DJ Shadow, DJ D Sharp

Thursday, October 1 · Palace Theatre

Instrumental Hip-HopTurntablism18+

★ racket - Back again, who is he? Just your favorite DJ savior. Yes, Endtroducing… came out 30 years ago, raising the eternal question: Did you have to be there? Alas, that’s not for me to answer, ‘cause I was there, and it did not take a lot of critical acumen on my part to hear this Cali cratedigger’s debut full-length as the instant classic that so many of us did. Obsessively layering vocal snippets, breakbeats, and prog samples from records both obscure and everyday, Josh Davis created a work so multifaceted you could build a whole career by following just one of its streams, yet it was inimitable as well. (I mean, who’d want to put in all that work, for starters?) It really was, to haul out a critical cliché, “a journey,” and Shadow’s never topped it (though The Private Press is a worthy runner-up, and let me put in a good word for 2023’s Action Adventure). Rest assured, even if you know the album backward and forward, he’ll tinker with it until it somehow sounds even more like itself.

★ crawl space - DJ Shadow - cinematic instrumental music from layered samples and beats. Will be performing his influential album Endtroducing FFO: Massive Attack and Portishead