DJ Shadow continues to kill it with a new monthly residency on Los Angeles mainstay KCRW 89.9 FM. Giving us two-hours the first Saturday of each month, the Bay Area record digger, DJ and beat maker manages to not only live up to his legendary status but surpass any expectation even the hardest fan of Entroducing might’ve had.
We’re three shows deep in to Find, Share Rewind and thus far we’ve got purely well produced mind-bending shows. Following on from an opening of new hip-hop is the ‘Legends’ segment, where Shadow picks one artist and talks about their relevance to him, the Bay Area and plays a half hour of their music via classic tunes, rarities, live performances and covers.
Let’s not forget this is DJ Shadow. Possibly the most influential record collector in the world, who along with Cut Chemist and Madlib had the heads shelving the keyboards and reaching for samplers and digging through crates once more. And unlike those that have squirreled away their finds he’s never been shy of of sharing his finds through DJ sets, mix CDs and even reissues (see Schoolhouse Funk for reference).
So when he presents ‘rarities’ it’s proper rarities. The opening show saw the ‘Legends’ half hour dedicated to Bay Area greats Jefferson Airplane and last month the genius of Marva Whitney. Both dedications as unique as only Shadow can give, but it’s the Sly & The Family Stone segment in the second show that’ll really knock you over.
Everything played comes from Shadow’s own collection of tracks, with cassettes and wax seemingly making up the most part. There’s a definite warm crackle of vinyl that we love going across the show. For the most part the rest of it is proper digger territory – psych-rock, soul, cold funk and what I can only describe as proper f**king jazz.
Shadow’s a DJ and a collector. He knows tracks, especially his own collection and how to make them flow across genres with every record being a heavy hitter. As someone’s who’s always scrambled to find the something new and unheard to tie segments of radio together I can appreciate this skill. Paul and James are great at it too, but Shadow’s a master. He does it with ease and that’s what makes this so good.
Episodes 1 – 3 embedded below, but all you really need it the URL of the show’s home page: https://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/find-share-rewind.
Next episode goes out 1st of July and will be up on KWCR straight after, don’t miss it.
We’re only three episodes in to this new chapter of Shadow, but it’s undoubtedly head and shoulders above everything else I’ve been listening to lately. To be honest, I entered in to it expecting to be disappointed. The fact that I wasn’t gave me cause to reflect on the current state of ‘radio’.
What I’ve learned, is that just just because someone produced this summer’s hype tune, doesn’t mean that they have any business playing their Spotify account on a station for two hours.
Shadow digging through Marva Whitney is a far throw from celebrity DJs playing James Brown’s Greatest Hits CD on Christmas Eve.
Get inspired.