DJ Shadow – The Mountain Will Fall

"The same way I was trying to push the boundaries then, I'm trying to push my own boundaries now." No joke; two decades on from the immortal Endtroducing, Josh 'DJ Shadow' Davis remains a shape-shifting enigma, determined to throw us off the scent. 

Accordingly, The Mountain Will Fall’s lead single – a Run the Jewels featuring boom–bap explosion called Nobody Speak – is rendered sheer misdirection in the context of its textured and disorienting parent album. 

Having delivered what he recently dubbed his “goodbye letter” to sampling with 2011’s The Less You Know, the Better, here Shadow's new Ableton game chimes more with HudMo's neon fantasies and Death Grips' darkest speaker-bursting bass explorations. 

Long-time followers will still find plenty to praise, from a playful spar with Nils Frahm on Bergschrund to Ghost Town's devastating reminder that our maestro can contemporise the mood of a track like Stem any old time he likes. The methods have changed but Shadow's unorthodox sense of rhythm remains reassuringly familiar.