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DJ SHADOW |
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DJ Shadow is a 23-year-old turntable wizard who has been running reconnaissance missions for the so-called "trip hop" phenomenon since he was not-yet-20. Since 1994, Shadow's impressionistic cut-and-paste methodology has turned up on a series of records for London's Mo' Wax label, records that have taken the underground (and the hyperbolic British press) by storm. His cinematic, mostly instrumental brand of hip hop-- a heady amalgamation of industrial-strength white noize, slinky slow-jam bass-and-organ grooves, dainty EZ-listening trills, old-school scratching techniques, Sun Ra-inspired freakouts, and, always, that soulful beat-- has been heralded as the vanguard of the trip hop movement, with the singles "In/Flux" and "What Does Your Soul Look Like?" attracting rabid attention and providing a signature sound of sorts for Mo' Wax. According to 21-year-old Mo' Wax founder James Lavelle, it was Shadow's 1993 "In/Flux" single that gave birth to the now-ubiquitous term "trip hop," coined by a writer for the U.K.'s Mix magazine. Despite inspiring the phrase, however, DJ Shadow says he doesn't feel a particular affinity for the Portisheads, Trickys, and Goldies of the fledgling trip hop canon. And the defining aspect of Shadow's music is indeed like no other: taking the principles of sampling to the vanishing point, he shuns all live instrumentation, using nothing but previously recorded material to create his aural collages. "I take a very strictly-delineated traditional hip hop approach, which is from vinyl," says the young man born (coincidentally enough) Josh Davis. "The way I look at it is, if you can't find it on a record, keep looking. Because it's out there somewhere. |
