Endtroducing.....

#308/1001 🇺🇸 Undoubtedly one of the best albums of the 90s, this is and will always be in my personal top 10. After being totally blown away by the single Midnight in a Perfect World, i bought this the day it came out and now 30 years on it continues to blow my mind. Best Tracks: Stem/Long Stem, Building Steam with a Grain of Salt, Midnight in A Perfect World, What Does Your Soul Look Like (part 1).

Getting to know DJ Shadow's discography in the 00's was one of the most fun experience in my musical journey. Growing up near San Diego, CA during the 00s was great thanks to a radio show called Big Sonic Chill, where this album was a staple on. I can't imagine what a huge undertaking must have been to conjure up this album in 94-96 by hand; no computers, only samplers, tapes and turntables. This is a true work of art that transcends time and hopefully will be appreciated by generations in the future, even if music making technology makes this feel slightly dated, What Does Your Soul Look Like and Midnight in a Perfect World will never stop feeling timeless

This is #day823 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and... how about some atmospheric, dark instrumental hip-hop on a Monday evening? Hell, yeah. I've known this one for a while now (same goes for UNKLE's Psyence Fiction, which, sadly, isn't on the list), but it's always a pleasure to revisit it. A true work of art, bringing all those pieces together into the mesmerizing patchwork that is Endtroducing..... I've never paid attention to the Twin Peaks sample at the very end of the album. Or maybe I've just never really listened to it from front to back? Chef's kiss. This is a 5 out of 5. Looking forward to #day824.

TL;DR: An instrumental hip hop / plunderphonics classic that still sounds fresh. BEFORE: Another personal favourite. On a pretty strong run here. No complaints. I know I have to slog through Kid Rock at some point. AFTER: Listening to it now, it's hard to tell it's 30 years old as it still holds up really world. It's a shame DJ Shadow couldn't maintain that momentum but this album and, to a lesser extent, The Private Press are still classics. HIGHLIGHTS: It's a bit misleading talking about highlights and lowlights here. The album works best as a whole, and you either like the vibe or you don't. That being said, I particularly love the tracks Building Steam With A Grain of Salt, The Number Song, Changeling, Stem / Long Stem, Midnight In A Perfect World and Napalm Brain / Scatter Brain. LOWLIGHTS: I love it, but Organ Donor has a lot of solo organ and a few atonal bits that won't be for everyone. It's only 2 minutes. VERDICT: 5 stars. A foundational record for instrumental hip hop.

Immediate shock. This is incredible. For something which is very different from my usual, this is a surprise to me. I'd heard of DJ Shadow from the influence on Radiohead but never understood, until now. I never rate a first listen as 5 stars, but the closing track clinched it. That was a brilliant way to end an album.

Fantastic early electronic effort. Such great use of sampling. High-level production. Consistent and yet still tons of variety.

9.5 One of the best album of the 90s indredibel instrumental hiphop with grooves from another world

Hiphop without obnoxious sexist, homophobic or overly sexual lyrics. Absolute gold. Also great for studying.

One of my all time favorites and the absolute peak of hip hop/turntablism merging. The vastly varying tempos throughout keep it from getting boring and even the filler is cool to just figure out what the sample is from or what’s being said (“it’s the money!”). DJ Shadow has always forged his own path; he can do the hip hop DJ role easily and he can do the traditional set list DJ with electronic music but this kind of stuff is where he’s at his best. Experimental without losing a beat, sampling without any one sample taking main stage, mastering that sounds off until you realize how perfect it is a few phrases in. The drums in Mutual Slump alone are what guys spend a career making. I don’t have enough platitudes for this album, it’s just great. Perfect for any mood.

