DJ Shadow

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DJ Shadow

Background information
Birth name	Josh Davis
Born	January 1, 1973
Origin	Hayward, California, USA
Genre(s)	Hip hop Turntablism Trip hop Hyphy
Occupation(s)	DJ
Years active	1991–present
Label(s)	Mo'Wax Solesides Universal
Associated acts	UNKLE The Quannum Collective
Website	http://www.djshadow.com/

Josh Davis, a.k.a. DJ Shadow, (born January 1, 1973 in Davis, California) is a turntablist, producer, and songwriter. His recordings are primarily noted for their lush, atmospheric, sample-based sound.

1 Biography
2 Discography
3 Live Appearances
4 See also
- 4.1 Similar artists
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Biography

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DJ Shadow began his music career as a disc jockey at the community radio station KDVS. During this period he was significant in developing the experimental hip hop style associated with the California-based Solesides record label. His early singles for the label, including In/Flux and Lost and Found (S.F.L.), were genre-bending works of art merging elements of funk, rock, hip hop, ambient, jazz, soul, and used-bin found records. DJ Shadow is often cited as a leading creator of trip-hop, though this is a label he strongly contests.

Although he previously released a couple of original works (during 1991-1992 for Hollywood Records) by the time Mo' Wax's James Lavelle contacted him about releasing In/Flux on the fledgling imprint, it wasn't until his distribution association with Mo' Wax that his sound began to mature and cohere.

Shadow's first full-length work, Endtroducing....., was released in late 1996 to immense critical acclaim. Endtroducing would make the Guinness World Records book for "First Completely Sampled Album" in 2001. The only piece of kit Shadow used to produce the album is the AKAI MPC60 12bit sampling drum machine.

In 1998 he released Preemptive Strike, a compilation of early singles. Later that year, Shadow produced tracks for Psyence Fiction, the debut album by U.N.K.L.E., a long-time Mo' Wax production team that gained superstar guests including Ian Brown, Thom Yorke (of Radiohead), Richard Ashcroft, Mike D (of the Beastie Boys) and others.

His next project came in 1999, with the transformation of Solesides into a new label, Quannum Projects.

Nearly six years after his debut production album, his second album, The Private Press, was released in June 2002. In the same year, the movie Scratch (2001, Doug Pray) was released to DVD with DJ Shadow appearing several times throughout the movie. A video for his track "Six Days" was also released in 2002, directed by Wong Kar-Wai.

In 2004, Shadow's feature length DVD, In Tune and On Time was released. The DVD features a live performance in London, emphasizing intricate visuals.

In 2005, Brian Udelhofen began work on the Shadow Percussion Project, an attempt to adapt some of the tracks from Endtroducing... for a live performance group. The result was largely successful and well-received by DJ Shadow himself^{[citation needed]}.

He has also collaborated with several other artists, including Blackalicious, Zack de la Rocha, Keak Da Sneak, David Banner and Dr. Octagon (Kool Keith).

Remixes of the song titled "Six Days" were featured in the movies Phone Booth (film) and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

In 2006, he signed a deal with Universal Records.

On May 17, 2006, Pitchforkmedia.com revealed that Shadow's third full-length album was to be titled The Outsider. The album was released on 18 September 2006. A special edition CD box set was also released containing 'The Outsider', the album on CD and a DVD entitled Tour Visuals. The Outsider, which prominently featured several artists from the local San Francisco Bay Area hyphy hip-hop movement, got a mixed welcome among Shadow's fans, some of whom expecting a record in the same abstract hip hop lineage as Endtroducing... or The Private Press. Responding to criticisms, the DJ/producer explained on his blog why he made no apologies: "Repeat Endtroducing over and over again? That was never, ever in the game plan. Fuck that. So I think it's time for certain fans to decide if they are fans of the album, or the artist." ^[1] ^[2].

Saturday, August 12, 2006, DJ Shadow guest programmed on Rage, an ABCTV Australia show.

Speaking to skinnymag.co.uk on the eve of The Outsiders release, Davis elaborated further on its direction: "“I just sat down to make a record that reflected what I like and the type of music that I care about. Being from and living in the Bay Area, I sort of fell in to listening to Hyphy stuff, and it’s the most potent type of rap that the Bay Area has come up with since the early 90s. So it was really exciting when it came along and rather than do what I would probably have done in the past and go ‘well gee, I’m a guy who mainly works with samples, so I guess this is just gonna pass me by,’ I embraced it.” [1]

On fansite Solesides.com it was reported that DJ Shadow was spotted filming with underground filmmaker Dean Fernando aka "DINO" during his 2006 US tour of The Outsider.

The documentary films Dark Days and Wisconsin Death Trip feature music from DJ Shadow.

