An absolutely beautiful track made by one of the best DJs to ever exist
Theres a good chance most people who skim through my writings dont really take anything I say seriously but seriously please listen to Endtroducing. This album is genuinely amazing. It was entirely made using samples and DJ Shadow makes such good use of samples to make some of the chillest, calming and gourgeous tracks ever. DJ Shadow produced the album over the course of 2 years using an Akai sampler, a turnable, and a tape recorder using vinyls he would purchase from Records, a legendary record shop located in Sacramento.
Despite not having much lyrics in most songs, alot of them have a meloncholic tone, and its one of the reasons why I love the album. Anyway is this a review or am I talking about the samples
This one is gonna be long, as there is a fuckton of samples in this song. First one you hear somes from Organized Konfusion, who is mostly famous for having a pre solo career Pharoahe Monch in their song Releasing Hypnotical Gasses.
This sample gives the track a sort of mood of doom, as if youre reaching the end. Its a good tone setter. The next sample is an interesting one. Comes from a Meredith Monk, an Advant Garde Musician. And well the track sampled here is a very strange one, but an interesting one none the less! Its called Dolmen Music and is actually sampled throughout the song. Too many to timestamp individually, so I actually kinda suggest giving the song a listen. Despite its strangeness its actually fairly lovely. It is nearly 20 minutes though...
The drum break you hear in the song comes from psychedelic soul band Rotary Connection. These guys were actually the backing band for Muddy Waters' Electric Mud, which despite garnering reviews essentially calling it mid, even by Muddy Waters himself, it ended up becoming a fairly influential album for different Hip Hop artists, including Chuck D. of Public Enemy who actually ended up meeting with members of Rotary Connection and the Roots with Common and Kyle Jason to record a version of Mannish Boy, a Muddy Waters classic.
Anyway, here is the sample, Life Could By Rotary Connection.
The piano you hear in the song comes from a Finnish multinstrumentalist named Pekka Pohjola. Leave it to the nords to have pronouncable names. He was apparently fairly influential in his home country, being known for being able to play the bass, violin, and piano, as heard in his track The Madness Subsides. Another one of my favorite samples. A very beautiful piano bit.
My favorite sample on the track. Sower of Seeds by Baraka, a extremely obscure rock band from 1970. There isnt much to say about them other than the vocal sample genuinely sounds beautiful, and it gives the track a somber, romantic atmosphere. Its one of the reasons this track has been drawn to me for a while.
Side note, for a moment I thought this Baraka was the same Baraka from the 90s jungle scene, where they made this Unreal Tournament sounding track.
Another Meredith Monk track. Biography. Not much to be said here that I havent said so far.
DJ Shadow seriously must have been going through some shit. I know he said he was often depressed when making Endtroducing but he seriously chose alot of piano samples. He samples David Axelrod here, another musician who is often sampled by DJs and Producers. The album the track comes from, Song of Innocence wasnt a commercial or critical success but eventually was revaluated to be more appriciated and is seen as a great album. Funny how life works that way sometimes.
Next up we got an Akinyele track, who like 2 Live Crew, excelled in insanely outta pocket lyrics, but was more lyric orientated instead of booty anthem kind of stuff. Pretty simple sample. M I D N I G H T
Theres alot of samples in Endtroducing and honestly the production is really neat, and so was the sample selection. If you wanna see more, I really suggest checking out Scratch, a documentary on Sampling. It features DJ Shadow and the record store Records. Real neat stuff