DJ Shadow didn't get to be DJ Shadow simply by layering cool noises over a beat. There are ideas down in his grooves; you can hear him thinking all over his songs. So it's hardly a surprise that folks are still listening to (and buying a spiffed-up re-release of) Endtroducing... ten years down the line. Collecting the Kid, a "limited edition" collection of El-P's mostly instrumental hip-hop experiments, ain't gonna hold up the same way (not that it has to -- a market-targeted cash-in is all it is). There are some cool noises interspersed within the languid beats, and as a mood-setter it fades into the background real nice. But on the whole the album is tragically short on you-guessed-it. Exception: "Slow Sex," which is about you-guessed-it-again.
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