Artist:DJ Shadow
Song:Midnight in a Perfect World
Album:Reconstructed: The Best of DJ Shadow
Josh "DJ Shadow" Davis was the first to use sampling as an integral part of his music on his 1996 album Entroducing.... Up until then sampling was used mostly as an adornment. So you may not be familiar with Davis but he has been very influential on how hip hop is constructed. Yeah, I know. It seems more like a construction project than music. Davis was born June 29, 1972 in San Jose but he grew up in Davis, CA. He started messing around with four track recording while he was in high school. He also haunted local record shops as a cratedigger looking for rare vinyl. You can see that a bit in the video. He's looking for music that no one knows so he can sample it. He has over 60,000 records in his collection. As a long time cratedigger, I can certainly relate to him because I haunted used record stores when I was young. I never had that many records. I discovered many musicians through cratedigging and I still look for new artists today. It's a mindset of constant discovery. That's the base of Davis' music. In the early 90s, Davis released several singles and EPs on James Lavelle's Mo' Wax label. Lavelle convinced Davis to record the 1996 album Entroducing.... He used a drum machine, a pair of turntables and Pro Tools to record the album. It is in Guinness Book of World Records as the first completely sampled album. Midnight in a Perfect World was the first single. Among the samples are The Human Abstract by David Axelrod and California Soul by Marlena Shaw. The vocals are from a sample by Finnish producer Pekka Pohjola. This song is very typical of Davis' music. It leans more to ambient than hip hop. And there are no lyrics in any vocals. Entroducing... is available on CD. But I recommend this budget comp as an introduction to Davis' music. Davis wouldn't record as DJ Shadow again until he signed with Universal in 2006. After two albums, he recorded for his own label. He still does that and he produces other artists. DJ Shadow was never going to be a commercial success. But he is influential in how sampling has developed. Here's the video for Midnight in a Perfect World by DJ Shadow.
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