DJ Shadow, widely acknowledged as a crucial figure in the development of experimental, instrumental hip-hop, will return with ‘The Mountain Will Fall’Â June 24Â on Mass Appeal Records, his first full length release since 2011. The 12-track album finds DJ Shadow exploring new realms in addition to the deep samples and kinetic soundscapes that helped to launch his career 25 years ago. On ‘The Mountain Will Fall’ he’s shifted further toward original composition, a vast experimentation of beats and textures, synthesizers and live instruments including horns and woodwinds. The album features Run The Jewels, Nils Frahm, Matthew Halsall, Ernie Fresh and more.
Pitchfork has a Q&A on the new album, and premiere of title track “The Mountain Will Fall.” Read and listen here:Â http://bit.ly/1S01OUm
The seeds for the ‘The Mountain Will Fall’ were planted after two years of touring and DJ Shadow’s last full length and retrospective box set releases. While taking some time to recalibrate, he was invited by the Low End Theory to do a DJ set, something he hadn’t done in over a decade. It led to festival DJ sets, performing with Diplo, listening deeply to several subgenres of electronic music, doing remixes and the exploration of Ableton Live software – a new way for this profoundly original voice to compose and create. DJ Shadow also launched his own label for the release of his work and other artists, called Liquid Amber.
The title track and album opener is smoldering – an opening salvo of sounds, beats and pitches that shift, phase, shimmer and implode. A falling cascade of picked guitar notes opens “Nobody Speak,” a blazing statement-maker featuring Run The Jewels. The warped, jazz-tinted “Ashes To Oceans” features Matthew Halsall, and “The Sideshow” is Shadow’s unbridled scratch track/old school hip hop send up with MC Ernie Fresh.
The album artwork was designed by UK street artist Paul Insect, who also de-signed the art for Shadow’s 2006 album ‘Outsider.’
DJ Shadow will be touring through the year, tour dates below.
The single “The Mountain Will Fall” premiered on Beats 1 earlier today, and is available immediately with pre-order of the album:Â https://DJShadow.lnk.to/TMWFPR
TRACK LIST:
1. The Mountain Will Fall
2. Nobody Speak feat. Run The Jewels
3. Three Ralphs
4. Bergschrund feat. Nils Frahm
5. The Sideshow feat. Ernie Fresh
6. Depth Charge
7. Mambo
8. Ashes To Oceans feat. Matthew Halsall
9. Pitter Patter feat. G Jones & Bleep Bloop
10. California
11. Ghost Town
12. Suicide Pact
13. Swerve (iTunes Bonus Track)
TOUR DATES:
June 24Â – Artefact Festival – Strasbourg, France
July 2Â – Pitch Festival – Amsterdam, Netherlands
July 8Â – Les Ardentes – Liege, Belgium
July 14Â – Super Bock, Super Rock – Sesimbra, Portugal
July 16Â – The Peacock Society Festival – Paris, France
July 17Â – Benicassim – Benicassim, Spain
July 23Â – Blue Dot Festival @ Jodrell Bank – Cheshire, UK
July 28Â – Island of Obonjan – Sibenik, Croatia
