One of the most notable and successful releases on James Lavelle’s Mo’ Wax label was DJ Shadow’s sample-sourced delight Endtroducing, featuring such classic tracks as “Organ Donor,” “Midnight in a Perfect World,” and “Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt.” The album is a winning formula of drum loops, bass hooks, haunting piano notes, and disconnected vocals sourced from vinyl records lovingly discovered in record bins and shops around the world. It took in hip hop, funk, jazz, soul, rock, dance, and various snippets of conversation snatched from interviews and TV shows, all layered together with foreboding beats to create an almost hallucinatory soundtrack to a non-existent film about hip hop from the future.
To celebrate the enduring appeal of the record and its popularity among his fans, DJ Shadow launched the DJ Shadow Remix Project, where fans and admirers could submit their remixes, mash-ups, and live versions (incidentally a great band to check out are Introducing, an 9 piece band who play the full album live. These fruits of labor were originally intended to be selected to play in the news section of his site, and a select impressive few to be made available for download, with an out and out winner chosen at the end of the year. But it seems Shadow was so enamored with the entire set that you can now buy the resulting remixes in an album. As you know, we’re all for crowdsourced content over here at The Creators Project, so we can’t wait to hear it. You can listen to a teaser and see the tracklisting below. To purchase the album head to DJ Shadow’s website.
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Here’s what DJ Shadow had to say about it: “I love this CD, more than I ever dreamed I would. I love the lo-fi basement aesthetic of Economic’s vision, the sophisticated sheen of Randomatik’s “Scatterbrain” mix, the grit and swagger of Irn Mnky. In many cases, new life has been breathed into songs I had long-since resigned to the past, and made them fresh again. You WILL hear these mixes in future shows, and that’s the strongest endorsement I can give as a DJ. From one artist to another, thank you for inspiring me.”
So there you go, a symbiotic relationship between fans and musician. And, just for the hell of it, above is the original version of “Midnight In A Perfect World” in all its brooding majesty.
Remix Project Teaser-CD NOW AVAILABLE: FREE W/PHYSICAL PURCHASE @ DJSHADOW.COM by djshadow
Tracklisting:
1. Shadow Propaganda Mix (Somepling)
2. Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt (NiT GriT Mix)
3. Stem (Blank Image Mix)
4. Walkie Talkie (Irn Mnky “Beat Down” Mix)
5. What Does Your Soul Look Like? Part 2 (economics Version)
6. Broken Levee II (Primus Luta Version)
7. This Time (suonho “Now Is The Time” Mix)
8. Midnight In A Perfect World (FUSO Mix)
9. What Does Look Like Your Soul (Benjamin One Mix)
10. Mongrel Meets His Maker (Sonotech Mix)
11. Halfway Home (Awkward Mix)
12. Fixed Income (Cherenkov Riddim Mix)
13. Scatterbrain (Randomatik Blast Mix)
14. Shadow Megamix (Sovereign Universalist)
15. Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt (Ruby My Dear Mix)
16. Blood On The Motorway (Coalition Of The Aware “SHDW” Mix)
17. Stem (Le Couturier Version)
BONUS TRACKS (Download Only, not included on CD):
18. Missing On The Motorway (Tiger Mendoza Mix)
19. All Things Shadow (Luke B Mix)
