I think my brain didnn’t appreciate as much as I wouldv’e if I heard it 20 years ago. Just oversaturated by lofi beats today. But still dank, 4 stars cause ik this piece was way ahead of its time.

A bit overrated and inconsistent but somehow still great

Very tight grooves here - especially impressive given the sampling technology available then.

Some great parts, I knew more than I thought I would, catchy parts too

Great instrumentals. Never listened to hip hop/rap album with limited vocals but I enjoyed this one. Definitely a killer album with good energy.

A "no instruments" album. The samples are arranged perfectly. You'd think the samples had been made to fit together.

The second song was great but nothing memorable on the album from there

Plunderphonics is usually one of my absolute favorite musical experiments out there, hell I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run the Avalanches catalog back to back. This one should’ve been a home run, then, but I found myself getting a bit bored with it due to a lack of personality. It takes a definite bit of verve to make all these musical pieces line up in a way that’s new and exciting - the glue holding everything together is the character each track receives out of sonic piecemeal. ‘Endtroducing’ lacks any kind of necessary cohesion like this to make it more the sum of its parts. Maybe it’s the rhythmic bent of the samples or the heavy amount of scratching, but this LP reads more as DJ mix than elevated creation. Found myself tuning out after the nth lengthy vocal sample that didn’t contribute anything to the track, and even nodded off in the car for a bit near the end.

a seminal work. absolutely incredible tribute to DJs and a next step in hip hop. best tracks: midnight in a perfect world, building steam with a grain of salt, changeling

I really liked this. Entirely made up of samples, with beats over the top, but the samples chosen are great, so it works. Sampling generally masks a lack of talent, but in this case, I'll let that pass. It's great to work to.

Love that, dig that

It’s really good, and certainly interesting when you know the production of it, but I can see why the adoption was slow as it isn’t the most exciting record.

Het neefje van de Propellerheads zo te horen. Maffe filmcitaten, hier en daar wat spionnenklanken, orgeltje ertussen. Het is wat minder uptempo, maar verder een leuke trip.

DJ Shadow. De koning van het casettebandjes-geluid in het digitale tijdperk.

Vermakelijke verzameling van deuntjes en beatjes uit de triphoptijd. Het heeft niet dezelfde eeuwigheidswaarde als de albums die we eerder mochten luisteren, maar het is toch wel weer lekker relaxed. 3,5 ster, die ik maar weer eens naar boven afrond

Super chill, complex and pure hip hop. Great for getting in the Zone.

Endtroducing.....a classic album of sampling-turntablist hip-hop.

- super groovy and funky beats - simultaneously fun to chill to and get hype too - super impressive how all the samples fit together and flow - 3.5

- nah I am not vibing with this - boring, samples are meh - might be my first 1 star

Top 3 Songs: 1 - Midnight In A Perfect World (11) 2 - Stem / Long Stem / Transmission 2 (7) 3 - Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt (2)

honestly i love hip-hop and i'm a fan of turntablism and DJs more than most of the people I know but fuck dude, not every song needs to be punctuated by long clips of people talking

really cool early beats with esoteric samples

I really should like this album. It has elements I appreciate. But I don't

Es un todo, los elementos se correlacionan de manera interesantísima y el tono de intriga del disco es excepcional. Es impresionante que sampleando se logre tal resultado. He escuchsdo discos instrumentales de hip hop pero llega un punto que cansan, este reslmente vive y es consciente de ello. El jazz las baterias impredecibles pero con groove, los elementos que se asoman, todo parecen detalles por un chef en un plato perfecto 8/10.

I like this more than most records by a DJ I've listened to so far. It's still so, so long though. Why are they always so long? Cut up a sample of me declaring this just isn't for me.

I’ve never heard of DJ Shadow before. If I’m being honest, that name alone would usually put me off for sounding so cringey. Nevertheless, today I’ll be listening to this and seeing what I think of it. I hope it’s better than the name suggests. Songs I already knew: none Favourites: The Number Song They say not to judge a book by its cover, but in this case I feel like I judged well. This music is really not for me. I didn’t mind The Number Song, but otherwise it all sort of mushed into one thing which all sounded basically the same. It wasn’t dynamic enough to hold my attention, but I did keep it on and make it to the end. There’s not much more to say on this. It’s just not for me.

2.5 maybe. Not my taste.

