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
