So I think it’s time for certain fans to decide if they are fans of the album, or the artist.”Īs time’s gone on and Shadow’s had more time to reflect, he’s been able to put his career arc in more sanguine terms - not as an antagonist dashing expectations, but a restless spirit who’s taken in so much music from so many different sources that he can’t help searching for new modes to channel it all through. Ten years ago, and ten years after his debut dropped, Shadow’s touring and interviews behind the release of the divisive The Outsider saw him chafing at the restraints in a now-infamous post on his blog: “Repeat Endtroducing over and over again? That was never, ever in the game plan. And that point of no return, Endtroducing…, turns 20 this fall - a spectacular record in itself, but also the standard Shadow’s long since moved past trying to duplicate. As much as his new album The Mountain Will Fall deserves recognition on its own terms, its Brainfeeder-compatible art-beat minimalism - honed after an inspiring stint spinning DJ sets at Los Angeles’s Low End Theory - is a new form when too much of his reception still demands a return to form. This year has to be a hectic one for DJ Shadow.

Top breakbeat djs in year 2000