DJ Shadow - The Private Press

Josh Davis features a variety of elements on The Private Press, jumping from Depeche Mode-ian techno pop to ancient library samples, mixing up old soul recordings with atmospheric instrumental passages. Yet for all the expansion and experimentation, the album’s most enjoyable listen comes a few songs in, when Shadow simply drops the PERFECT breakbeat while while scratching “I’m a BAD…motherfuckin DJ! This is why I walk and talk this way.” Unfortunately, the brief joy is squashed almost as soon as it began. The Private Press is a “good” album in every sense of that word. However, it often feels forced, like a musical science experiment. Shadow has admitted in recent interviews that he made a conscious effort to reinvent his style on this record, but after multiple spins, one gets the nagging feeling that the baby was thrown out with the bathwater. Fun moments like the one described earlier are few and far between, replaced by ambient stretches that, while interesting at first, end up putting the listener to sleep in the long run. In the aforementioned interviews, Shadow also stood firm on the fact that he doesn’t want every track on Press to end up, Moby style, in advertisements and commercials. Yet that would be a match made in heaven, since the tracks too often fail to captivate after a listen or two – they would be the perfectly unassuming backdrop for a Fruitopia or something. Is Private Press a sophmore slump? Perhaps. It’s just a shame that DJ Shadow followed up his unbelievably dope Brainfreeze and Product Placement mix compilations with a CD that’s just like most of your classmates at school – pleasant, functional, somewhat dull, and more or less forgettable once the class is over. [www.djshadow.com]