For those who may be interested, I just heard the other day that DJ Shadow is re-releasing Endtroducing with a 2nd disc of extra phun:

Awesome. DJ Shadow rocks! Cheers, ipse

Yeah, thanks. Last time I listened to Endtroducing, I didn't really like it, in the same way I didn't like UNKLE's debut. However, I have recently bought and re-evaluated that LP, and love it. I think the same will happen with Endtroducing.

Oh, I love Psyence Fiction, I've not listened to that for aaages. Must dig out and take to work tomorrow for listenage.

Hell yeah. I love a bit of Hank Marvin. Only joking. Entroducing is a classic. I'll be buying it.

I'll buy it too - I've got Entroducing but I didn't buy it if you know what I mean. But this sounds good I shall have to purchase methinks

What's his solo stuff like? I've heard some of it and i love Psyence Fiction (reaches over to iPod stereo and puts it on) but i've always felt unsure about buying Endtroducing for some reason.

It's excellent all the way through, it took me two or three listens to get my heasd round everything that's going on in the tracks but it forms a wonderful cohesive whole and I highly recomend it as well as the private press which is also brilliant.

Better than his collaborations. My lovely fancily packaged copy of Endtroducing was stolen from me many years ago and I never did get round to replacing it.

heh, back when i tried to get it after it's first release, a shop assistant got a concussion after getting me their sole copy. of all the stores in cardiff, only spillers had it at it's release. good ol' spillers. that place rocked.

hmm...i want the extra stuff, but dont want to re-buy it. what to do...

Just realised that this is today - woo-hoo!

Does it work as an album though?... I too have Psyence fiction, & thought all of the track were excellent, but the album somehow sounded like a compilation, not a studio album.
Is Endtroducing like this?

Hmm, I can't answer that, bud - leave that to the experts.

I have however, bought UNKLE's 'Edit Music for a Film', which is an interesting, if slightly strange concept album comprising audio clips from numerous films mixed with soundtrack samples, UNKLE tunes, and remixed tracks. I've found it entertaining, but I wonder about the intention here - when exactly does one listen to it, and who would listen other than an UNKLE fan?

ok thanks

psyence fiction is a complilation album really, because of all the different artists on it, plus the fact it was a collaborative project with james 'cooler than thou' lavelle.

whereas endtroducing was the work of shadow on his own, in his shed, so hangs together much better as a record.

This release has been put back to 6th June. Bastards!

May I mention again that The Private Press is equally excellent?. Thanks.

School band play Endtroducing with real instruments! Lookhere.

It's excellent!

That's too fantastic.

I bought my first copy of Entroducing in 2003. I know, I know, I got to it late. It's a really good album to write to, although I don't know if my love of it extends to me reaching into my wallet to fork over mor dosh for the extra bits on the expanded version. Maybe one for the Xmas wishlist.

On the strength of Entroducing, I bought Psyence Fiction, which I thought was really overrated.

If you've already got the original version of Entroducing then it probably isn't worth paying for the new one as there are some good tracks on the 2nd cd, but there is also quite a bit of filler and tracks which sound like cheap studio off-cuts. Probably worth getting as a present and selling the original to make way for it though. The live mini-set at the end of the 2nd cd is very good though. As for Psyence Fiction I thought it was under-rated after the kicking it got when first released, it's not a bad LP although it was never going to set the world on fire.

I prefer it to Endtroducing, I think. There's just more variation on there. The vocal collaborations are excellent, and there is a raw funky energy to each track. Endtroducing is a little too 'cool', and is quite repetitive.

I really like Psyence Fiction, it's interesting, raw and shows a lot of talented people working together to try and create something new and different from what many of them ahve done before, which is certainly true in the cases of Thom Yorke and Richard Ashcroft. Haven't got round to getting Endtroducing yet due to fairly low funds, so I can't really compare the two, but I still intend to get it fairly soon. I might get it when I go into town later, assuming it's not too expensive.

Hmmm, I don't think I quite agree there, but it has been a long time since I listened to Psyence Fiction so I shall go back to it before I disagree entirely. I think DJ Shadow's production style smothers that LP more than it should although 'Lonely Soul' & Rabbit In Your Headlights' & 'Guns Blazing' are all terrific tracks.

EDIT this is a good overview of the UNKLE LP I think.