Nice

Yllättävän hyvä, kokonaisuus pitää otteessaan loppuun asti. Skrätsäys ja puhesamplet muistuttivat 90-luvusta. Tykkäsin yhden biisin lähes tuplabasarirummusta (kone).

Samantapainen reaktio kuin hyvänä pidettyyn jazziin: kuuntelen kohteliaasti teemat, mutta en jaksa niiden työstämistä käytännössä. Ok, tämän levyn musatyyli ei ärsytä minua. En silti ryhdy suurkuluttajaksi.

Musically perfect.

Thought it was fun, a bit of a mood really. Good for car driving tbh. Overall enjoyed it.

3.5

It's an album of *samples*. I mean, it's interesting as a concept, but as an album, I find it really hard to care. Listened to about a third of it and realized that I wasn't really listening to anything. Two stars just because anyone with the persistence to make an entire album from samples gets an "E for effort".

One of the best beatmaker records. I will always remember how blown away I was when I first listened to it

Probably a tad too long, but still legitimately excellent, ‘Endtroducing…..’ evokes serious feelings of melancholy. Constructed and pieced together from snippets of often long forgotten records found in bargain bins consigned to the dark corners of dusty old record stores, it’s one long rumination about broken dreams, loss and mortality. Quite depressing then, and yet hopeful at the same time, as it offers us the possibility of being found again, picked out, and resurrected so to speak, in the same way Shadow resurrected all these samples and used them to create something vital and new. Death and rebirth then. The circle of life.

I didn't really know what to expect and wasn't that optimistic. But the the intro was cute and the album stayed interesting throughout. I liked it a lot.

Been a while since I listened to this one... Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt has an epic-level intro: a tense key loop, repeating low-end key slam (like the intro to Top Gun), and an earnest vocal sample. Once the drums drop this song just bounces so effortlessly. Dope song. The Number Song picks up with some boom-bap. Bass drone with a snare-heavy beat over top and scratched in samples. What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 4 is a low-key jam. The same up and down bass line persist the track with various elements thrown in throughout its sprawling runtime. Very groovy start to finish with some weird vocodor type of thing going on around the 4 minute mark. Organ Donor is another standout jam. Simple, but effective. As a whole, I really enjoy this album start to finish. This is an exercise in highly effective crate digging to produce a (lengthy) album of songs built on loops and samples. DJ Shadow does a great job of creating atmospheres and layering concepts on top of one another. There are many different emotions throughout, and several long-slogs of songs that IMO never get tiring. This album makes me think of Deadringer by RJD2 in some sense, but with even more depth of technique and form. 4.5 / 5 -- giving a nudge to 5/5.

Really enjoyed this, great use of sampling. I liked the jazzy, hypnotic feel of many of the tracks

Instrumental Hip Hop? Sampledelia? Plunderphonics? Masterwork of production technique? Soundscape collaging? I don't know at all, but it's there. And hey, is this " avant-garde" somehow? Perhaps it's more pop, but who will waste time to notice since most importantly, Endtroducing... is surprisingly soulful with various vibes & moods. Fav Track: Midnight in a Perfect World.

Initially very good, but then gets quite samey

aiuonnadai

Interesting stuff, especially because it's a bit outside the typical stream of what I listen to these days. I like the artist's blending of many elements on this one. It can get a little frenetic at times for my own personal tastes, but in the right frame of mind, I can imagine myself enjoying it more.

So cool. Very little else to say.

Meanders a little bit but otherwise a very cool album!

About 50/50 for me

I guess this means something, I guess it did something at the time. But it's just a series of samples and a drum beat that you could throw together in 5 minutes in Logic Pro now. I don't know why anyone would want to listen to this ever again.

It sounds like if lofi hiphop had a caffeine-induced 3 AM inspiration to do something which sounds like big beat and did it. And it's great. Surprising form someone who I discovered from Run the Jewels' "Nobody Speak".

Eh.

Just lay back and the music take you over. What always amazes me about albums like these is how easy is is for critics to dismiss the creativity going on behind the result because, “Oh he didn’t write any of this. It’s all just samples.” Can you IMAGINE sitting for HOURS, WEEKS, MONTHS, just listening to music of a thousand varieties and thinking of new ways to combine it that have never been thought of? This takes so much time and dedication, and for being one of the first shining examples of master sampling work, I give Endtroducing 5 stars.

