DJ Shadow - Action Adventure (2023)

[LooseLink]

"If you’re reading this right now, it means that you opted into my mailing list, and more than likely you’re a hardcore fan. If so, then you deserve to hear about big news first…and I’m excited to announce to you that my new album is almost here.

Drumroll please...the title of the new album is...

 

…And I’m REALLY excited about it. There are 14 tracks, and all but one is instrumental. This, by definition, places it closer to Endtroducing and The Private Press in terms of personality and feel, but this is no throwback. The songs represent my continued evolution as a producer and songwriter, and I can honestly say that I couldn’t have made these tracks even a few years ago. Objectively, I hear maturity and growth. The arrangements are sophisticated but efficient, the programming more deliberate. As the title would imply, there’s a wide variety of moods and a premium on melody and texture, with the intention of maximum emotional impact.

Why no big-name collabs? I guess after my last two albums, which had a TON of guests, I needed to get personal and make music for myself again. I didn’t want to compromise or write music to give someone else a runway, I wanted to force myself to permeate every available sonic space and “own” the total composition. Time after time, I found myself writing songs that felt vocal-resistant somehow, so rather than fighting something organic, I embraced the challenge…and “Action Adventure” is the result. I can’t wait for you to hear it!

The album will be out in late October or early November, but the first single will be out THIS MONTH. Expect quite a bit of activity from me over the coming weeks, including more live dates (FINALLY). Meanwhile, I’ll continue to try to use this forum to alert you to important developments first."

Edited August 15, 2023 by LooseLink

[zero]

cool. will give it a shot. not holding out much hope tho. last thing he put out I was a fan of was the Diminishing Returns mix...which was 2003. just about everything he did before that was gold.

I know he's been discussed on here from time to time over the years. one of those artists that starts strong, then loses their way. the fact that he can't 100% sample anymore like he did in the early years is a big piece of his decline IMO. Cut Chemist said it in that Scratch doc about Shadow having a spidey sense for sampling. that is his talent. once he got popular around Private Press time, he wasn't able to clear samples anymore, because those obscure artists all wanted a much bigger piece of the $. his later output is mostly him making his own beats/samples with rando guest vocalists, and the result was pretty mediocre.

[mcbpete]

[BobDobalina]

2 hours ago, zero said:

cool. will give it a shot. not holding out much hope tho. last thing he put out I was a fan of was the Diminishing Returns mix...which was 2003. just about everything he did before that was gold.

I know he's been discussed on here from time to time over the years. one of those artists that starts strong, then loses their way. the fact that he can't 100% sample anymore like he did in the early years is a big piece of his decline IMO. Cut Chemist said it in that Scratch doc about Shadow having a spidey sense for sampling. that is his talent. once he got popular around Private Press time, he wasn't able to clear samples anymore, because those obscure artists all wanted a much bigger piece of the $. his later output is mostly him making his own beats/samples with rando guest vocalists, and the result was pretty mediocre.

Yeah this is an accurate take, felt like I've participated in many of these very discussions here over the years, and sometimes I feel bad that I only listen to the older stuff, which is that of a master flexing his craft.  He's actually put out a lot of material worth revisiting, the KMEL/4-Track Era series and the Total Breakdown/MPC Era release are both great, for me (YMMV) they really bridge the gap between the hiphop I was listening to in the early 90s and the places he took things in the later 90s. 

I'll always love him for endtroducing, brainfreeze, and the time I saw him in Providence on the In Tune & On Time tour.  Fucking killed it in this packed tiny venue that no longer exists, easily one of the best shows I've ever been to.  I'm sure he was doing this at every other tour stop but towards the end of the set he stepped to the mic and did the 2003 version of "omg Providence I had no idea u so awesome I'll definitely be back thru kthnx" and we all go nuts and everybody leaves happy.  A year and a half later the Quannum tour comes into town, different/bigger venue, they're also killing it (RIP Gab), and about halfway thru the MCs clear out to let Shadow and Xcel do some solo & tandem deck wrecking. Lit the whole place up and just after the roar ebbed he leaned into his mic and the first thing he said was "I told you I'd be back, didn't I?"

[LooseLink]

I will say this off the bat: "Action Adventure" does sound promising from the title alone anyway, it does sound like he's had fun with this one compared to his last few albums. He does mention a few reasons that point to this in that original post. And the fact that its 95% instrumental, which Shadow's best tracks were the instrumental ones (the Quantum tracks were dope as well tho)

4 hours ago, zero said:

 

I know he's been discussed on here from time to time over the years. one of those artists that starts strong, then loses their way. the fact that he can't 100% sample anymore like he did in the early years is a big piece of his decline IMO. Cut Chemist said it in that Scratch doc about Shadow having a spidey sense for sampling. that is his talent. once he got popular around Private Press time, he wasn't able to clear samples anymore, because those obscure artists all wanted a much bigger piece of the $. his later output is mostly him making his own beats/samples with rando guest vocalists, and the result was pretty mediocre.