Starts off deceivingly strong then boring for the rest of the album

ñe

I have never heard of DJ Shadow. Curious how this one goes. This is pretty fun. I like a bunch of this kind of music but didn't realize this guy (and this album) was one of the originators of this. Pretty wild how he did this with 100% samples - each just a few seconds long. The version on Spotify has 16 songs but Wikipedia says it's 13 - but it looks like the same tracks just spilt up differently. Anyway, I like 9 of the 16 tracks. Liked tracks are: "Building Steam with a Grain of Salt", "The Number Song", "Changeling", "Stem/Long Stem", "Mutual Slump", "Organ Donor", "Midnight in A Perfect World", "Napalm Brain / Scatter Brain", "What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 1) - Blue Sky Revisit" This was fun to listen to. Now I have 9 more new to me songs to show up on my playlists in general and specifically on my instrumental playlist. Liked songs on Spotify: 9/16 Rating: 3/5

Instrumental hip hop, OK I get it. Soothing but a bit dull. But in a burst of generosity I am giving it a 3 because if it really is hip hop, it manages without all the usual nonstop sexist, homophobic and generally gratuitous content.

Reasonably fun, some funky piano, could have done without the Jackson 5 sample, overall, forgettable.

This was great.. covers a lot of ground, and is always interesting.

favs: what does your soul look like, pt. 4 stem / long stem (medley) rating 0.6/5

Perfect driving music. Ideally away from the polis at speed

great 4

I listened to most of the first track (47 seconds long, but seemed interminable). Stayed a few more songs but heard nothing of interest. Hard pass.

The first song is pure gold, deserves the Nobel peace prize. The rest of the album is ok

Rate: 7/10.

In the 1990s, I would have said this was so cool. Now I’ll say it’s cool but also a little dull.

Why?

I know this goes against the spirit of the project, but this album was so boring that I couldn't finish it.

reeeal solid working. some of the tracks feel a bit hung out to dry without bars over them, but most have enough to keep it going, and there's some excellent writing and sound design at play

Shoutout to the 1,001 Albums Discord that gave me grief over not liking this turntable lounge music, but it is so BORING. Being a progenitor of chillwave seems to be taken as a positive thing from these people, rather than a reason to curse DJ Shadow's name until the end of time, but far be it for me to deny anyone their brain-numbing study beats.

I really enjoyed this. Right up my street.

Relaxing and atmospheric, reminded me of being a young stoner 😉

Nice enough album but most of the tracks have a similar feel. Not much to say on this.

i dont really like it

Solid

Nah mate. Like there's some low 3 level ambient background music in the main here, but then just some noises that are not welcome, especially there's one track where said noises get quite Genesis-y

Did your computer throw up on your turntable? I hated it at first, but later on found myself really getting into it. Surprised me, just had to get used to it a bit.

This is what this list is for

I used to this to this all the time when it came out. It’s a brilliant example of how a sample based album could work. The drums were sampled which is crazy impressive. Nothing was played on this album and that is a feat where he managed to make great songs and cohesive music. It just works. It’s good hip hop. He’s a great producer and it would work throughout. So many great songs on this album.

Sublime and brilliant in places. Really rather poor in others. With ruthless editing of 20 minutes, this could have been a masterpiece

It is Halloween and is this the horror? No. It is a fly in amber, something frozen in time. Because of context, it is frozen as a remarkable work of art The reality, removed from that context, it is just hovering around shit and irritating. Bits of this sound like a sound track to a 90s Micheal Mann movie, where Moby didn't get the call. Actually, running with that brain fart, that is exactly what this sounds like - a portfolio. An audio calling card for work. The novelty wears off, the marvel of it's construction is old. The tunes aren't there so what is the point? It is better than some of the things I have had to listen to but if there wasn't stuff that which for me, shouldn't be here which I am forced to mark this up? Edit Revised to drop down to 1. Comparative to others, it is better than some I've marked 1 but retrospectively, it is more a case that they are 0 and moving this up to differentiate from those is disingenuous and makes this seem better than it is. 1.5/5

one of the all time greats. i come back to this one a lot. wish i had a physical copy.