A mind-boggling masterpiece from a true pioneer serving as a towering testament to the unique ways in which a producer can transcend the sum of their samples.

Sorry, this sounds like someone who got decks for Christmas and was working out how to annoy everyone. Not my thing - maybe I’m missing something, though whatever it is I can live without, thank you.

Hmm, not good, but also not bad. They've got some cool samples on here, but it does not really amount to anything good. Also it's too long for what it is.

I've never heard of DJ Shadow before today, so I was unsure what I was in for. My research tells me that it is hip hop/electronica. That is exactly what this is. Hip hop which is extensively mixed with samples of random shit, and a heavy dance beat. The only "lyrics" you get are snippets of people talking. I didn't hate it as much as normal electronica, but it still wasn't my favorite. As background music, this may be tolerable, but to sit and listen to it cover to cover, it grows old quickly. By the time the song The Number Song finished, I was over it. I've already forgotten much of this record. This album also features a staple of 90's hip hop, skits (or at least samples that are organized into 1 min snippets of randomness that has no bearing on the rest of the record). Overall, underwhelming record today. Forgettable, and boring. I won't be listening again. Favourite songs: The Number Song Least favourite songs: Stem/Long Stem 2/5

Benger sitter på toget opp til trd nå og bare zona helt ut

I like some of the songs on this album; the sounds were unique and it was easy listening. Some of the spoken word (?) or speaking just didn’t work for me.

Bardzo przyjemna muzyka do słuchania, spokojnie dzień może minąć przy tych utworach

This is a very original sounding album with tracks that sound like they are definitely from the 90's, but then there are tracks that sound like they came out this year. I am giving praise for the variety in this one, but it doesn't flow very well and sometimes it feels like a song changed abruptly which I don't like. Had some lows, a lot of middling songs, and a high or two. What Does Your Soul Look Like Pt. 1 was really good, but not so good to listen to the whole album ever again. 2.5 rounded down on this one.

Some pretty cool beats which I would like to listen to maybe 1 song every so often or just as background music. It got pretty old pretty quickly and was hard to listen to a whole album of outtakes and experiments

This was alright. Pretty good background music but not much more.

I feel some rudiments of trip-hop, but in general I don't like this transitional form between simple electronic music and trip-hop. Sometimes it sounds unbearable.

I enjoyed it. Not what I would usually listen to, but it was good.

C'est okay

Classic

Wow, when Best Foot Forward started I thought I knew what to expect, but because I accidentally had shuffle on, Midnight In A Perfect World came on next, and that was nothing like I expected at all! What a beautiful song. Even going back and listening to the second track Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt this isn't the kind of hip hop album I thought it was gonna be. I had no idea about instrumental hip hop albums. The Number Song is really cool with that underlying guitar. Gives it a heavy rock / industrial feeling. Same with Stem/Long Stem. Transmission 2 has such a gorgeous intro. Honestly, I need to listen to this album a lot more. I bet it'd be great for a late night chill listen.

Started quite weak for me but ended very very strong, almost hypnotic. Teetering between 3 and 4 stars - and I think it's interesting and innovative enough to take the higher score. The album as a whole won't be entering my rotation, but a couple of key tracks that will do.

It’s a classic and most people’s intro to turntablism. Shadow set the bar with this album’s commercial success, ironically selling millions of CDs when the album is made of vinyl loops, for lo-fi hip hop. Listening back now though, seems kind of boring. Or maybe a soundtrack to a movie.

Pretty incredible how every major label producer spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time trying to replicate a sound generated by a dude with a sampler in a room.

3.5 stars. Chill mostly instrumental trip hop that feels like a precursor to Lo-Fi. Created entirely from samples high production quality. Impressive for a debut album. Personal favorite track was "Organ Donor."

Didn't do much for me at all

Hmm. Doesn’t really get to me

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, Pt. 4” 😃 7. “Untitled” 👍 8. “Stem / Long Stem (Medley)” 😃 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 (Medley)” 🔥 15. “What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 1 (Blue Sky Revisit)” 😃 16. “Transmission 3” 👍 Overall rating: 🔥 Classic meter: 💮💮💮

great album very sonically cohesive. Wish there was words on some tracks

The production is amazing. Every single song has something that catches your ear. It was difficult to put this on in the background like other instrumentals it demanded my undivided attention. The drums are extremely creative and inspired me to get into hip hop drumming.

