New DJ Shadow: The Private Press (1 Viewer)

[JasonK]

It's been over 5 years since DJ Shadow released Endtroducing. I've tried to pick up other projects he's been involved in, from UNKLE to Product Placement.
So I was really really really anticipating Private Press.
I got it early (last night) and have listened to most of it, and plan on listening to the rest ASAP.
My initial impressions are . The songs don't blend into each other like they did on Endtroducing, but the production on 'Walkie Talkie' is a standout, and 'Giving Up the Ghost' has an Endtroducing feel.
Wish I had more insite to talk about, but it will take multiple listens to digest this musical goodness.
Anybody else pick this up, or planning to, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 

[TheoGB]

I forgot all about it. I will be buying tomorrow. Endtroducing... is one of my top 10 albums of all time!!!

 

[JasonK]

Theo,

Endtroducing is in my top 10 as well. I can listen to it over and over again without growing tired of it.

Let me know what you think of Private Press.

 

[Mike Broadman]

From the Onion AV Club:

DJ Shadow
The Private Press
(MCA)
For an album so rightly ensconced in the '90s musical canon, DJ Shadow's Endtroducing... hasn't aged particularly well. One of those records that sounds far better in the imagination than on an actual stereo, Shadow's 1996 debut has been partially diluted by the symphonic beat-collage culture it helped spawn. But the album's frayed edges and yellow corrosion also speak to Shadow's best attribute as an artist: His music has little to do with details, and everything to do with the sort of overwrought fantasies it deftly inspires. Shadow's ability to draw big conclusions from stark source material makes a huge, dramatic sweep across The Private Press, a prickly record that eventually reveals the brains behind its initially forbidding brawn. The first proper follow-up to Endtroducing... (excepting side-project digressions with U.N.K.L.E., Brainfreeze, Product Placement, and Quannum), the new album starts with the tentative brooder "Fixed Income," which sounds more like Tortoise-brand post-rock than the underground hip-hop and electronica that Shadow was supposed to break back in his early days. As snarling guitars and portentous harpsichords lift the song off its funkless base, though, The Private Press begins a slow march from pent-up frustration to ecstatic whoosh. "Giving Up The Ghost" throws a wide net over pizzicato-picked strings and strutting breakbeats, bashing its way toward a resolution that's both sad and cathartic. Shadow hangs his head on a few mellow trip-hop strolls ("Six Days," "Mongrel...," "...Meets His Maker"), but most of the sample-identified "side two" fans out into sly breakbeat fun. Following the painfully ill-executed IDM bluster of "Monosylabik," Shadow casts off his worry and takes a bitching '60s hot-rod ride on "Mashin' On The Motorway" and "Blood On The Motorway," an elided diptych that packs a movie's worth of narrative into 12 minutes of radio-dream theatrics. At first, The Private Press plays like a bland kiss-off to followers expecting a big-time event record. But once its blood has time to flow, the album swells from a strained capillary to a coursing vein. —Andy Battaglia

I still haven't gotten around to picking up Endtroducing. I'll try to do that, then get this one.

 

[Jay W]

A lot of people have mixed thoughts of this CD but having listened to it for a while I really like it. Good point about not flowing as well as Entroducing, but has some really nice tracks on there. Definately recommended.

 

[Andrew Santos]

i enjoy most of DJ Shadow's works, The Private Press not withstanding. there are definitely some great tracks on it.

 

[JasonK]

Mike, thanks for the link. I've been reading the Onion for 6 six years now, and have always enjoyed their AV club reviews.

I can't see how this reviewer feels Endtroducing hasn't aged well. If I remember correctly, the Onion didn't give a very positive review to Endtroducing in the first place.

I've looked at Endtroducing as an album that can't age, since the music Shadow samples is tough to place. It doesn't fit a musical genre. And the fact that the music "works in the imagination better than on an actual stereo" is a statement I half agree with. Whenever I listen to that record, my mind tends to wander, but that's a good thing!

 

[TheoGB]

Right, I bought the Special Edition version last night in cardboard packaging and containing a bonus live disc. Unfortunately it was 6 quid more!!!
Bit of a shame they didn't go for the 'vinyl' look again - that's soo cool on Entroducing..., even if it does begin to look tatty pretty quickly!!
Unfortunately I came home to find Memento LE had made its way across the Atlantic so I watched that with commentary and didn't get to hear the album until I was in bed. What I heard sounded waaayyy cool. Look forward to a proper listen over the next few days. Have to dig out an MD so I can listen on the tube into work!!

 

[JasonK]

Theo,
As I received the standard disc, what's on the special edition? I've read it's some live 'Product Placement' stuff, which would be very cool to hear.
After giving the album a full listen, I stick with my.
But, I agree with the Onion's review that Monosylabik is an odd track, that breaks the flow of the 2nd half of the album a bit... Maybe it'll make sense the more I listen to it. Very impressive CD, though, and I hope it's not another 6 year wait for Shadow's next 'proper' release.

 

[TheoGB]

I listened again last night, transferring to MD...and then forgot the MD - d'oh!!!!

Tracks 7 and 8 are definitely very cool. I'm not so sure about the singing stuff - sounds a bit 'Moby' to me, and while I like 'Play', it just doesn't seem that 'Shadowy'. On the other hand, they're still great tracks. I don't know which Monosylabik is yet but I'll have a look.

The SE simply comes as a sort of 'gatefold' with a (short) live bonus CD which I've not had a chance to listen to yet called 'pushing buttons' I think, recorded live in LA.

I'll check it out and tell you what I think.

Personally it seems a good album, shades of Tortoise as well as a more 'Old Skool', less jazzy feel to a lot of tracks which is a good contrast.

 

[Mike Broadman]

I picked this up (the gatefold version) yesterday and am listening to it for the second time now. I never heard Endtroducing.

Some of the tracks are quite inspired, but some of it is, well, kind of lame sounding to me. It doesn't really flow well to my ears.

I guess I was expecting more. It's not bad, it's not great.

 

[JasonK]

Mike,

Thanks for posting your thoughts. While I do feel that Endtroducing is superior to Private Press, I've come to really enjoy Private Press as well.

I'm curious though, is one of the tracks that you find 'lame sounding' Monosyllabik?

Because for the life of me, I cannot understand why that song is on the album.

It slows the '2nd side' of the disc down to a crawl. Had the song been placed elsewhere, or taken off the disc, the flow to 'Blood on the Highway' on thru the last 2 songs on the CD would have been near-perfect.

As I said in my original post, the disc took multiple listens before I started to really enjoy it. It fits quite well in the DJ Shadow library.