All-TIME 100 Albums

Endtroducing...

In 1994, DJ Shadow (a.k.a. Josh Davis) locked himself in his basement with a sampler, a sequencer and one of the world’s strangest record collections. Two years later, he emerged with a completely original electronic symphony. The 13 tracks vary in length and tone—some are beat driven and under a minute while others have orchestral swells and stretch to almost ten—but all are constructed entirely from samples, and the only voices are from obscure spoken word and comedy albums that sound like they’re being beamed from outer space. Somehow a narrative emerges, and on “Building Steam With a Grain of Salt,” we even get autobiography by proxy. “I’d like to just continue to be able to express myself,” says a self-taught drummer through the fuzz and pop of vinyl scratches, “as best as I can.”

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