Historically relevant but not the most interesting listen in 2023.

Psychotic, psychedelic 94-6 instrumental hip hop

I wouldn;t have classified this as hip-hop. Interesting mix of styles and samples.

A more poppy less harsh version of TJMC, I prefer the rawer psycho candy

I'm a sucker for albums using samplers

Spännande! Instrumentala hip hop-beats gjorda helt på samples. Som ett soundtrack. Ofta big beat-igt på ett härligt sätt, drivna trummor. I 'Stem / Long Stem / Transmission 2' händer något. Trummorna fuckar ur på ett sätt, väldigt hype. 'Organ Donor' och 'Midnight In A Perfect World' också bra. Väldigt solitt album! Bästa låt: Stem / Long Stem / Transmission 2. Men mest för "Stem"-delen.

good, probably won't listen again but pretty good nontheless Favorite track: Midnight in a Perfect World

Alfa beats. Good lyrics.

I enjoyed all of it. Especially the number song. shoutout to orion

I normally don't care for instrumental albums but this was very enjoyable and kept me engaged. The drums were the highlight, great album.

4/5

Pleasant but a bit boring, not really special

Pleasant listen but nothing earth shattering. 3.5

Impressed by the technique for sure (pre-ableton sample-heavy techno is such a wonder to me) I don't really /remember/ any of the hooks/riffs a day later though. Def lots of cool beats and grooves though. Very enjoyable.

Liked it a lot, some great beats. Really loved a couple of tracks, but others made me a bit nervous. 3,5/5

Man this was an enjoyable listen. It’s unlike pretty much anything I’ve heard before-it’s a weird feeling since it feels like music from another world where you can barely latch onto anything, but in a good way. The Melodies and musical segments hook you in and then they Fleet away into something else. The highlights are astronomical, and the interludes are still listenable. Not a universally playable album but for what it is it executes perfectly. Highlights are Building Steam, Changeling, and Stem.

Took a few songs to get into it but after that I liked it. In the end its a one and done for me.

Great

Hadn't come across many good examples of trip hop until now, loved the beats but a number of tracks at the start I was just waiting and waiting for the rapper to come in with his lines but looked it up and lo and behold it an instrumental, from then on I got into it for what it was and it pleased me.

Amazing album. I've heard of DJ Shadow before but never took the time to listen to any of his songs. The first track on the album blew me away. 4/5 worth a purchase!

Listened to this a lot when it came out, but not at all in recent years. It's technically impressive, but now seems a bit soulless.

I didn't expect to like this it's not really my genre. But I loved it! It's chilled out an powerful at the same time. I can imagine it as a backing track to an amazing dance routine (I'm almost choreographing it in my head). I think I will listen to this one again

Amaze amaze amaze. Legendary. Did I say amazing?!

A full album with nothing but samples? Can't say I am a fan of this style of album. Music wasn't too bad to have playing in the background while working, but nothing really stood out an I didn't have any desire to go back an re-listen. Again, not terrible, just not for me. 2

Holy Calamity! This was a super interesting listen. I definitely liked the front half more than the back. It felt more sinister and textured and less like the Powerpuff Girls soundtrack. At times there was super really interesting stuff going on with the beat and others it was so run of the mill. Not bad. There are for sure some tracks I'll be listening to again but I doubt I'll go as far as buying on vinyl. 3

3.5 I’m familiar with this guy’s name from collaborations with other artists, but I think this is my first time listening to any of his standalone work - though a lot of this sounded really familiar to me. I had to look up the songs Organ Donor and What Does Your Soul Look Like, Pt. 1 in particular to see if I knew them from somewhere else or if I knew the original source, but didn’t see anything I recognized. Honestly, it may just be because they sound like video game music (picturing a haunted house level with Organ Donor). I also got strong Moon Safari vibes overall with its style of electronic, easy listening ambience, though its reliance on samples also made it feel like a mellower Fatboy Slim album. Supposedly this is the first album ever to exist solely of samples, and I’ll give credit to Shadow’s creativity and innovation there. While I don’t know a ton about mixing and remixing music myself, I have to imagine trying to seamlessly blend existing stuff together must be a tougher challenge at times than writing something from scratch - especially by 1996 standards. Anyway, I struggled with my rating a bit on this one - I really liked the overall vibe, but I’m not sure if there’s much on here I would go back to and re-visit. Building Steam with a Grain of Salt was probably my favorite track with how atmospheric it felt, though I also really liked the audio track of the woman on Mutual Slump (Do you feel like Darth Vader?) The only thing on the album I wasn’t a real big fan of whatever that stuttering audio effect was on Changeling - thought I was having connection issues with my speaker for a sec. Good, but not great - pretty good album to have on for getting work done though.

