Dosh

“It’ll never top Endtroducing.” Well, significance considered, it won’t; nothing in the genre will. As far as instrumental hip-hop goes, DJ Shadow’s debut will always be the album to beat, and. sadly, it won’t happen. Recently, the likes of RJD2, Prefuse73, The Fog and so on have pushed to rewrite the instrumental hip-hop book. At the very most, they have added chapters. All of said artists have put out good albums, no doubt there. The thing is, they’re really only doing DJ Shadow spin-offs. While nothing will ever top Endtroducing, something will have to come out ultimately that offers something new, right? Well Dosh, you may have done it. 

The Fog drummer Martin Dosh’s solo album, Dosh, was recently released on Anticon Records to very few ears. Dosh manages to sound like nothing else, fusing samples, live drum workouts, creative drum chops and all kinds of live instrumentation. Not only is the approach novel, but Dosh‘s song structures are beyond description, incomparable even. Dosh textures astutely in a very lush manner, drumming to multiple rhythms at the same time, selling a new sound to very light ears.

Looking for a reference point? Gotcha. For the few of you who’ve heard Radiohead’s “Fast-Track” B-side, that’s about as close as you’re gonna get. For those of you who haven’t heard “Fast-Track,” don’t fret: this isn’t another Radiohead aficionado turned impersonator. Dosh has done the deed: he’s put forth a new sound.

So he’s in, right? A “new sound!” Big declaration, huh? In the end, Dosh manages little more than the brilliancy of its approach. Dosh does contain those knockout-type sounds that created the Endtroducing legend, just not enough of them. Dosh has enough “mind-blowing” material to fill an EP: the rest, unfortunately, is just an over-extension of the album’s high points.

Where would we be without the low-fi, sonic landscape clichÈ? As music fans, we need it. Have you ever been in bed in the morning, comfortable as can be with nowhere to go? Have you ever been all alone somewhere in your car, crying? While those might not work for you, the point is that the ups and downs are both sour and sweet enough to blur the lines of a success effort. Dosh has the highs and the lows, but, oddly enough, it doesn’t seem to matter. Dosh has some of the sweetest sweet and just enough sour.   6.5/10

Written by G. William Locke