DJ Shadow @ Carling Academy, 29 Nov
He's still at his best when his sounds are imbued with the darkness and frustration of the metropolitan condition
Breaking his set down into half a dozen suites, Josh Davis masterfully overlaps a fiercely abstract range of elements to represent every angle of his repertoire. Talking us through what we hear, the dextrous DJ Shadow even fends off the odd rock when he suggests he'll be working in nuggets from latest album, The Outsider. Stuck to his guns, a blast of the hyphy-laced Three Freaks falls short of crowd rigamortis before Quannum's Lateef bounds onstage to save the day, though he forgoes the near asphyxiated wheeze of his usual delivery for a more pedestrian bark, seeking to whip up the kind of storm that Shadow can usually summon himself when tucked away in the anonymous environs of a booth. Though Shadow's self-proclaimed status as a changeling is admirable, tonight proves that he's still at his best when his sounds are imbued with the darkness and frustration of the metropolitan condition. But, as he righteously declares from the stage to the naysayers of his life's mantra, "I'm never going to stop trying new shit." [Dave Kerr]