DJ Spooky
Modern Mantra (Unmixed Vinyl Version)

Listening notes

DJ Spooky's *Modern Mantra (Unmixed Vinyl Version)* was released in 2002 on Shadow Records under catalog number SDW12021-1. Catalogued under hip hop, the record presents eight tracks spread across two sides, distinguished from other versions of the material by its unmixed format — a distinction made explicit in the title itself.

Side A opens with "ZXERO" at three minutes and fifty-seven seconds, followed by "Skip Town" and "Gangsta Shit," both running four minutes and twenty-one seconds. The side closes with "Tobira 2," a brief forty-five second piece that stands apart from the surrounding tracks by virtue of its duration alone. Side B runs longer in aggregate, with "Posterity" at three minutes and seventeen seconds giving way to "The Sighting" at four minutes and thirty-six seconds. "All That Dub" follows at three minutes and fifty-three seconds, and the record closes with "Myopia," the longest track on the release at four minutes and forty-six seconds.

The unmixed designation in the title warrants attention for collectors and researchers. Where a mixed or continuous version presents material as a seamless whole, an unmixed vinyl version preserves individual tracks as discrete units, which has practical implications for how the record is indexed, catalogued, and used. Whether a mixed counterpart exists under a related catalog number is a question this entry does not attempt to answer without additional verification.

Shadow Records, the issuing label, operated in the hip hop space during this period. Beyond that, the label's relationship to this specific release and its broader catalog context would require independent confirmation before further claims could be made here.

*This is an unreviewed draft. All details above are drawn from submitted data and require fact-checker verification before publication.*