What you just said here makes Shadow's input as time went on make alot more sense. He's never gonna reach "Entroducing" ever again, that wasn't only a good album, it also came out at the right time, he was lucky with that one. He has always come off as someone who never wanted to ever since and gets annoyed that peeps expect him too. I mean it took him six freaking years to follow that up anyway with "being busy"....

We won't know what this one's like until we hear it..... heaven forbid if this one's basically "The Outsider Part 2"......... or he's embraced "Plonk" music or whatever it's called.....

But also.... I don't know.... maybe Shadow's a buddie of Autechre, and he heard and somehow got inspired by their recent upcoming album called "World pls", that's like totally super duper real btw... and as "an ever evolving artist", he's actually abandoned hip hop beats and samples entirely and this album's actually going to be just straight up 14 hours of electric farts, walls of noise and broken fax machine "symphonies" or whatever... I guess we'll see soon then.....

[Mattthegoone]

9 hours ago, zero said:

cool. will give it a shot. not holding out much hope tho. last thing he put out I was a fan of was the Diminishing Returns mix...which was 2003. just about everything he did before that was gold.

I know he's been discussed on here from time to time over the years. one of those artists that starts strong, then loses their way. the fact that he can't 100% sample anymore like he did in the early years is a big piece of his decline IMO. Cut Chemist said it in that Scratch doc about Shadow having a spidey sense for sampling. that is his talent. once he got popular around Private Press time, he wasn't able to clear samples anymore, because those obscure artists all wanted a much bigger piece of the $. his later output is mostly him making his own beats/samples with rando guest vocalists, and the result was pretty mediocre.

 Couldn't agree more

[LooseLink]

9 hours ago, mcbpete said:

Also, btw..... can we cut out this hate speech against the DJ Shadow community in general? Cause..... idk, apparently..... apparently nowadays, we are only apart of groups and communities nowadays, none of us care about individuals no more... it's sad, apparently nowadays.....

....Anyway, I'm just sayin'..... seriously @mcbpete and this goes to anybody else..... brah... or brahs.... ok if "brahs" is even a word, probably not idk.... if y'all keep offendin' or whatever....... I'm gonna have'ta call my friendly neighborhood Karen bay babe to deal with you, and she gonna go ahead and eventually call the police and whatever else modern day Karens generally do nowadays on you and that.... and then yeah, YOU have to deal with that.... and not me finally, PHEW!!!!!.... ahem....

.....But, hey, come on.... in general, DJ Shadow's... i mean overall..... he's 'aight.... he 'AIGHT!... admit it.... come on.....  

 

 

 

[o00o]

I did see him live in 2019 before the pandemic and it was pretty good. looking forward to new material even tho I did not listen much to the current output 

[mcbpete]

4 hours ago, LooseLink said:

Also, btw..... can we cut out this hate speech against the DJ Shadow community in general? Cause..... idk, apparently..... apparently nowadays, we are only apart of groups and communities nowadays, none of us care about individuals no more... it's sad, apparently nowadays.....

Apologies, could only post with images until I found the fix just now ( https://forum.watmm.com/topic/96926-forum-discussionissues/page/82/#comment-2956147 ) and that was the closest I could express my feelings for the burn I'm still feelings from spending Im-not-sure-how-much-but-definitely-too-much on that limited 3 Freaks 12'' with 3 variations of that same horrible song repeated on each side of the vinyl !

[thumbass]

I'm only really a fan of Endtroducing... and The Private Press. This might be more up my alley!

(I can finally post again as well, jesus christ)

[zero]

7 hours ago, o00o said:

I did see him live in 2019 before the pandemic and it was pretty good. looking forward to new material even tho I did not listen much to the current output 

yeah I've seen him twice, and both times were excellent. saw him in '99, just him, when he was out promoting the Unkle album. was a straight up hip hop set, with some of his tracks re-mixed. then saw him on the Shadowsphere tour in 2010. that spinning dome/orb thing with video integration was awesome. very high energy set.

[silentvision]

 

1. Ozone Scraper
2. All My
3. Time and Space
4. Craig, Ingels, & Wrightson
5. Witches Vs. Warlocks
6. A Narrow Escape
7. You Played Me
8. Free For All
9. The Prophecy
10. Friend Or Foe
11. Fleeting Youth (An Audible Life)
12. Reflecting Pool
13. Forever Changed
14. She’s Evolving
 

Release date October 27th

 

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by silentvision

[LooseLink]

4 hours ago, silentvision said:

 

1. Ozone Scraper
2. All My
3. Time and Space
4. Craig, Ingels, & Wrightson
5. Witches Vs. Warlocks
6. A Narrow Escape
7. You Played Me
8. Free For All
9. The Prophecy
10. Friend Or Foe
11. Fleeting Youth (An Audible Life)
12. Reflecting Pool
13. Forever Changed
14. She’s Evolving
 

Release date October 27th

 

 

That's a dope album cover not gonna lie.