Getting this album made me realize that I didn't acknowledge that the one year anniversary of starting this project. I haven't really been keeping up with this as much as I did when I first started, but I do think it's interesting that it's been so long. Maybe I'll say something on my 365th rated album, whichever one it is. But this one only reminds me of that because it's one I've been looking forward to basically since I started this whole project. I've always heard great things about it, and I do love trip hop, so I've been really excited for it to pop up in this thing. And it did not disappoint. This is really a flawless instrumental album, there's some really amazing downtempo stuff on here. It surprised me with moments of levity, but the drums and the tone of the album both really feel like the essence of trip hop. Just a really fun listen, and not as long as I thought it would be. I thought this was like 75 minutes long, so it was a pleasant surprise when it wasn't. Favorites: Building Steam With a Grain of Salt, Midnight In a Perfect World, Napalm Bran / Scatter Brain

Going in I thought for sure this would be an easy 5 stars. But revisiting it was a little lackluster. The beats are good, but it borders on soundscape/ film score territory a little more than I remembered.

I guess it has significance to be included, but I found it a tad dull and way too all over the place. I don't know, I hard a time with that one.

It's not for me, but I can understand its importance to music.

This is super sick, but having no verses over this feels like a crime. If I was really locked in on a project I bet this would have hit really hard

I remember when this came out. I thought it was awesome. It opened a whole new world to me. 30 years later and I still revisit it periodically. I saw DJ Shadow not too long ago. Took my brother. Had to explain what a dj actually did to him. Realized I had any knowledge about this BECAUSE of DJ Shadow, originally. 5 Boolean: TRUE

I dont even know what that was supposed to be. 90s hip hop is hit or miss and when it misses, it isnt even on the board.

I still love this album, 30 years old this year, and it still sounds exciting and interesting. So happy when I saw it pop up on my feed this morning. An easy 5 stars.

This was pretty good! It was mainly an instrumental album but it had some nice piano parts and interesting electronic aspects. There was some rapping and spoken word here and there but not a lot which I didn’t mind bc I was studying while listening. Overall I did enjoy it but it’s not really something I would return to, I do think it is worth a listen tho. 3.175/5

I’ve heard this one before and I still feel like the cover is astoundingly accurate. It sounds like someone has been through a record store picked up some random samples and shoved them together in a semi cohesive fashion. Not one for me.

Quite enjoyed it. You alright white boy

Хонтологические потрескивания вечного настоящего не смогли разбудить во мне призраков прошлого, кажется моя душа звучит немного по-другому

Не бойся ноооочи ведь я ряяядом

Насэмплировал на легендарный статус альбома Респект

возможно были занижены ожидания, потому альбом показался приятным, а так не фанат трип хопа, при этом всем тут какой-то экспериментальный хип хоп больше - 4

What happened after the first 3-4 songs? That's right, fuckin nothing. The beginning has the sampled parts; the rest is just study background music. The start was 4/5, the rest is 3/5. I'd give it a 3.2/5 in total based on the proportion.

Eclectic and worth a second listen a bit all over the shop shifting tempos and rhythm.

Yeah, this sucks.

Classic

Loved it! Nice Neil Peart samples.

An album for some reason I had never got round to checking out after all the hype.. love it.

wow banger das piano die samples...c

I'd heard of this, but never actually given it a go. And... Well, this goes to show that this project has its moments. Sure, sometimes you get some 70's prog (ugh), or clapton cover album (ugh), or some 80's synth pop (uuugggh). But then you get this. Really enjoyed it. Reminds me a bit of the desert/stoner stuff I listen to on my own. There were elements of trip hop but without the pretentiousness. It even at times reminded me of another discovery from this project, In A Silent Way by Miles Davis. This was a soundscape, a dreamlike journey. Great stuff.

Alongside the singles, the jazz drums are a real treat. Low 5

Occasionally excited, but for long periods bored.

An enjoyable hour of low key plunderphonics which, like The Avalanches debut, establish the form and show just how fluid and satisfying you can make medleys of cut up and weaved together samples.

DJ Shadow is getting a low 4 from me, i've been meaning to listen to this record for years. It's skillful and impressive and often engaging but not hitting me as hard as it seems to for others

This is one of the few albums that I had with me on my ipod driving across the country for a job during college. I could justify my high rating talking about the groundbreaking sample work etc but honestly this is just a personally important album.

