DJ Shadow and the Groove Robbers In/Flux
1993; Mo’Wax
The problem
that DJ Shadow has faced ever since he unleashed Endtroducing… on the public at large is that it’s such a perfect
and pure distillation of what can be accomplished by one man with a set of
turntables and an endless stack of vinyl that no matter what he does afterwards
it’s going to fall short. That shouldn’t necessarily be an issue for the small
collection of 12”s that he released in the years leading up to his proper debut
though; it always rubs me the wrong way when a given artist’s early material is
retroactively derided in light of them making a qualitative leap, Giving In/Flux a dismissal on the grounds of
not being Endtroducing… is
disingenuous because of course it isn’t; there’s three years to go before this
would morph into the masterpiece we all know and love, so giving it shit for
being a slightly lesser shade of greatness makes little sense in my eyes. In Flux is damn good judged purely on
its own merits, the fact that Endtroducing…
did it all slightly better is immaterial.
That’s not to
say that the qualitative leap Shadow made in the interim doesn’t highlight a
few of the areas where In/Flux is
slightly lacking. It doesn’t mar the end product too much, but it does make me
wonder just how much better revisions of these tracks could have been in the
post-Endtroducing… era, when Shadow
would have probably increased the density and cohesion of these numbers,
particularly the epic A side of this single to make them something that little
bit more jaw-dropping. The cohesion is the one that nags at me the most truth
be told, and it probably would even without the post-dated reference in
Shadow’s own career. The point is that “In/Flux” is put together a bit
haphazardly, built on distinct sections that aren’t so much worked together as
they are shifted between without much artistry. Shadow knows how to build the
grooves at this point, there’s no doubt about that, but he hasn’t quite figured
out how to turn his collection of building blocks into a cohesive unit yet.
That’s not to say that “In/Flux” is a bad piece of sample-based construction
though; the individual sections are mesmerizing and put together with definite
craft and care. It’s only in their presentation that they lose something – not
even lose it really but just fail to become more than what they are.
The other
thing that I find myself missing here is the sort of density of sound that
Shadow would exploit later on. As great as the two tracks here are, they wind
up sounding a little thin to my ears, begging for an added layer to complete
them and make them interesting in ways that they can’t quite manage now.
“Hindsight” especially sounds a little incomplete; it’s a great little groove
once it gets going but there always seems to be a little bit missing from its
palette. It’s a small issue once again, not something that decreases quality so
much as something that could enhance it beautifully, but it’s something that’s
always I the back of my head as I listen to it. I guess that’s the problem with
re-visiting an artist’s early material after they’ve had some time to develop;
you find yourself stuck playing a game of ‘what if…’ on pieces that are near
brilliant as they are but don’t take the extra step you’ve become accustomed
to. In/Flux’ greatness is unconnected
to what Shadow would do in his later endeavors, but those future projects cause
it to feel a bit lacking through no fault of its own. Suffice it to say that in
a world where Shadow did nothing beyond this slab of wax this review would be
as unconditionally laudatory as the grading would suggest, but as it stands
there are just things I wish I was hearing here that I probably couldn’t have
been hearing at the time it was made.
What I’m
getting at here is that In/Flux isn’t
perfect, or near-perfect, in the way that Shadow would be later on, but it’s
still a formidable display of what can be done with other people’s music. The
density and flow aren’t quite there – even without the Endtroducing… comparison point I’d probably still feel like “In/Flux”
was too choppy to be truly great – but the vision is, and Shadow’s knack for
placing the elements is well honed already. This doesn’t have the something
extra that gave his full length debut special standing, but it’s not like he’s
at all awkward or amateurish here either. He may be a few tweaks away from
greatness, but very-goodness isn’t anything to really sneeze at either. [8.4]
No comments:
Post a Comment