Sampling Shadow – By Simon James

Simon James is a well respected sound designer. Working solo, and in collaboration, for decades he’s been involved in countless art installations and community projects. He’s also released music on labels such as Castles In Space and Lo Recordings. I’ve known Simon since the early 2000s, when we were both part of a crowd that hung around Brighton’s bespoke clothing boutique, The One40Five Store. Back then Simon was a hip hop fanatic and budding producer. He’d just invested in his first bit of modular kit. Here he tells a tale of sampling Shadow and nearly signing to Mo Wax. This is my DJ Shadow story. It’s quite funny. Well it’s funny now as I can look back at it. Maybe some others might find it funny too. We were actually introduced to Shadow by the third member of Strata 3. Me and my brother, Curtis, were deep in our techno phase but dabbling with what we called slow down techno. The kind of thing Speedy J was doing using breaks with electronics. Somehow we met Dan Jones who was…