DJ Shadow: The Private Press (2003)
DJ Shadow’s most notable release — the record-setting, samples-only, instrumental hip-hop classic Endtroducing — dropped in the ’90s. Which means that his wide-ranging sophomore stunner had no chance of competing with Endtroducing‘s epochal rep.
But it should have. From the dark cinema of “Fixed Income” and psychedelic “Six Days” to the deconstructed funk of “Monosylabik” and “Walkie Talkie” (at right), Private Press was a mind-wipe. Plus, it was a concept album about sound recording, sandwiched by vinyl love letters from the past. Bonus points for beats and brains alike.
Beyond Private Press and its clumsy follow-up The Outsider, DJ Shadow cemented his legacy in the ’00s by going viral, whether as an avatar in DJ Hero or as one of the first artists to capitalize on the internet for independence.
“It seems difficult for any artist to feel like they’re making an impact in this environment,” DJ Shadow told Wired.com in August after becoming Universal’s first musician to license an entire digital and physical catalog for sale through an artist-run website. “I envy the way Reznor and others pour so much into their sites, to the point they’re practically communicating with their fans on an hourly basis. But I think it’s healthy to remain a bit detached.”
Autolux: Future Perfect (2004)
This Los Angeles-based power trio’s influences range from James Joyce and The Who to Jimi Hendrix and My Bloody Valentine, but its deafening machine music decodes like pure pop brilliance. And while it has only released one full-length this decade, Future Perfect remains a masterful demolition of the sonic envelope.
LISTEN: “HERE COMES EVERYBODY” BY AUTOLUX
Which should be the point of musical art in the first place, Autolux drummer Carla Azar told Wired.com earlier this year. Influences are fine, she said, until you start hiding behind them.
“Music has become too referential,” Azar said. “Artists like Hendrix were trying to find new paths, but that era is going away. Artists today don’t really have their own identities, because they give too much of themselves away. I love being on the edge in my work. I love feeling like I’ve accomplished something.”
That list of accomplishments should extend into the next decade, starting with Autolux’s second full-length, Transit Transit, in 2010. But if it doesn’t, at least the band knows that — while it might have left only a single release behind in the ’00s — it was almost better than everything else produced that decade.
This article appeared at Wired
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