The Private Press

Before every washed-up rock act was reinventing itself as “electronic,” California’s DJ Shadow (a.k.a. Josh Davis) showed that sample-based music could be both artistic and accessible with his essential debut, Endtroducing. Here he picks up where he left off, scavenging and rearranging a host of styles on tracks like the lush “6 Day War” and the stratospheric “Blood on the Motorway.” Unfortunately, that road is a cul-de-sac: In a genre that evolves quickly, Shadow’s still stuck in a groove of his own making.