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Record collectors, Hip Hop Heads who like the music denser, thicker, fans of ambient, all kinds of people-music people. Just sounds and sounds and sounds and sounds and more and and more more and more sounds. After the ambient step forward--for music, not Shadow--of Endroducing, the guru wanted to put out an album of songs, just like the albums he grew up hearing. Most music collectors are frustrated musicans. The Beatles White Album.
We all want to be him, but plus a few bucks and a few pieces of vynal he IS us.So the music on Private Press is really no suprise. This guy had 60,000 lps in 2005. He is a quintessential one. I got this in 2007, and I am sure in 2027, 2057--I'll be 88--I'll still be finding these sounds.The only differance between hearing Shadow as opposed to those classic albums is that, well, his albums are different because the world is different. He is not shooting for the masses, just the huge mass of subjects the master so deservedly rules.
And frankly, I find myslef listening to Private Press the way I do Revolver or Pepper or The White album or Here Come The Warm Jets or Forever Changes, or.sorry, stop me before I get to fifty pages. A 1980 beta tape he had lying around the house. Where did he get that. But aside from the fact that he is rich and famous and massively talented, he still wears his hooted sweat, and combs the record shops.No reality TV show, no Gucci shoes, no tabloid sports cars.
Actually, made FROM the albums he grew up hearing.It's all here and it all works, and works more with each listen. But Shadow takes old art, found art, non art, and turns it into high art. DJ Shadow never repeats himself, and why would he. Who knows. All I know is, like the best musicians, Shadow can make music with a cotton ball, and I would not be suprised if that also was someplace on Pirvate Press, too. Listening, active or passive, brings sounds to the front that were hidden in the back last time. Then there is a harpsichord--could that be from a Left Banke album, who knows, but I want to buy that too. The highest.
God knows the tally now. "Six Days," creepy, "Mashin On The Moterway," loads of fun. The opening track seems at first like an ambient loop you hear on many electronic albums, but then you hear the drum variations from measure to measure. And what is THAT sound. The culture is now being referanced and not created. Each track is unique and great and works perfectly on its own terms, as does the album, which would be great from start to end if you had no idea who Shadow was or how he worked.But knowing makes Private Press all the more brilliant.
Blood On The Motorway and 13. I feel as though I listen to this album as frequently as I do my other Shadow albums Endtroducing and Preemptive Strike. You Can't Go Home Again, there two of my favorites. Although different from both these albums, it still retains the Shadow style that made many people fans to begin with. At the very least buy 12. All of the other tracks are great too. Well worth the money.
To this day I have no idea why he did not include the other version of GDMFSOB with Roots Manuva (see the Private Repress). Ah yes the Private Press. Well it has and the album continues to impress. Ahem.Monosylabik and Right Thing / GDMFSOB. Giving up the Ghost shows off Shadows beat skills and Six Days has to be heard to be believed. I honestly believe the album is appreciated more today than it was upon its' release back in 2002.
However, the remaining tracks are excellent. Has it already been 6 years. I simply couldn't give this album 5 star because of the above mentioned tracks. DJ Shadow quality music with a bit more flair. This album could've been a masterpiece had it not been for some tracks. The Motorway songs are great with their continuity and soul.
If I could, I would give The Private Press 4 and a half stars.
Any guy who can steal an obscure song by an obscure 70's band from Italy ("Strange About The Hands" by Sensation's Fix) and turn it into a fairly decent hop ("Mongrel. Meets His Maker") can't be all bad. But he ain't all that great either.
DJ Shadow has again significantly altered the music genre which is known as trip-hop. Both songs have such heavy beats you find yourself naturally swaying your head to the music. However The Private Press unlike Entroducing. My words would do no justice for such songs. Both are built based on instrumentals. Both encapsulate the mind through mind altering beats and classic scratching. Five years following the creation of Entroducing. Both of these tracks are so dark and mysterious that I would rather have you experience the songs then me having to attempt to describe such genius through words.
What I am trying to say is that this album makes thinking natural, it makes listening to music seem natural. Yet the two songs which will forever change my thinking of stylistic music are the two ending tracks of Blood on the Motorway and You can't go home again. You find yourself immersed in hard beats coupled with bits and pieces of unidentifiable music. This song incorporates fleeting music tidbits with a heavy beat which seem to flow effortlessly with each other. Shadow's album The Private Press has contradicting yet very similar aspects in comparison to its predecessor. This album from beginning to end is a musical journey.
is a journey into the trip-hops ability to alter the mind.The Private Press tone is instantly set by the gloomy track Fixed Income. Immediately following are songs like Giving up the Ghost and Mongrel. It encapsulates the mind but also gives you ample moments of individual thought. The outcome is an album which alters your very perception of music and sets a prototype for music as a journey rather than music as time filler.
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