★★★★★
Californian DJ and collector Josh Davis never claimed to make hip-hop per se, but his association with the genre has long hung over him. It's odd then, that, in isolation, Reconstructed's 26 tracks actually evoke a jazzy, soulful and lingering spiritual whole. Of course, UK label Mo' Wax, to which Davis signed in 1995, was always more about jazz than anything...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-04-02
★★★★★
The concept of the artefact is key to the music DJ Shadow, aka Josh Davis, manipulates, reissues and produces. Be it long-forgotten funk cuts, radio spots, school band LPs, proto-hip-hop cassettes or LPs manufactured (then destroyed) by the Mafia, having a rare recording in one's hands - and Davis' ability to source such things - has always been intrinsic to his appeal. He's sent collectors worldwide into states of apoplexy and caused eBay prices to soar...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
"Are you a fan of the album, or the artist?" DJ Shadow once famously asked, referring to the fact that he's spent the majority of his career living in the shadow of his monumental debut album, Endtroducing... No matter how brilliant or genre defying his follow up releases were, they still failed to capture the same mass attention and critical reception, mostly being labeled as "good, but still not on par with his first album"...
- www.popmatters.com
2012-11-28
★★★★★
"Best of" albums are always tough to review: if you already know you like the musicians in question, the album often serves a reminder of why you like them, probably through a replay of songs you know well. If you didn't find them the first time around, well, are you any more likely now that they've been around so long they're doing "best of" albums? DJ Shadow's new album, Reconstructed: The Best of DJ Shadow falls, for this reviewer, into the former category...
- www.glidemagazine.com
2012-10-25
★★★★★
Speaking to BBC Music in October 2011, Josh Davis aka DJ Shadow remarked: "I struggle to understand some people's context when it comes to covering my music." He's seen responses to 2006's The Outsider and 2011's The Less You Know, the Better vary from faint praise to far worse. "The work of a man struggling to recall his motivations for making music," said NME of The Less..., awarding it 5/10. The problematic context: Shadow's pioneering Endtroducing.....
- www.bbc.co.uk
2012-09-24
★★★★★
Album ReviewsJoel Frieders Recommend This Page By: Joel FriedersAlbum Rating: 8 My dude sent me a link a few months ago announcing there was a new DJ Shadow album dropping sometime this year, but I had forgotten about it as soon as I clicked back into my inbox...
- www.syffal.com
2012-08-30
★★★★★
Goto commentsLeave a commentShare A Taste Test of Style In September of this year, DJ Shadow released his fourth studio album The Less You Know, the Better on Verve Records. The prolific trip hop, electronic, and instrumental hip hop legend forges a distinctive style on this album, using samples that range from Offenbach to Miles Davis...
- www.mxdwn.com
2011-12-05
★★★★★
Whoa. This turntablist-producer is constantly pushing the envelope and growing as a musician. This spanking new album - his fourth and first in five years - features all kind of styles, a handful of guest singers, bold guitar riffs and huge, funky beats. At times, even though we're much closer to Shadow's own mind-boggling debut Endtroducing, it sometimes sounds like Kid Koala's The Slew project (which brought rock-hop back)...
- hour.ca
2011-11-14
★★★★★
The DJ Shadow backlash has started. How could it not? Underground breaks hero gets better known - in fact well-known enough for his supercultish (once upon a time) Endtroducing... debut album to be performed live at gigs by a band and for the dahlings of the media to lavish praise upon it. So it's time for the new album, his fourth, to take a pasting. But is The Less You Know, The Better, really rubbish, or is it just that the goalposts have been moved...
- www.recordcollectormag.com
2011-11-07