Digging this, lofi vibes, some rap some instrumental

Not for me this. That's not to say that it's poor... just that it's not my thing. It felt a little all over the place, but I guess when you are stringing samples together there is that danger. I don't feel qualified in the hip-hop genre to give a full detailed breakdown of this... what I will say is that it's good to not be listening to trash talk for a change.

I liked it very much. But I've always been a bigger fan of The Private Press.

AW yeah

not my cup of tea but instrumental are soo good

Some great instrumentals wow, great ambient music, oniric hip-hop wasn't a thing i expected to listen today (that's what trip hop is isn't it)

"composed almost entirely of samples" checks out and it sounds pretty cool. makes for pretty good focus music

Everything I don't like about this gendre

Great music from a great era made with real care.

Yes! 4.8

Fire - so ahead of its time, reminds me of 2010s breakcore

5 all the way

An ode to crate digging that became a genuinely genre bending, ground breaking, great sounding, seminal piece of art. If it's not in my top ten albums of all time, it's definitely a top twenty pick. An amazing, amazing record that was impossible for DJ Shadow to top. 10/10

Kinda bland, but unique in it being nearly 100% samples. Just zoned out while listening to it.

Background music in a point and click game with a lot of dialogue

sampling is art. A true hiphop sampling love letter. As a student of the game it is very much appreciated! (3.5/5.0)

This was not what I was expecting at all and I really enjoyed it. Petition for artists to no longer call themselves DJ so-and-so please as I assumed this was going to be trash based on that. But what probably needs to change in that case is me making assumptions. After all, we know what happens when you make assumptions…

I think I love plunderphonics. It is crazy what DJs can do with a bunch of unrelated stuff. Some of it is some great chill beats, other times it's a bit intense, and there are some quite eerie tracks here too. I loved every second of it. That Twin Peaks sample at the end was honestly just the cherry on top. Favorite Track: What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 4)

Organ Donor! Beats!

Not good - there are way better DJs out there - very BORING!

Skönt album att lyssna på men inte mer än så för mig. Omslaget är fantastiskt dock.

Really enjoyable album. Impressive to construct such a deeply layered and technically proficient album given the technology of 1996. It is an album I would have likely never encountered and am glad I heard it. I won't likely go back to it, though it does make for great background music.

I never realized that instrumental hip-hop was a thing. Samples are the instruments here, beats and melodies and snatches of dialogue overlapping into waves of sound. It's interesting, and clearly represents a tremendous amount of work, but it's not something I'm likely to replay.

1996. Debut studio album. Composed almost entirely of samples from vinyl records.

this one’s been with me for a while. i adore the urban nocturnal feeling of this, and the beats are masterfully crafted. definitely a product of severe nerdiness. which is a good thing! deserves to be one of the 1001? yes for its masterful use of sampling and deep understanding of hip hop production

Generally not a fan of DJs but this is at least a little interesting. Some fun mixing but overall just too long for me.

#116 Instrumental jazzy hip-hop beats made from lots of samples. Not bad, but best suited for background music. Highlights: Stem, Organ Donor 2.5 / 5

never

On the boring side, but some cool sampling going on. 3 stars

I think this is a good album, but not really an all-timer for me the way it is for others. I think think it is interesting the way it takes hip-hop style production and transforms it into something different, but I also think some of the things I don't love about instrumental electronica kind of surface. Still, there's some cool stuff here with "Midnight in a Perfect World", "Building Steam With a Grain of Salt", and "The Number Song". 3.5 stars.

What a bloody fantastic album. Just beautiful blazing stuff. True 90s classic. Easy 5 stars. Midnight In a Perfect World? More like Midnight in a perfect track!

Vibey. Great as background music, not really my vibe. Extremely repetitive which is great if you’re not really paying attention to it. Like the different sounds used to create a very specific feel. Feel I would enjoy it more with a few drinks in my system lol

Very influential album for my taste

Despite the cornball name (heavy indicator of him being white), this was very much a surprise love. The first song started and I was thrusted into Fatboy Slim/hip hop 90s slop. But as quickly as I feared, I quickly was relieved. This is a master art of sampling and vibe-setting.