The Mountain Will Fall
DJ Shadow, widely acknowledged as a crucial figure in the development of experimental, instrumental hip-hop, will return with ‘The Mountain Will Fall’ worldwide on June 24 via Mass Appeal Records [and Believe Digital in France], his first full length release since 2011. The 12-track album finds DJ Shadow exploring new realms in addition to the deep samples and kinetic soundscapes that helped to launch his career 20 years ago. On ‘The Mountain Will Fall’ he’s shifted further toward original composition, a vast experimentation of beats and textures, synthesizers and live instruments including horns and woodwinds. The album features Run The Jewels, Nils Frahm, Matthew Halsall, Ernie Fresh and more.
DJ Shadow trades in his turntables and MPC for a copy of Ableton and embarks upon a freewheeling, low-stakes journey through the contemporary sounds that inspire his practice.
Though The Mountain Will Fall cannot be considered a failure by any means, it does continue the trend of DJ Shadow's recent work being left firmly in the shade of his past.
Josh Davis aka DJ Shadow delivers one incendiary cracker - a great collaboration with Run the Jewels - in a sea of beige.
The methods have changed but DJ Shadow's unorthodox sense of rhythm remains reassuringly familiar.
It comes so close. Josh Davis's best album in at least a decade starts off with the excellent title track, a lush sounding landscape that's as pretty as anything he's ever done, and he follows that up with the killer "Nobody Speak" featuring Run the Jewel
“Hi…” So begins returning icon DJ Shadow's long-awaited fifth studio album before sinking into waves of euphoric synths and crisp
The album is slack, with perfunctory ideas waiting impatiently for guest stars to enliven them through association.
'The Mountain Will Fall' by DJ Shadow, album review by Elijah Teed. The full-length comes out on June 23. DJ Shadow, plays June 24th in Strasbourg, FR.
Game-changing US producer embraces the new with mixed results. CD review by Thomas H Green