Recordings
‘The Mountain Will Fall' revels in rhythm, nuance
DJ Shadow set a new standard for the art of sample-based composition with his auspicious 1996 debut album, “Endtroducing …” It was an album that turned snippets of obscure recordings into aural journeys, as if Shadow were orchestrating a perfectly sequenced dream, creating order out of randomness.
That everything Shadow, aka Josh Davis, has created since will be measured against his 20-year-old masterpiece is a daunting prospect, but he continues to produce challenging work and refuses to repeat himself. His fifth studio album, “The Mountain Will Fall” (Mass Appeal), is no exception. It finds Shadow mixing two thumping, old-school hip-hop tracks with atmospheric instrumentals that skitter and slither in the shadows.
Shadow's beats programming remains formidable, as he steers clear of standard bangers in favor of something far more difficult to pin down. This isn't an album built for dancing. It's more about its rhythmic intricacy, a master class for connoisseurs of nuanced production.
“Nobody Speak,” built on descending guitar and bass riffs that mirror one another, is an outlier. It's a rare vocal track, with Killer Mike and El-P of Run the Jewels trading ill-mannered lines with typical swagger. At the moment, no one in hip-hop can touch this duo's command of the rap fundamentals, and Shadow provides them with a sturdy platform. Similarly, “The Sideshow” showcases old-school turntable scratching with guest vocalist Ernie Fresh, accented with horns.
Otherwise, abstraction rules, sometimes awkwardly (“Mambo,” “California”), sometimes beautifully. “Ashes to Oceans” ranks with Shadow's finest tracks, sandwiching melancholy around a whirling drum breakdown that dissolves into the sound of an upright bass. Matthew Hasall's mournful trumpet turns things positively elegiac. Its reflective mood turns dire on “Ghost Tone,” which recasts gangsta-rap tropes as a tone poem, a disquieting dispatch from the front lines of a war zone. The furtive “Suicide Pact,” with its reverberating guitar, ends the album by pushing it into a particularly dark corner. It's not for everybody, and DJ Shadow wouldn't have it any other way.
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