Many feared he would not be able to improve on Endtroducing, which turned the use of sampling from a tedious DJ thing done between tracks into a free-flowing art form, especially since the likes of Moby stole his lead with massive-selling sample-based music.

Never fear though, because no one does it quite like DJ Shadow. The Private Press - based on samples taken from privately pressed, forgotten records - is an enthralling and more mature work than its ecstatic, everything-goes forefather.

It opens with Letter From Home, a nice aside using some niftily cut 1950s-era American TV samples to explain that, while he's sorry it took so long to make this record, boy did he have fun. Fixed Income, which comes hot on its heels, hammers this point home, as Shadow builds one of his trademark, epic, spine-tingling numbers based on a chillingly beautiful guitar sample and a thumping, ominous bassline.

From here on in it's one exciting moment after another, from the Massive Attack-esque trippy reggae number Six Days to the daring, cut-up piece Monosylabik. However, three tracks in particular mark this album apart. Giving Up The Ghost is a rolling, stunning Shadow epic; the single You Can't Go Home Again is a super funked-up tribute to the days of acid house, with mandolins to boot; and Blood On The Motorway, with its haunting piano line and fabulous vocal lifted from God knows where, is the best thing Shadow has recorded, ever.

And so Davis has done it again. If Endtroducing offered a plethora of ideas about what DJ Shadow might be about, The Private Press has crystallised his abilities for all to see. He has taken music from every walk of life and made it his own. While this will undoubtedly lead to further lame spin-offs by all those pretenders out there, most will simply hang their heads and ask themselves, 'How did he do that?'