DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist : Product Placement

Ouch. This record is so cool it hurts. Purchased for £15 at the recent London date of DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist's brief Product Placement UK tour, its rarity (only 6,000 copies exist) means it now fetches three times that on eBay. Whether it's actually worth that much depends on your feelings towards media-shy breakbeat baron Josh Davis: is Shadow still a DJ deity or just a wealthy crate-digging bore?

Judging by 'Product Placement''s, two elaborate 30-minute mixes constructed using nothing but vintage seven-inches, he's both, though at least he a) admits to his incurable vinyl fetish and b) endeavours to create something worthwhile from it. Together with his equally able pal, the less interesting MJurassic 5 and Ozomatli decknician Cut Chemist, Davis last year produced 'Brainfreeze', a similar, shorter set and CD with which they toured the US. Now, having located a super-scarce copy of Oscar The Grouch's 'I Love Trash', they're back for more.

So named because many of the sound-snippets used are from singles which promote the benefits of milk and cooking with gas, 'Product Placement' involves 129 pieces of plastic (hence One29 Recordings) and weaves its way funkily through freaky garage rock, Philly soul, Led Zeppelin riffage and bubbly electro.

Not only does this provide a catalogue of breaks for dusty-fingered beatsmiths everywhere, it's also a cute, clever and imaginatively executed mix that accurately reflects the pair's catholic tastes. All you have to do is find a copy.

Piers Martin