A Trip from the City with DJ Shadow

The last time I went to the UK, Andy and I hung out at his place one evening. It was one of those times that I will always remember. Andy and I have some quite varied (and to us interesting) musical tastes. With Sarah gone to for first half of the evening it was time to crank up the stereo (and what a stereo it is to crank) and listen to some of the stuff Andy had recently acquired. First up was a re-recording of “Einstein on the Beach”. Apparently when Glass first wrote the piece musicians really weren’t able to play it that well- They had never done that kind of thing before. Now that this kind of American Minimalist genre (Reich, Glass, Adams et Al ) has be become accepted today’s musicians graduate with an ability to play this kind of stuff under their belt. The new version of Einstein on the Beach was most excellent, and took me back to the time Andy and I were listening to Glass and his ensemble performing it in the Royal Albert Hall n years go. Now that was really something!

Another CD up was DJ Shadows Endtroducing.... This completely redefined hip-hop for me and since he had mashed up Tangerines Stratosphere I just had to get it. I made note of it on my phone only to delete the note 2 days later to save space.

So, here I was in the city, after meeting the amazons of our PR agency- a most enjoyable time. I didn’t have time for much, but figured a trip to the Virgin Mugger Store was in order. A quick call to Andy and Endtroducing... was playing in the car all the way back to Los Gatos. Most excellent it was too.