The Private Press

So how do you follow the “greatest dance music album ever”? Josh Davis, aka DJ Shadow, has turned his hand to a few things since his 1997 debut album Endtroducing – including Unkle, Quannum, the ‘Product Placement’ mix and various other projects – but this was always going to be the real test of his “genius” mettle.

While The Private Press is not as “epoch defining” as Endtroducing, it is a step further and deeper than that astonishing debut.

What sets Shadow apart from the glut of other wannabes making “instrumental hip-hop” (well, what else do you call it?) is his dedication to the details. The cut-up party hip-hop he’s been associated with is relegated to one track, ‘Un Autre Introduction’, while his points of reference, amazingly, seem to have expanded exponentially across the genres.

Shadow seems to be breathing new life into forgotten sounds. He takes the art of nicking other people’s music to a different level – creating something that feels entirely new as opposed to recycled.

It’s not an album that clicks immediately – in fact, it sounds relatively downbeat on the first listen – but persevere and ye shall be rewarded, with a record that is more personal than anything Shadow has done before.

On ‘Blood On The Motorway’ a solemn voice intones: “It’s easy – it’s like breathing. It’s a heartbeat.” The unidentified voice could well be talking about Shadow and his intoxicating sound collages.

There is no competition.