I'm intrigued that it's not as well-regarded as Entroducing. For me there is only one weak track on there - the Mike D track - which just sounds like a Beastie Boys track. Rabbit in Your Headlights, Lonely Soul and Bloodstain are epic, genre-spanning, moody vocal masterpieces that beats anything on DJ Shadow's debut. In my opinion, Entroducing is quite generic 'sampled vocals over hip-hop beats' that has been done many times.

Tread very carefully.

I like both albums, but I'd say Endtroducing had a much bigger effect on me when I first heard it.

For me, Psyence Fiction just didn't have the raw appeal of Entroducing - it was too polished, and I think that it's highlights are it's most reserved tracks - like Bloodstain. In other parts it creaks under the weight of its own self-importance, like on Lonely Soul which such a load of pretentious garbage (but that might also be down to my very low opinion of Ashcroft.) Too much of a sense of "hey, we're making a collaborative masterpiece here!"

Bearing in mind that Entroducing came out 11 years ago, before it was released hip-hop was stuck in a rut nearly as bad as it is now, and Entroducing being formed entirely from hundreds of samples from old vinyl to create new songs was something no-one had really heard before. It rewards repeated listens in a way that only a few albums I own could match. For sheer scope and ambition I'd say Entroducing is a good way ahead of Psyence Fiction, you just need to look at the number of current artists who were creatively influenced by it.

I wouldn't go that far, but Lonely Soul was never my favourite track. Bloodstain's the stand-out for me.

edit: and, er, yeah - what Robin said.

??
Don't want to step on any toes - I totally understand the influence of Entroducing in the way Robin described - but I just think that Psyence Fiction is a more rounded and ambitious album in comparison, where 'End' does actually recycle the same idea over 13 tracks - I'm listening to it now! They're very good tracks, but there's nowhere near the variation of the UNKLE record. Personal opinion!

Ok, I just meant that the implication of what you said was that Shadow's album was nothing new - "generic", "been done many times", which as Robin said is not really true. Many times since, perhaps.

Fair enough - I didn't get into it or know much about it when it first came out, so its impact and influence at the time is lost on me. I only bought them both this year, so I compare them without any prior knowledge.

well, speaking as an anally obsessive old school mo waxer...

by the time 'entroducing' had come out, i was sick of dj shadow and i never even bothered getting 'psyence fiction'. mo wax had run their course.

i hark back to the old days, the days of the 'phat groove' (if you have any of the early 12"s you'll know what i mean. back to the days of 'repercussions' and 'el malo' when mo wax were skating on the ground between acid jazz (a scene that was becoming increasingly tired) and hip-hop instrumentals.

then there was the 'jazzhipjap' and french hip-hop phases, then came 'influx / hindsight' from dj shadow, '2000' from rpm, 'casse les frontieres' from la funk mob and 'stricktly turntablized' - the product of james lavelle asking dj krush to produce an album of beats.

these were glorious, fascinating and exciting times. deep, dark, dirty music, for deep, dark dirty people. i was in an audience of around 50 people who'd travelled to see james lavelle, dj krush, dj shadow and palm skin productions on the 'headz tour' - fuck me that was a good night out...

so, then 'headz' came out, mo wax go a bit of money and release from 'innerzone orchestra' (just as i's managed to get the original us release too!!!), 'money mark', 'dr octagon' and the like slipped out, adding further depth and quality to the label.

then came 'midnight' - tales of shadow's obsessiveness with this track filled the music press and as expected, it was an over produced piece of crap. what followed on 'entroducing' was better, but still it'd taken a turn for the worst. unfortunately commercial success (after a massive marketing campaign) came and spawned a million shitty immitators. gone was the dj shadow i'd loved.

luckily mo wax capitalised, releasing stuff from moody man, urban tribe, andrea parker, sukia and the 'excursions' series. i never really liked 'unkle' after lavelle started working with shadow though...

I only got into the album a few years ago myself, I've been working both backwards and forwards ever since trying to listen to as much as possible but there's a hell of a lot to get through. Dan seems to be the man in the know about such things.

Bought the reissue yesterday and I have to say that I'm quite impressed. Despite the fact that many of the techniques and ideas expressed in the music and production have been taken and done time and time again, it still sounds really good and interesting, and I was surprised how many of the tracks I had heard over the years (can't say where I heard them but I know that I have) and although it would take a few listens to truly conmpare it to Psyence Fiction, it has surprised and impressed me more than I expected.