Twenty-seven years after releasing his debut album, Endtroducing…, which became a seminal work in instrumental hip hop, DJ Shadow is taking stock. Josh Davis’s seventh studio album is, in many ways, both a homage to his career and a record about his “relationship with music”. That may be an obvious description of any work by a musician, but it makes perfect sense in the context of Action Adventure. Inspired by a collection of tapes bought on eBay that featured mixes from a Baltimore radio station in the 1980s, this album has an undoubted sense of nostalgia.
A sense of the insular also pervades its songs, considering the project took root during lockdown. With that in mind, the likes of Ozone Scraper, its synth effects cut with a hip-hop breakbeat, and the 1980s-influenced R&B sample of You Played Me are especially engaging. Witches vs Warlocks evokes a weird, disconcerting video-nasty soundtrack, and Friend or Foe recalls a swaggering, trippy take on the Doctor Who theme.
Other songs leave space for rumination, such as The Prophecy’s reflective shimmer and the meditative gloominess of Forever Changed. On Free for All, Shadow deftly demonstrates his talent for melding musical worlds as a twangy rockabilly riff collides beautifully with the judder of electronica. He may never fully escape the reverence of Endtroducing…, but this album is a reminder that DJ Shadow still has plenty to offer.
