DJ Shadow

This has immediately become one of my top five hip-hop tracks of 2016 so far and I doubt I'm the only one. DJ Shadow has finally returned and will be releasing a new album later this year. Titled The Mountain Will Fall, he dropped the title track last week. Last year, he also released "Serve," which will be a bonus track on the new album. This is his first full length album since 2011, and his first release since 2014's Liquid Amber EP. We've only heard a handful of tracks featuring both Killer Mike and El-P on it since Run The Jewels II, so it is a real delight to hear them back on this track. Shadow's production is phenomenal - completely unique for an electro/hip-hop soundscape. It's funky and fluid, blending jazzy saxophones, a modern take on a spaghetti western bassline and outer space synths all into one fantastically engaging, groove-laden instrumental. Up above, Mike and El do what they do best. Slick, fast and multi-dimensional, the pair run through a plethora of topics, with a vaguely socio-political theme at its core - see El's referential line, "eh, you wanna hear a joke? Nobody speak, nobody get choked," before trailing through an anti-Trump jab, a hilarious couplet where Killer Mike described smoking cocaine-laced blunts with the entire cast of Peanuts comics, and what I think is a brief Jay-Z reference later on "What more can I say?" The Mountain Will Fall comes out on June 24 via Mass Appeal Track list: 01 The Mountain Will Fall02 Nobody Speak (ft. Run the Jewels)03 Three Ralphs04 Bergschrund (ft. Nils Frahm)05 The Sideshow (ft. Ernie Fresh)06 Depth Charge07 Mambo08 Ashes to Oceans (ft. Matthew Halsall)09 Pitter Patter (ft. G Jones & Bleep Bloop)10 California11 Ghost Town12 Suicide Pact13 Swerve (iTunes Bonus Track)