2016 has been a stellar year for experimental hip hop luminary DJ Shadow, aka Josh Davis, with the release of his critically acclaimed studio album The Mountain Will Fall – his first release in five years – drawing praise from all corners, from the Guardian who called the record “impressive in its inventiveness” to MOJO who claimed “Shadow is back in the frame” and AV Club who hailed it as “DJ Shadow’s best work since his early-aughts heyday”.For many, it is Shadow’s 1996 debut album Endtroducing that they keep returning to, widely regarded as a groundbreaking release that paved the way for experimental hip hop and changed the shape of electronic music from that point on. Upon its release The Guardian gave it a 5* review and called it “One of the most daring and original albums of recent times”, continuing, “This is genius”, while Spin wrote that the album ""practically folds you into its symphonic fantasia, the coming-of-age story of a 24-year-old bunk-bed dreamer."" Almost a decade later Pitchfork awarded Endtroducing a perfect 10 in their review of the 2005 Deluxe Edition, calling the record “deeply spiritual.”Endtroducing was included in many critical lists of the best albums of 1996, and more recently has been ranked as one of the best albums of the 1990s by the likes of Q, Spin, Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, who wrote “The dystopian New Age of Endtroducing sounds like an alien spacecraft touching down on the autobahn late at night, probably to check out Earth's used-vinyl bins,” adding, “This is DJ culture at its boldest: steeped in the past but zooming into the Space Age future.” TIME magazine went one step further, hailing it as one of the 100 greatest albums of all time.The San Francisco-based producer has announced a special deluxe CD 20th Anniversary Endtrospective Edition featuring the original album, a collection of demos, alternate takes and live versions titled ‘Excessive Ephemera’ and 12 specially commissioned remixes from some of contemporary electronic music’s leading lights including Hudson Mohawke, Clams Casino, Salva, Prince Paul, Bondax & Karma Kid and more.