DJ Shadow has also collaborated with fellow hip-hop DJ Cut Chemist. Together they have created two popular mixtapes entitled Brainfreeze and Product Placement. These mixes fuse jazz, funk, and soul in the framework of a cohesive concept.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Solo Albums

Endtroducing..... 1996	Preemptive Strike 1998	The Private Press 2002	The Private Repress 2003 (Japanese Remix Album)
Live! In Tune and on Time 2004 (live album)	Endtroducing..... 2005 (2xCD Deluxe Edition)	The Outsider 2006

[edit] with DJ Q-bert

1997 - Camel Bobsled Race (Q-Bert Mega Mix) CD-EP

[edit] with UNKLE

1994 - The Time Has Come (Featured on answering machine message, no production)
1998 - Psyence Fiction

[edit] with Cut Chemist

1999 - Brainfreeze
2001 - Product Placement
2004 - Product Placement on Tour

[edit] with Dan the Automator

1998 - Bombay the Hard Way: Guns, Cars and Sitars

[edit] Mixes

2000 - Schoolhouse Funk
2003 - Diminishing Returns
2005 - Schoolhouse Funk II
2005 - Funky Skunk

[edit] Albums Featured

1993 - Sleeping with the Enemy (by Paris)
1995 - Meiso (by DJ Krush, DJ Shadow features on Duality)
1995 - The Story of Mo Wax (various artists, Lost and Found and What Does Your Soul Look Like? (1 & 2) by Shadow)
1996 - Dr. Octagonecologyst (by Dr. Octagon, Shadow featured on Waiting List (DJ Shadow / Automator Mix))
1999 - Quannum Spectrum (various artists, DJ Shadow on Divine Intervention and Storm Warning)
1999 - So... How's Your Girl? (Handsome Boy Modeling School, DJ Shadow features on Holy Calamity (Bear Witness II) with DJ Quest)
2000 - Solesides Greatest Bumps (various artists, Shadow contributes 3 tracks and produces 6 more)
2002 - The Ultimate Lessons (various artists bootleg, Shadow on Lesson 4, Live Lesson B, and Live Lesson C)
2004 - Damage (by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion produces the track Fed Up And Low Down).
2004 - Brothers from the Mother (by Zimbabwe Legit, DJ Shadow's remix called Shadow's Legitimate Mix)
2005 - Same Shit Different Day (by Lyrics Born, produces Over You)
2005 - Hell's Winter (by Cage, produces Grand Ol' Party Crash with Jello Biafra)
2005 - Beef or Chicken? (by Teriyaki Boyz produces the track Kamikaze 108).

[edit] Singles

1991 - Lifer's Group/DJ Shadow - The Real Deal (Shadow Remix)/Lesson 4 Promo 12" Only
1993 - Asia Born/DJ Shadow - Send Them/Count and Estimate (Dub)/Hip-Hop Reconstruction from the Ground Up 12"
1993 - In/Flux / Hindsight 12"
1994 - Lost & Found (S.F.L.) (Split 12" with DJ Krush - Kemuri)
1995 - What Does Your Soul Look Like
1996 - Fully Charged on Planet X / Hardcore (Instrumental) Hip-Hop (by Chief Xcel/DJ Shadow - Hardcore (Instrumental) Hip-Hop and Last Stop are Shadow tracks)
1996 - Midnight in a Perfect World
1996 - Stem CD/7" (His only top 10 hit-it reached number 9 in the Republic of Ireland singles chart.)
1997 - High Noon CD/12"/7"
2000 - Dark Days (Music from Dark Days Documentary Soundtrack) CD/7"
2002 - You Can't Go Home Again CD/12"
2002 - Six Days CD/DVD/12"
2003 - Mashin' on the Motorway / Walkie Talkie CD/DVD
2003 - March of Death (with Zack de la Rocha) mp3 only
2004 - Would You Buy A War From This Man? 7" Picture disk (Remix of Radiohead's The Gloaming)
2005 - Keane - We Might as Well Be Strangers (DJ Shadow vs. Keane Mix) 10"
2006 - 3 Freaks - DJ Shadow feat. Turf Talk & Keak da Sneak 12" Promo
2006 - Enuff - w/ Q-Tip and Lateef
2007 - This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way) UK #54

[edit] Live DVDs

2000 - Freeze VHS/DVD
2004 - Product Placement on Tour CD/DVD
2004 - In Tune and On Time CD/DVD

[edit] Live Appearances

BBC Radio One: Breezeblock (1999/06/01)
La Route Du Rock Festival, St Malo, France (1999/08/13)
BBC Radio One: Breezeblock (2000/12/04)
Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY (2002/06/04)
BBC Radio One: Essential Mix (2003/03/30)
O2 Wireless Festival: Hyde Park (2006/06/23)
Splendour in the Grass, Byron Bay, Australia (2006/07/22)
Lowlands Festival, Evenemententerrein Walibi World, Biddinghuizen, Netherlands (2006/08/18)
The Electric Picnic, Stradbally, Co. Laois, Ireland (2006/03/09)
SUE Festival, Santiago, Chile (2006/11/02)
Brixton Academy, London, United Kingdom (2006/12/15)
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Indio, California (2007/04/27)

[edit] See also

[edit] Similar artists

[edit] References

[edit] External links

v • d • e Quannum Projects
Groups
Apsci \| Blackalicious \| Honeycut \| Latyrx \| Lifesavas \| Lateef and the Chief (Maroons) \| Poets of Rhythm
Members
Chief Xcel \| Curumin \| DJ Shadow \| General Elektriks \| Gift of Gab \| Tommy Guerrero \| Lateef the Truthspeaker \| Lyrics Born \| Pigeon John \| Joyo Velarde
Full Length Albums
Latyrx (The Album) \| The Muzapper Mixes \| The Muzapper Remixes \| Quannum Spectrum \| Nia \| Solesides Greatest Bumps \| Discern/Define \| Blazing Arrow \| Spirit in Stone \| Later That Day \| Maroons:Ambush \| 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up \| Thanks for Asking \| Achados e Perdidos \| Cliquety Kliqk \| Same !@#$ Different Day \| The Craft \| Supreme Lyricism \| Overnite Encore: Lyrics Born Live
EPs
Melodica \| A2G
Affiliated Groups or Members
Solesides

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