DJ Shadow

With four songs from The Outsider LP included on it, the only real reason to pick up DJ Shadow's Bay Area EP is for the gritty pot-smoker's anthem "Purple Grapes," which features rhymes from the Team. The other exclusive song, the Traxamillion remix of "Turf Dancing," is nowhere near as fun as the original, substituting the crunchy bass line for higher synthesizer riffs, and neither are enough to make up for the number of repeats between the two records. All the pieces on the EP feature the hip-hop side of the producer's repertoire (instead of the indie rock he sometimes delves into on The Outsider), so drums play the most important part here, with neo-G-funk key lines and fuzzed-out vocals filling up the space between percussion. If you don't want to hear the Chris Martin impersonator who appears on the full-length, but do want to hear E-40 spit "Shoot you like Dick Cheney/She's a veteran not a trainee" on "Dats My Part," the Bay Area EP is a better choice. ~ Marisa Brown, All Music Guide