LP

Much of this is a little too jazzy and/or abstract for my taste, but I'm a huge fan of "Organ Donor." I highly recommend checking out the "Extended Overhaul" version of the track, 'cause it's dope as fuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

I enjoyed this album for chill background office music

Wasn't too distracting as far as music that I just sort of tune out and leave as background.

What a solid and exciting work. After decades, it still keeps its sharp and its passion

Feels like this album perfectly encapsulates how hard of a ceiling electronica has with me. Some genuinely cool moments of musicianship for me, but I once again find myself thinking that I'm essentially just listening to an album of rap beats. Favorite track: Changeling

Not bad. Quite surprised by this

Good

4.5

I would argue that this is the best hip hop album ever produced. I do not believe this album has ever been rivaled-- and if it has, I impatiently wait for the day when I will hear its successor. For me, this album is musically perfect. Each carefully timed track, and all of its samples are elegant and magnificent. Every time I hear it, it's new, and I'm careful not to listen to it that often because I don't want to ruin it. If I was forced to pick a favorite track, it would be Organ Donor. In that track, Shadow samples and reorganizes organ sounds making them so far out beyond the churchy instrument that it's shocking. As an aside, I once played that track to a British church organist in his 90's. Unsurprisingly, he hated it and it did not translate well. In summary, greatest hiphop album of all time. Unparalleled.

Required listening.

I followed up Grandmaster Flash’s pioneering of scratching and sampling with perhaps the peak with DJ Shadow’s “Endtroducing…” It’s really cool what Shadow was able to do with nothing but a collection of samples, but the collage lacks heart and soul too much of the time.

I like the vibe but it never grabbed my attention to rise above background music.

The first album ever comprised entirely of samples of existing works. Is this art? It’s a good question. Is it meta art? Is meta art just art? Also good questions. There are infinite ways to create original music, which can result in whole body, euphoric as well as wretched experiences. There are also infinite ways to create fully sampled music, and it’s a smaller set of infinity. Can it be just as enjoyable as original art? Yes, this is art. Yes, this is meta art, which is also art. Yes, this is just as enjoyable as “original” music because it is original. The process of choosing the samples, splicing them, layering them, looping them, and joining them together is original. Side note that surprised me: Lyrics Born is the guy on the cover wearing a wig. He was part of the Solesides Collective with DJ Shadow. Lyrics Born is great. Give his album, Later That Day . . ., a try. It’ll be worth your time.

Very cool, jazzy, instrumental hip-hop. Fun variety of tunes, definitely worth a listen.

Mostly samples and no vocals. Some songs were pretty catchy but overall it got old quick.

This was really good actually.

Listened Before? N This was a surprise. A great vibe and very, very well executed instrumental hip hop album. Thoroughly enjoyed it beginning to end. I will be revisiting it ASAP. Maybe even right now! Added to Library? Y Songs added to playlist: Midnight in a Perfect World

9/10. dms weno y cohesivo. todas las canciones son buenisimas y varia entre weas mas hiphop y weas cmo midnight in a perfect world q suena como moby pero melhor.

