DJ Shadow has returned with a brand new song and video entitled “You Played Me.” The new track serves as the second single from Action Adventure, the artist’s forthcoming eighth studio album which is set to arrive later this year on October 27 via Mass Appeal/Liquid Amber. He has been teasing the release of this album since late January.
DJ Shadow previously shared his lead single “Ozone Scraper” which was accompanied by a cinematic music video. The new video, for “You Played Me,” was filmed at the National Audio Company in Missouri which is where cassette tapes are manufactured. The song itself was inspired by ’80s R&B classics with measured percussion and whirring synths.
Speaking on the composition, DJ Shadow offered, ““I loaded up the instrumental and looped it on my computer to play forever, dropped the needle on an acapella of a really obscure R&B 12-inch from around ‘84, ‘85 and I thought, ‘That actually works.’”
Action Adventure consists of 14 mostly instrumental tracks. Speaking on this new approach, DJ Shadow emphasized that the instrumental path led to more introspection, especially with regards to the compositional process: “I didn’t want to write music that was formatted for vocalists. I wanted to write music that flexed different energies.”
DJ Shadow will be giving three live performances in the U.S. in October with the first being on the 6th at the Submersion Festival in Hammonton, New Jersey. He is also scheduled to perform alongside Thievery Corporation at the Mission Ballroom in Denver, Colorado on the 21st and at Radius in Chicago, Illinois on the 22nd.
Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna
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