Shifting Gears

1	Intro / Z-Trip 0:27
2	Listen to the DJ / Soup 4:16
3	All About the Music / Whipper Whip 3:22
4	The Get Down / Z-Trip 3:45
5	About Face / Z-Trip 2:51
6	Furious / Z-Trip 4:03
7	Take Two Copies / Busdriver 4:24
8	For My People / Supernatural 4:10
9	Bury Me Standing / Luke Sick 4:27
10	Breakfast Club / Murs 4:53
11	3rd Gear / Z-Trip 3:52
12	Everything Changes / Mystic 5:22
13	Walking Dead / Chester Bennington 4:33
14	Shock and Awe / Z-Trip 4:38
15	Revolution (STR Pts. 1-2) / Z-Trip 17:53
16	The Grandmaster / Grandmaster Caz CD-ROM Track

Barnes & Noble

Z-Trip's last album, the 2001 masterpiece Uneasylistening, Vol. 1, was plagued by a threatened lawsuit over illegal sample use, but the Queens native parlayed it into an ambitious major-label debut that steamrolls over the rock-rap mash-up competition. On Shifting Gears, Z-Trip (Zach Sciacca) mixes genres in the style of hip-hop forefathers Afrika Bambaataa and Kool Herc while keeping the scratching sharp and the beats booming. Plenty of big names show up for the party, but their contributions blend in smoothly. Chuck D. delivers a scathing rant throughout the Scorpions-sampled, apocalyptic dirge "Shock and Awe," while indie MCs Murs and Supernatural reminisce about Saturday morning cartoons throughout the Biz Markie–reminiscent "Breakfast Club." Meanwhile, he bisects a relatively conventional hip-hop rhythm with percussive snares and military cadences on "About Face" and weaves keyboard riffs by the Mars Volta into some slow-rolling beats and scratching on the laid-back jam "3rd Gear." Z-Trip juxtaposes the party vibe provided by legendary Bronx MC Whipper Whip on the Jimmy Castor–sampled "All About the Music" with the ethereal "Everything Changes," featuring Freestyle Fellowship's Aceyalone and singer/rapper Mystic, which comes off like a sweet fusion of Tori Amos and Dilated Peoples. On one of 2005's more daring releases, Z-Trip successfully shifts gears from hip-hop's underground into the mainstream spotlight. Dave Gil de Rubio

All Music Guide

Live, DJ Z-Trip infringes copyrights like nobody's business. He's won over turntable heads and jam band fans with his genre-jumping mash-ups, and his most influential moments have come in the form of MP3s that are traded well below the RIAA's radar. So how does a swashbuckling bootlegger of a DJ release an album on a major label? By declaring himself a "producer" and brewing up new tracks. But Z-Trip has a secret up his sleeve -- he's a great producer and able to celebrate the music he usually bites by capturing the spirit rather than just copying it. Shifting Gears is a reminiscing album that is in love with a time when breakdancers and b-boys ruled and living without your Adidas was just impossible. There's plenty of breakbeats, vocoders, and "to the beat y'all"s, but there's also a bunch of up-to-date rapping from the alternative rappers and a wealth of furious scratching that is more concerned with tearing it up than nostalgia. Z-Trip is a monster behind the decks, so much so that it's easy to ignore Shifting Gears' rock-solid base. Firm infectious beats fill the album, supporting both the DJ's own scratch-fests and complementing the style of every rapper who stops by. A phat, quirky beat supports Murs' uplifting and innocent ode to Saturday morning cartoons and sugary cereals, while Lyrics Born gets some tasty bongo loops and Gap Band-style synth to anchor down his party chant. Giving Chuck D a Rick Rubin-y crunch behind him seems like a cop-out, but it's still a serviceable track. On the other hand, Z-Trip's team-up with Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington falls flat with forced angst from the vocalist and surprisingly drab, faux-noir backing from the Z man. Of course, one monkey don't stop no show, and the rest of Shifting Gears is more than you'd expect from a turntablist full-length and a great argument for Z-Trip as producer. David Jeffries

Rolling Stone

Shifting Gears doesn't have the novelty of Z-Trip's earlier work, but it points to a bright future for the DJ. Bill Werde