Tragically, I’ve got to start this review by referencing the Nostalgia Critic. I didn’t want to, but I’ve got to be a fair ref. Anyway, once upon a time, before Channel Awesome shotgunned its reputation to pieces by gross mismanagement and the attendant mass realisation that, outside of one or two reviewers who’d already fucked off long ago (Todd in the Shadows is genuinely brilliant), the actual meat of the brand was banal and pisspoor, Doug Walker did an episode asking the question of whether, if some films can be so bad it’s good, can a film be so good that it’s bad. Well, it’s easy to answer that question in the affirmative regarding music: much music demanding technical expertise often alienates. Guitarists generally look down at shredders, and non-guitarists look down even more steeply. Jazz as a whole suffers especially from this virtuosic disaffection: even the people who like jazz fusion don’t really like jazz fusion. But empty virtuosity (as we traditionally define it) is not the element at play regarding Endtroducing…… Indeed, DJ Shadow didn’t play a single note on the album. Armed with a sampler, a turntable and a stack of vinyl from the reduced pile, DJ Shadow assembled the album Endtroducing….. from a multitude of samples ranging from Moroder to Metallica. So this experimental hip-hop album and exercise in testing the limits of turntablism is clearly a very cool record. But it may be the kind of coolness aspired for by someone who’s been to public school, if you follow (to explain to non-Britishers, public schools are the most established private schools in the UK, and yes, we Britishers all chafe at the irony there). Being able to afford whatever obscure import vinyl you think will open a random trustafarian’s legs because Daddy sells landmines under the table to the Saudi royal family does not make you cool, no matter what vinyl you purchase. Not that your public schoolboy won’t try to become cool: my God, how he’ll try. He’ll get a tape of that Wu-Tang album that only had one printing. He’ll get every artist mentioned on LCD Soundsystem’s Losing My Edge. Hell, he’ll get the phone number of LCD Soundsystem. And he’ll definitely get Endtroducing….., along with his own set of decks to practice his own scratching. And all this will make him as cool as a dung-brown nylon sock worn with a sandal. So this is my perhaps unfair issue with Endtroducing…..: it may have that problem afflicting several innovative albums of the 90s, in that the listener feels it just tried too hard to be innovative. You can detect a similar synaptic twinge whenever you play, say, Portishead’s Dummy or Beck’s Odelay. It sold itself partly on its innovation, but how can that be a factor two decades into the 21st century? With Dummy, Odelay and Endtroducing….. (I should explain that the title comes with 5 dots; should I deduct a point for that?), are they possibly so good, so slick and so visionary that the listener simply becomes bored with all the sparkle? Because Endtroducing does sound very good. It’s a clearly intelligent work that evokes that mid-90s aesthetic of Gen X blasé drift (end of history, man! Take a chill pill!). But does this lead to a paradox? Is this a focused, well-crafted work that only conveys that it is a focused, well crafted work? Is it an intelligent work which ultimately uses that intelligence to say nothing noteworthy? I’m asking these questions because I’m currently wondering what the answer is. I’m not sure. I’m marvelling at all the magical instances, yet I’m hesitating. Is that hesitation my fault? I suppose I’ve approached this album in in a critical mood (in the original, neutral reading of the word “critical”). Large portions of the album scream at me to award it 5 stars. I have no moral objection to awarding this 5 stars. But any sense of yearned-for coolness still has the potential to dissuade. Actually, there is a message. The 44-second track, Why Hip-Hop Sucks in ‘96, contains the line “It’s the money”. Would anyone disagree with that message? The grasping mindset of hip-hop has driven off so many who’d otherwise appreciate it less reservedly. Everyone (and that’s literally everyone who’d ever had to wonder how they’d sort out that month’s rent or tomorrow’s dinner) despised everything about bling bling, from the concept to the syllables. I’m not a socialist, but hearing of McDonald’s paying for a rapper to namedrop their brand just depresses (also, as a brag it doesn’t work; since when was McDonald’s aspirational?). So, with those three words, all my doubts regarding Endtroducing….. evaporated, and I just enjoyed the fuck out of it. Endtroducing….. can’t escape the stigma of being a cool album, but it manages to be a great album regardless. NoRadio, signing out.

Not my kind of music!

Vibey, moody electronic music and hip-hop beats. (Although maybe electronic isn’t the best descriptor —there are a lot of different genres sampled here.) I'm into it. I listened to it on headphones while cooking and it mostly floated into the background as my mind thought about other things. Pretty cool stuff and I respect the craft of it.

Endtroducing is such an interesting album title. I really enjoy the second track, "Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt". Not only am i a big fan of long winded titles but I also like ambiguous titles and boy is this one. The music is equally as intriguing as the title- the weird piano cluster chords with the spoken voice sample over the top somehow actually really transition nicely into the somber piano/drumset/vocal "ooo aaaah"'s section that follows. Very cool track. I love the glitching on "Midnight In A Perfect World". It's a very cool effect that I guess is being created by a sampled sound/recording being scratched on an actual vinyl. Also a different style of glitching than earlier tracks. This was really enjoyable. I've been listening to a lot of this music lately so I'm in a recent-enjoyment-bias but I can also tell that this was an influential album that inspired others. Lots of good ideas in this one. I wish I could give it a 4 but it's more so a high 3 for me.

