REVIEW: DJ Shadow’s “Reconstructed: The Best Of…”
Looking at this album cover, I’m trying to figure out its meaning. Is DJ Shadow saying that he is someone who can be observed in a museum? Or is his face meant to be a subtle way of saying “I have made music that will be ranked up there with Kraftwerk?” DJ Shadow has always been someone who has represented something different for each listener. I got into him from the hip-hop angle, while others saw him from the trip hop perspective. Then there are those who may have heard him as techno, jungle, or some other category that someone has created to describe what he does, even though what he does has evolved to become much more than what he started with. Maybe in the end, you become formless and shapeless, and people take you for whatever you create. That balances with those who wish for him to stay one or two ways, believing that their perspective of an artist’s music should be theirs and theirs alone. Reconstructed: The Best Of DJ Shadow (Hip-O/Universal) represents 20 years of output from someone who has always went out of his way to not only test the limits of sound’s own potential, but his own.
On the surface, Reconstructed is a look back at some of the songs Shadow is known for, songs that would become hits and definitely an example of what has made him famous as an artist and producer. Not only do you have core DJ Shadow tracks here, but also examples from the collaborative work he did with James Lavelle as UNKLE. This represents the tracks going back to the Solesides days, branching out in a global manner with Mo’ Wax, becoming affiliated with a major label, but never forgetting his crew as Solesides morphed into Quannum. Tracks include “Midnight In A Perfect World”, “High Noon”, “Six Days”, “Organ Donor”, “Lonely Souls”, “I’ve Been Trying”, and “You Can’t Go Home Again”. You have a nice and even mix of tracks that are nothing but samples, and those that feature guest vocals. For anyone who has never followed his music over the years, it’s a nice blend of what he has done in different parts of his career, and whatever way they choose to follow afterwards, let that be the path towards finding an incredible discography of output.
On the elitist side, one can say “hey, where’s “Flashback”? Where’s “Zimbabwe’s Legitimate Remix”? “Lesson 4″? “Run For Your Life”? “Warning Call”? “3 Freaks”? “Backstage Girl”? “Fixed Income”? The original mix of “Giving Up The Ghost”? “Changeling”? “Latryx”? “Swan Lake”? God damn motherfucking “Swan Lake”? In truth, all DJ Shadow fans can pick out random tracks that are their personal favorites, but for the most part, Reconstructed are not only the celebrated hits, but are his personal favorites. The fact that we are here talking about his music 5, 10, 20 years after these songs were released is worth a statement, and Reconstructed features a number of statements that are sound archives of not only casual record finds and digs, but elements of his life, his actions, reactions, motions and emotions.
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