DJ Shadow

DJ Shadow is one mad scientist who obviously doesn't get out of the lab much. Shadow, otherwise known as Northern California beatmaster and vinyl fetishist Josh Davis, became one of the leading lights of DJ culture with a string of head-spinning singles in the '90s, weaving more obscure rare-groove samples than any lawyer could trace into an expansive new style of headphone funk. He defined the tripping, hopping Mo' Wax sound, so that by the time he got around to releasing his debut album Endtroducing, in 1996, it already sounded not just familiar but inevitable. Endtroducing mixed countless samples and special effects into a hypnotic pastiche, especially in the cinematic crawl of tracks like "Midnight in a Perfect World" and "Building Steam With a Grain of Salt." All slow-motion tension and release, Shadow's grooves evoked a late night in the heart of the city, with your body poised right on the edge of utter fatigue.

DJ Shadow kept a low profile over the next few years. In 1998 he masterminded the U.N.K.L.E. project Psyence Fiction, a botched attempt at an all-star supergroup. Preemptive Strike was a collection of early work, including the excellent spaghetti Western soundtrack "High Noon." He also made some of his wildest, most entertaining music with Cut Chemist, especially 2001's Product Placement, which kicked off with a sample from Oscar the Grouch's "I Love Trash." The Private Press was his first proper solo album since Endtroducing, mixing beats, sound effects, machine hums, and found voices into mock-symphonic patterns of robot noise. As on Endtroducing, the best tracks take their time to let the momentum build: "Fixed Income," "Meets His Maker," "You Can't Go Home Again." And since Radiohead freely admit how much they've been influenced by DJ Shadow, it's only right that "Giving Up the Ghost" should sound like primo Radiohead, with nerve-rattling guitar and a lonesome violin howling away. (ROB SHEFFIELD)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide