DJ Shadow Calls Upcoming Album 'Return to Form'

DJ Shadow's new album may still be months away, but he's shining some light on what's to come.

The current seven-minute-plus breakbeat opus that's making waves on the internet, 'Def Surrounds Us,' contains the DJ/producer's signature moody vocals and sound effects that have been heard on his 'Product Placement' tours with Cut Chemist and DJ Numark. Shadow is famed for his cut'n'paste aesthetic, which was why people were taken aback by his detour into the "hyphy" sound on his last album, 'The Outsider.'

Shadow tells Spinner that the opening sample from 'Def Surrounds Us' was taken from an avant-garde choral record originating from the area where he grew up. "Another sample, at the end, is from an avant-garde solo piano record, which I cleared," he reveals. "The rest is just my normal assortment of moments from this record or that record."



Shadow calls his current project a "return to form" not just sonically, but methodologically as well. Much like his groundbreaking previous albums 'Endtroducing...' and 'The Private Press,' this one was produced in a similar fashion.

"I didn't have a wife and children back then, but I threw down the gauntlet and rented a one-room cottage away from everyone. I was working 16-20 hour days, for days in a row, and then I'd take a few days off and go back in. Allowing myself that kind of concentration level was really good for the music. "

Shadow remains proud of his other collaborative albums ('The Outsider,' and 'Psyence Fiction' produced with James Lavelle of UNKLE), but notes "those are different kinds of animals."

"Once I do one type of album, I'm ready to do another kind; it was time to do a record like this again."