The first album to entirely consist of samples
Over the last quarter of a century, sampling has become an increasingly popular technique in contemporary music. It’s no longer solely linked to hip-hop, and as a technique, sampling is now used throughout almost every genre on the musical spectrum.
As a method of music making, sampling has been around almost as long as rock ‘n’ roll. The English engineer Harry Chamberlin made the earliest device in the 1940s, although it was starkly different from a modern sampler. However, the Chamberlain allowed artists to hold eight seconds of recorded sound by triggering a button on the keyboard.
Decades later, engineer Peter Zinovieff masterminded the first digital sampler in 1969. However, it wasn’t until 1971 that the method was first implemented. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the first song to include sampling was ‘He’s Gonna Step on You Again’ by South African musician John Kongos.
From that moment, sampling became increasingly popular, and once hip-hop rose to prominence, it was an accepted form of craftsmanship. However, despite acts like The Beastie Boys and Grandmaster Flash using the method in their artistry, they also brought their own flavourings into the mix rather than solely relying on samples.
It wasn’t until 1996 that DJ Shadow proved it was possible to make an album entirely with samples on his debut release, Endtroducing. It was a brave, pioneering approach that would have seemed absurd to most artists, but it seemed the natural way to make a record for DJ Shadow.
Looking back on how his debut changed music, DJ Shadow told Rolling Stone in 2016: “I guess the only thing I can say is that I still am incredibly grateful for the impact that it had. My life didn’t go from pauper to prince or anything like that [laughs]. It wasn’t a money thing, but it was the type of record, and I’m not comparing it in terms of its artistic integrity, but one like The Velvet Underground [& Nico], where that record sold 100,000 copies, and it was bought by 100,000 artists. If that’s even remotely true with Endtroducing….., it would be an incredible thing to have achieved.”
He continued: “Being a student of music and reading about other artists and their aspirations, I know how difficult it is to connect in a meaningful way and have a record that endures for 20 years the way this one has, so I know how lucky I am. I know how grateful I am every day that I managed to achieve that at least once in my lifetime.”
At the time of release, it was lauded for its inventiveness and became a sleeper hit in the United States. While the LP was initially celebrated in 1997, it’s only with time that a full appreciation can be understood for DJ Shadow’s debut album. From his extensive and eclectic record collection, the American producer successfully mined a completely new sound from existing songs, paving the way for artists to follow in his footsteps.
Listen to Endtroducing below.