And wow he wrote a song about me, my first name is Craig, lol...

That teaser sounds interesting, personally I kinda want it though to progress and go nuts drum pattern wise something like in Napalm/Scatter Brain, while it does more with those synths, maybe similar synths like in this song, guess we'll see very soon:

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by LooseLink

[LooseLink]

A nice chill track to start the album off I suppose, like he was scoring the soundtrack to a retro indie racing game but it fell though. Again I did expect it to go abit more nuts in the second half, but this was chill. Abit more minimal than usual? Looking forward to the rest.

Edited August 18, 2023 by LooseLink

[Mattthegoone]

A nice chill track to start the album off I suppose, like he was scoring the soundtrack to a retro indie racing game but it fell though. Again I did expect it to go abit more nuts in the second half, but this was chill. Abit more minimal than usual? Looking forward to the rest.

Hard to even compute that it's the same bloke

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

[LooseLink]

Been watching the music video a few times, some damn good scenery and film shots honestly, shot in Uzbekistan:

 

 

[Kennylogg Bubblebath]

friendly reminder to everyone that hasn't listened to shadow's preemptive strike: listen to preemptive strike

it's essentially a comp of endtro bonus tracks that are just as good as anything on that record

[thumbass]

This was okay but it didn't wow me at all. Not that he has to after 20+ years of making music but this was maybe a bit too minimal

[Friendly Stranger]

I like the track! Can't add much else that hasn't been already said but when talking about Pre-emptive Strike/Endtroducing/Private Press one can't neglect to mention Unkle - Psyence Fiction which for all intents and purposes, is a DJ Shadow album. Stone cold classic, that.

[NewSchoolScience]

On 8/16/2023 at 9:28 AM, LooseLink said:

Also, btw..... can we cut out this hate speech against the DJ Shadow community in general? Cause..... idk, apparently..... apparently nowadays, we are only apart of groups and communities nowadays, none of us care about individuals no more... it's sad, apparently nowadays.....

....Anyway, I'm just sayin'..... seriously @mcbpete and this goes to anybody else..... brah... or brahs.... ok if "brahs" is even a word, probably not idk.... if y'all keep offendin' or whatever....... I'm gonna have'ta call my friendly neighborhood Karen bay babe to deal with you, and she gonna go ahead and eventually call the police and whatever else modern day Karens generally do nowadays on you and that.... and then yeah, YOU have to deal with that.... and not me finally, PHEW!!!!!.... ahem....

.....But, hey, come on.... in general, DJ Shadow's... i mean overall..... he's 'aight.... he 'AIGHT!... admit it.... come on.....  

 

 

 

WTF

[LooseLink]

5 hours ago, NewSchoolScience said:

WTF

WHAO!!!!! YOU DAM RIGHT PUNK!!! REACTION TIME!... or whatever?.........  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! etc

So reactions to any opinions are offensive now? Do I now need to apologise? Or, I will get.... idk.... "cancelled"? pfff..... So much for the three seashells then....

Also, religion wise, I always preferred the Old Testament to the New one. The Old one had kick-ass inspiring stories and "heroes", the New one always felt like to me, just old guys having seizures and fearing life.... pffff..... but anyway in your case, I always preferred the OldSchoolScience to the NewSchoolScience, punk  etc.....

.....anyway, with this album, there are a few epics here, good he's embracing his past abit again:

 

Action Adventure track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Ozone Scraper"	3:31
2.	"All My"	2:43
3.	"Time and Space"	8:21
4.	"Craig, Ingels, & Wrightson"	3:09
5.	"Witches vs. Warlocks"	4:10
6.	"A Narrow Escape"	2:56
7.	"You Played Me"	3:28
8.	"Free for All"	2:30
9.	"The Prophecy"	4:43
10.	"Friend or Foe"	2:42
11.	"Fleeting Youth (An Audible Life)"	3:32
12.	"Reflecting Pool"	7:54
13.	"Forever Changed"	3:43
14.	"She's Evolving"	4:15
Total length:		57:37

 

[LooseLink]

@NewSchoolScience straight from the land down under...:

 

[NewSchoolScience]

I wonder if @Alien Sugar could translate this for me?

[LooseLink]

2 hours ago, NewSchoolScience said:

I wonder if @Alien Sugar could translate this for me?

Nope buddy, forget @Alien Sugar : these are the aliens you should be more worried about....: 

 

 

[silentvision]