Davis hasn't done away with sampling entirely. The title track includes a sample of Italian musician Dario Baldan Bembo's 1975 orchestra-laden work "Prima Alba." He happened to pull the record out of one of the storage units where he keeps his vast trove of recordings. "Obviously, people have used classical music ever since Coldcut used it on 'Beats + Pieces' in 1987," Davis told Pitchfork. "It's not like there's anything inherently groundbreaking about using classical music. But for me, I wanted to utilize aspects of it that were unusual. I felt like it would give me an interesting springing-off point."

As for "Nobody Speak," the collaboration with Run the Jewels, Davis said he thought of the duo of El-P and Killer Mike as soon as he had made the "boom-bappy, kind of hip-hop rap" instrumental. "I was just like, that's it, they're the only people I want on this track," he said. "I've known El for almost 20 years." Though the two have collaborated in various ways over the years, this was the first time they've recorded together in the studio, with all three performers meeting in Los Angeles before the holidays last year.

When it comes to the other collaborations, Davis told Pitchfork that "Bergschrund" is actually one of two tracks he worked on with Nils Frahm, so the other one might be finished at some point. "I realized I was familiar with his music but didn't even really know it," Davis told Pitchfork. He said he was looking for someone who was "working in the instrumental space, but anything we do together is going to sound completely different than anything we could do on our own."

Elsewhere, "The Sideshow," with Ernie Fresh, is meant as an old-school scratch track without the familiar tropes of the form. "I wanted to create an alternative universe where you find a rapper who's really, really dope, he's not known to anybody, none of the breaks are known, none of the scratches are known, although at some point they will be known," he said.

Davis said the number of guests on the album was limited on purpose. "I don't really want it to be one of these records where it's this hot rapper, this hot rapper, this feature," he says he told his manager. "I didn't want to have to convince anybody that it was worth their time to be on my records. [Laughs] I just didn't want to make that kind of record."

The Mountain Will Fall:

01 The Mountain Will Fall

02 Nobody Speak [ft. Run the Jewels]

03 Three Ralphs

04 Bergschrund [ft. Nils Frahm]

05 The Sideshow [ft. Ernie Fresh]

06 Depth Charge

07 Mambo

08 Ashes to Oceans [ft. Matthew Halsall]

09 Pitter Patter [ft. G Jones & Bleep Bloop]

10 California

11 Ghost Town

12 Suicide Pact

13 Swerve (iTunes Bonus Track)

DJ Shadow:

06-24 Strasbourg, France - Artefact Festival

07-02 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Pitch Festival

07-08 Liege, Belgium - Les Ardentes

07-14 Sesimbra, Portugal - Super Bock, Super Rock

07-16 Paris, France - The Peacock Society Festival

07-17 Benicassim, Spain - Benicassim

07-23 Cheshire, England - Blue Dot Festival

07-28 Sibenik, Croatia - Island of Obonjan