DJ Shadow's Josh Davis is widely credited
as a key figure in developing the experimental instrumental
hip-hop style associated with the London-based Mo' Wax label.
His early singles for the label, including "In/Flux"
and "Lost and Found (S.F.L.)," were all-over-the-map
mini-masterpieces combining elements of funk, rock, hip-hop,
ambient, jazz, soul, and used-bin incidentalia. Although he'd
already done a scattering of original and production work
(during 1991-1992 for Hollywood Records) by the time Mo' Wax's
James Lavelle contacted him about releasing "In/Flux"
on the fledgling imprint, it wasn't until his association
with Mo' Wax that his sound began to mature and cohere. Mo'Wax
released a longer work in 1995 -- the 40-minute single in
four movements, "What Does Your Soul Look Like,"
which topped the British indie charts -- and Davis went on
to co-write, remix, and produce tracks for labelmates DJ Krush
and Doctor Octagon plus the Mo' trip-hop supergroup U.N.K.L.E.
Josh Davis grew up in Hayward, CA, a predominantly lower-middle-class
suburb of San Francisco. The odd White suburban hip-hop fan
in the hard rock-dominated early '80s, Davis gravitated toward
the turntable/mixer setup of the hip-hop DJ over the guitars,
bass, and drums of his peers. He worked his way through hip-hop's
early years into the heyday of crews like Eric B. & Rakim,
Ultramagnetic, and Public Enemy; groups which prominently
featured DJs in their ranks. Davis had already been fiddling
around with making beats and breaks on a four-track while
he was in high school, but it was his move to the NorCal cow-town
of Davis to attend university that led to the establishment
of his own Solesides label as an outlet for his original tracks.
Hooking up with Davis' few b-boys (including eventual Solesides
artists Blackalicious and Lyrics Born) through the college
radio station, Shadow began releasing the Reconstructed From
the Ground Up mix tapes in 1991 and pressed his 17-minute
hip-hop symphony "Entropy" in 1993. His tracks spread
widely through the DJ-strong hip-hop underground, eventually
catching the attention of Mo' Wax. Shadow's first full-length,
Endtroducing..., was released in late 1996 to immense critical
acclaim in Britain and America. Preemptive Strike, a compilation
of early singles, followed in early 1998.
Later that year, Shadow produced tracks for the debut album
by U.N.K.L.E., a long-time Mo' Wax production team that gained
superstar guests including Thom Yorke (of Radiohead), Richard
Ashcroft (of the Verve), Mike D (of the Beastie Boys), and
others. His next project came in 1999, with the transformation
of Solesides into a new label, Quannum Projects. Nearly six
years after his debut production album, the proper follow-up,
The Private Press, was released in June 2002.
