Can someone help explain the appeal of Endtroducing..... to me?

>>69670857
I feel the same way and I generally like music like this. Some tracks were pretty good but overall I feel like I'm missing something that others aren't

>>69670857
You have bad taste. I'm afraid it's terminal

It's one of the most creative albums out there based on production alone. It's an entire sample based album ripped from records DJ Shadow bought from stores. He ended up with a really chilled out instrumental/trip hop album. I'd like to see it as something like a Boards of Canada album, you play it as background ambience and indulge in the solidly crafted instrumentals.

>listen to an album
>don't like it
>there must be a problem cause on /mu/ they say it's good

wow this is a shitty board for sure

>>69670857
It's the epitome of hip-hop beats

>>69670857
I didn't get it either, until I got into music production. Just look up how songs are made using samples, and you'll understand the awesome shit DJ Shadow pulls off.

it just was in the right place at the right time

>>69670857
listen to it and really focus on it.

everything matters. pay attention to the drums and try and figure out the patterns. they're telling a slightly different story than usual.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd_UYocswwI

best track imo

listen to how the drums go off and on-beat, and how it changes the backing samples' disposition effortlessly. how the whole song follows this one emotional track to a small plateau, how everything builds up naturally to the psychedelic climax.

it'll only click if you listen to the whole thing

I like it because of how cinematic it is, like the sample of the guy talking about being detained in Stem/Long Stem with that ominous sample in the back, it's like a movie man, far different from your traditional hip hop and not much like any of the other really popular instrumental hip hop I've heard

if you like it you should check out Nmesh even though he's vaporwave, it's all cinematic sample based music and I'm down with the clown

>>69671586
you must be an absolute joy to be around :^)

..
seconding the production. there's no vocals to hide behind so everything serves a purpose.

>>69670857
Changeling and Midnight are masterpieces. They're just dripping with color and texture. I think the closing track on Endtroducing could've fit in anywhere on an episode of Hey Arnold with that nostalgic jazzy vibe . They're kind of what I wanted from that Bohren and Der Club of Gore album, but never got.

>>69670857
To me, there's sort of a "ghostly" quality to it - it very much has to do with just WHO he samples. The idea that all these small name musicians poured their souls into some obscure singles that got dumped in a basement for decades, only to have snippets resurface in some kind of weird amalgamation that sounds nothing like the sum of its parts. It's like you're taking all these lives and histories and dreams of stardom and mashing them together into something unrecognizable.

There's an air of mystery to the way things are obscured, as well. Just listen to that Italian vocal on the last track, and that woman's vocal on the same track who I still can't identify. They used to be the centerpiece on whatever record they came from, now they're like voices out of time just wallpapering this dreamy instrumental.

Another example is with the spoken word on Mutual Slump. In your first listen you can sort of tell the context of the woman's narrative, but not quite. The meaning is just beyond reach in a certain way, sorta like a dream I think. Same thing with the Twin Peaks sample, or the "dogs up there on the moon" sample - removing the context of these samples creates a strange, almost unsettling effect.

>>69673054
Also, this is a minor thing but too seldom commented on imo: the titles of the songs. They're all interestingly chosen and vaguely cinematic, in just really rich with suggestion. I think Shadow had a great taste in titles.

The other artist I can think of right now who makes similar title choices is Amon Tobin - someone influenced by Shadow who also works in "cinematic" electronic sampling.

A major, major part of ...Endtroducing is its ambition and context.
As a lot of people have said, it's the first ever plunderphonics record, and it influenced a LOT.
If you aren't particularly interested in hip-hop production culture or history, there isn't necessarily *that* much there for you.

It's a classic because of its context, not because of the quality of the music taken in and of itself;
that isn't to say the album's bad or even mediocre when simply taken as a collection of instrumentals, but you get what I'm saying.

I didn't think it was that great at first, but after listening to a ton of sample based music I really started to appreciate how well put together it is.

If you're not into sample based stuff it will probably never click, but if you are and you listen to a lot of albums in the genre, you will eventually see why Entroducing is so popular

Probs cos it was new at the time. Now days people shit all of him. Funny, I was listening to it this morning under the same assumption as you. It was crap. That second song pisses me off when he dies erratic drum machine stuff. It's stupid and isn't in time and pointless.

Yeah alot of it is just because it was the first of its kind. It's got some artistic approaches that he really doesn't pull off in my opinion. But oh well.

If you want stuff like this but with more melody, hooks etc, try avalanches. Better imo

>yfw DJ Shadow was 24 when he released the record

God damn, I am shit.

>>69673606
it's not the first plunderphonics record

>>69673606
>it's the first ever plunderphonics record

ahahahahahahahahahaha

>>69674967
If we started posting the best albums by people younger than us, I would definitely have to kill myself, I mean at my age Bob Dylan had already dropped Highway 61 Revisited

>>69672858
this

BOB WOOD NATIONAL PROGRAM DIRECTOR

>>69676795
OF THE CHUM GROUP WORKED WITH US IN PRODUCING

>>69672165
J Dilla's stuff is the epitome of hip-hop beats.

>>69676815

I FEEL STRANGELY HYPNOTIZED

>>69676832
wrong plunderphonics album faggot

>>69670928
>>69670857

The appeal of Endtroducing is explained perfectly in the album cover itself. I'm gonna sound cute in the next couple of sentences but I really mean this.

A white man is playing around with the great music that black men and black people have made over the years, together with other white stuff. It really is a blend. And as Shadow's later involvement with Quannum etc has shown, this is a sincere exchange which has continued. I don't think it's unreasonable to suppose Shadow's white sensibility together with the "black" music is the source of the cross-cultural appeal.

Basically, you have to like black music in the first place (this really isn't hard as most of /mu/ ought to be able to admit), and from that place be willing to listen to longer compositions (jazz? ambient? etc). I will admit to not following DJ Shadow's later output but I personally like longer compositions of "electronic music" generally, so this is up my personal street.

I can remember listening to Stem/Long Stem piled into my friend's car in college, driving along at night, later it was Tom Waits' Blood Money. Maybe not the same night, but somewhere in those late night car rides we were doing a little guerilla urban exploration, with George Lucas' niece in tow. That's a true description of a period of a few months of my life.

FWIW I personally prefer Preemptive Strike to Endtroducing. It (recycles) material but I think it works better overall, though a bit slower. More in a jazz thing.

>>69676773
Nas dropped Illmatic when he was 20, but started working on it when he was 18