I have owned this album for a very long time, but this was the first time I had listened all the way through. While I did find it an enjoyable listen, I am not sure I put it on a pedestal the same way that critics seem to have in the past. 3.5/5

This had a great beat and flow to it. Great for driving or working.

Nice to work to.

Cool one time for sure. I can see how influential it has been.

I was looking forward to this due to loving Koze, Avalanches etc but didn't really hit the spot.

I have a soft spot for this type of music, think it takes real talent to produce. Brilliant stuff enjoyed majority

Groovy music. 7/10

This is an album which I’ve listened to probably a dozen times s year or more for every year since it was released. Easily one of my desert island discs. It’s as emotional and moving of an experience now as it was back in 97. Rare are the truly perfect albums, but this is one of them.

A good background listen

1. Best Foot Forward: intro using samples. 2. Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt: beat goes hard, vocal stems over it complement really well. 8/10 3. The Number Song: again crazy beat, breaktype goes hard. 7.5/10 3. Changeling: really nice track again, like the tempo changes. 7/10 4. Transmission 1: trippy interlude 5. What Does Your Soul Look Like - Pt 4. : 6. Untitled: interlude 7. Stem/Long Stem: this had some really hard parts in it. 8.5/10 8. Transmission 2: follow up on trippy interlude 9. Mutual Slump: casual banger. 7.5/10 10. Organ Donor: not my favorite one but still good. 6/10 11. Why Hip-Hop Sucks In '96: nice interlude 12. Midnight In A Perfect World: also really nice. 8/10 Overall great album with some seriously good tracks.

This is what it would sound like if Dark Side of the Moon was a hip hop record based entirely on samples. Every single track perfectly blends perfectly into the next. What a mood.

Endtroducing… contains a song called “Why Hip-Hop Sucks In ‘96”. Endtroducing… sure as hell isn’t why.

Nice beats. Good to hear different than the usual stuff. Had it on while doing stuff - nice.

I'll definitely plan to revisit this.

Fun fact: DJ Shadow's favorite holiday is Groundhogs Day.

If this was created in 2020, I would say it was just someone with an iMac and too much time on their hands. But being a 1996 album composed from vinyl on a sampler - respect.

Great album to vibe to

Goes very hard but it's also very 90s. It feels very much like 90s hip hop remixes, which isn't a bad thing, but definitely has that feeling, so if that's not your scene you won't like it.

Chill but nothing special

Whilst not being something I'd usually listen to it did have a way of drawing me in more than I expected. But most of the tracks did feel like after 30 seconds I'd heard the whole thing but it kept going for another 4 minutes

Some nice instrumental samples, pretty much all the vocal sample choices felt out of place. Overall the album feels best as background music

Pretty chill, but annoying and repetitive enough for me to not want to listen more.

Repetitive

changeling was my favorite song. Interesting sampling work and I appreciate that it’s an instrumental hip hop album, but I am wondering if it would be better if it had a vocal like a singer or rapper on a few of the songs to unify the album a bit. Maybe even more melody.

I think I would have enjoyed this way more when I was 14 smoking weed for the first time. I found it a little boring but there are some interesting moments and kind of cool sampling. Decent background music I guess but wasn’t really moved by it.

I would have given this a two but Bowie really liked it so it gets a 3.

Listened to this all the time in college. Mostly holds up, though my tastes have changed

This is a really great album. If you're in the right mood, it's perfect.

An hour of hip hop instrumentals isn’t much my thing

Solid album

This is the progressive hip hop one w not a lot of words. very inspiring drums, played w tempo and signature a lot,

Listening at work and it works well as background music but is also interesting enough for intentional listening. Creates a nice mood to settle into, it propels you forward gently but with purpose.

Good background music!

Some great Big Beat vibes, but it gets a little monotonous.

Very nice reconstruction of hip hop

very intersting electronic album, well used samples and it never gets stale

Håller fortfarande.

3/5. A very interesting and unique album that says more in its existence than its listenability. Cool samples and some good songs but mostly a statement on music itself that feels important.

