Review Summary: the mountain that fell beneath the weight of its own ambition.
DJ Shadow has long since been a household name in the world of electronic music. His catalogue reaches as far back as the mid-90's and his most notable releases needn't any introduction to the heady adherents of the genre. Never one to shy away from experimentation, the prominent moniker of dj/producer Josh Davis has long since been carved into the roots of electronic music culture. Over two decades after his much lauded and timeless debut LP,
Entroducing, the man like DJ Shadow has once again offered us a challenge in disregarding convention, yielding a stodgy mix-bag of lush sounds that generally struggle to piece themselves together.
The Mountain Will Fall, to be blunt, is pretty messy. Lacking in thematic focus and overly ambitious in its attempts at resplendent diversity, the majority of time spent with this album will be generally met with beguilement and moans of tedium. This isn't to say
The Mountain Will Fall is devoid of any enjoyable substance, as a good portion of the individual cuts stand well enough on their own two feet to be considered, at minimum, competent explorations of sound design. The deep, unorthodox bass lines of "Three Ralphs" and "Depth Charge" highlight DJ Shadow refining modern methods of production to a rather moving effect, utilizing emotive songwriting to reveal passionate underpinnings. Conversely, this album also presents numerous disjointed and haphazard songs, with awkward and catawompus tracks like "Mambo" and "California" relying on parlour tricks in lieu of brandishing any sensibility for an aesthetically pleasing soundscape. Generally speaking,
The Mountain Will Fall sounds a lot like DJ Shadow reaffirming new found competencies in a quest for branching out than it does a testament to a mastery of elements.
Rich with luscious green spaces wedged between the twisted steel and crumbled cement of long abandoned skyscrapers, the rudiment feel of this album is one of melancholic excitement. Whimsically foreboding with glimmers of temporary hope, the emotional ties to how many of us view the uncertain future of our own society are easy to spot; an apparent struggle with apathy boiling over into detached observation and existential vagrancy.
The Mountain Will Fall certainly succeeds in many places, where the clarity of the ideas presented intersect with apt execution, however these moments are just too few and far between to keep the album intriguing through to the closing moments. Unconfined to any genre tag to an unfortunately ill-effect, the awkward tracklisting throws away, on repeated occasion, any and all momentum gathered, leaving the listener with a fragile etch-a-sketch of imagery rather than a framed and painted canvas. Aside from the second track, "Nobody Speak", featuring absolutely fantastic verses from no other than Run The Jewels,
The Mountain Will Fall cannot seem to find its voice, opting instead to test-drive different accents at caprice.
At the end of the day,
The Mountain Will Fall is equal parts casual pleasantry and awkward faux pas, conflicted by the scope of its ambition. What it lacks in consistency it restores with shimmering albeit momentary rays of comfort, and shows DJ Shadow exploring new found territory that few producers still dare to travel. Presented with a collage of scrapbook ideas from the future of electronic music, we are left with an album worthy of offhand exploration, if only to gather meagre building blocks for our own aspirations.
