So I guess that makes his live shows one of Frankenstein’s science experiments. Filmed at Brixton Academy in October 2002 this attempts to give a sense of being there as it was filmed from multiple cameras placed to try to give the feeling of being in the crowd. Fortunately it’s not just a shot of the back of someone’s head and the feeling of beer being split down your leg. It’s well enough executed, cut up with visuals and little snippets of on-the-road footage but overall it looks like some art student project – messy visuals and trendy beats with no coherent real meaning.

The accompanying live CD is superb though, so easy to enjoy whereas the DVD experience left me cold. This is music to be listened to, not observed. Watching DJs perform is like watching yourself wank, just enjoy both for what they are – a pleasure, don’t study them like it’s alchemy. I saw Shadow live with UNKLE a few years back and it was good but not great, a very under whelming experience and this is it’s equal.

The extras comprise some trailers for some other self indulgent turntablist films, a bit of drumming and the perfect example of how the cult of the DJ thing gets a little out of hand sometimes. DJ Shadow brings out DJ NuMark (dumb name, like me calling myself Nigel Microsoft) and Cut Chemist out for a MPC (that’s a sampler) battle. As three men push buttons on their samplers (not unlike me typing this I guess) you see the crowd stood like statues with one bloke bowing down to their DJ ‘skills’. I’m sure a closer inspection of the crowd would reveal a bunch of nerdy white boys in caps, camo and Carhartt (and I’m not taking the piss – I have a camo cap!) watching them do their thing, and whilst it does take some skill (like typing or driving say) it’s not an art form is it? If music is art, then great music can be The Sistine Chapel; whereas this is more Rolf Harris than Michelangelo.