Real cool

Une grande majorité d'entre vous ont déjà été informés du fait que j'ai écouté cette escroquerie d'album en rentrant chez moi à pied après une dure journée dans l'open-space. Cette semaine a d'ailleurs eu son lot de faits marquants dont un en particulier que je m'en vais vous raconter. Comme vous le savez probablement, Céline Dion a mis sa carrière entre parenthèse depuis quelques années. Une rumeur enflait ces derniers mois selon laquelle elle réfléchirait sérieusement à s'essayer au monde de l'entreprise et à ma grande surprise, la chanteuse a finalement choisi la mienne pour effectuer son premier stage. Je vous retranscris la conversation qu'elle a eue avec mon patron à son arrivée alors qu'ils étaient à seulement quelques mètres de moi : « Mon patron : Bonjour Céline, tout d'abord, je tiens à vous féliciter pour votre incroyable carrière musicale. Mais maintenant, nous avons une situation très urgente et technique à régler ici. Céline Dion : Merci beaucoup, je suis prête à vous aider. Quel est le problème exactement ? Mon patron : Il s'agit d'un problème avec notre système de gestion de la relation client, qui cause des erreurs dans les e-mails que nous leur envoyons, entraînant des mécontentements et des pertes financières importantes. Céline Dion : Je comprends l'urgence de la situation, que puis-je faire pour vous aider ? Mon patron : Nous avons besoin de compétences techniques avancées pour réduire le nombre de connexions simultanées sur notre serveur de messagerie, qui est à l'origine du problème. Nous avons besoin que vous vous concentriez à plein temps sur la résolution de ce problème. Céline Dion : D'accord, comment dois-je m'y prendre ? Mon patron : Dans un premier temps, vous allez devoir ouvrir le logiciel de dépannage, puis sélectionner l'onglet "Outils de diagnostic". Ensuite, vous devrez exécuter un scan complet du serveur de messagerie, en utilisant les paramètres suivants : "Type de scan" doit être réglé sur "Scan complet", "Méthode de scan" doit être réglé sur "Scan approfondi", et "Fichiers à inclure dans le scan" doit être réglé sur "Tous les fichiers". Assurez-vous que toutes les autres options sont désactivées. Céline Dion : J'ai bien noté ces instructions. Et après ? Mon patron : Une fois que le scan est terminé, vous devrez analyser les résultats pour identifier les problèmes potentiels. Si vous trouvez des problèmes, vous devrez prendre des mesures pour les résoudre. Céline Dion : Entendu, je vais commencer immédiatement et vous informer dès que j'aurai des résultats. Mon patron : Très bien. Il est important que vous respectiez les délais impartis pour la réalisation de cette tâche afin que nous puissions livrer un travail de qualité à notre client. Il est possible que cela implique de rester dans les bureaux tard dans la nuit. Je vous recommande de manger des sandwiches triangle devant l'ordinateur pendant les pauses repas pour ne pas perdre de temps. Céline Dion : D'accord, je comprends. Je ferai de mon mieux pour résoudre ce problème dans les délais impartis. Mon patron : Nous avons confiance en vos compétences et vos capacités, Céline. Si vous avez besoin d'aide, n'hésitez pas à le signaler. Nous sommes impatients de voir les résultats que vous pourrez obtenir. »

Mon camarade d'écoute roblumière est actuellement sur les nerfs la faute à de nombreux albums fort peu intéressants au sein du générateur. Je le comprends parfaitement, et cet album moyen ne va certainement pas améliorer son hystérie destructrice.

Definitely not my taste.

Amazing beats

Seems pretty important. Lot of good beats. I’d do a 3.5 but just can’t give it a 4.

Really quite enjoyed this, an interesting trip through well linked musical genres with some pretty funky grooves.

Thought it was going to be vocal-less hip hop beats all the way through, but there was also some spacey stuff thrown in. Low energy, but kinda interesting

Excellent instrumental hip hop with great sampling. I've listened to this before and it's a nice revisit.

Avoir été introduite à cet album par quelqu'un et un documentaire sur l'échantillonnage et le hip-hop m'aide vraiment à apprécier tout le travail de construction et de composition derrière ces pièces. Stem (la portion courte du medley) est ma pièce préférée, avec cette finale...

The first album which was entirely created from samples, and it had so much influence on hip-hop/electronica. A relaxing, hypnotic and atmospheric record.

BEATS

It’s intriguingly dense and laudable insofar as it was completely created from samples, but it’s not giving me the earworms I was hoping it would. Perhaps two or three more listens will bring this up to a 3.5, but for now…