Right at the beginning of his set, DJ Shadow grabbed the mic and mentioned to the crowd, almost as an aside, “By the way, no laptop.” It has been 11 years since he last played Fuji Rock, and technology has definitely changed DJing in the meantime. Despite the putative resurgence of vinyl, few DJs bother to carry records anymore, opting for scratch pads that create the same effects from digital files. For this set, Shadow plugged into a pair of Pioneer CDJs, a mixer, a controller and some drum pads, which he used to drum along to the tracks, especially late in the set, but there was no real turntablism, just straight party DJing. The music was eclectic, sampladelic and bass heavy, or as he put it, “only the newest, illest, sickest shit.” Where does he get it? “I know most of you have no idea what I’m playing. I just cruise around the Internet and find the sickest beats I can.” My guess would be Soundcloud, and if he is paying for music, then Beatport and a few other sites. But Soundcloud especially, because for any given song there will be dozens of remixes, ranging from reworkings by famous DJs to complete unknowns, and in every genre and with every beat you can think of: hip hop, trap, bounce, Miami bass, electro-house and so on. But if the songs were coming from all over the place, the beats really strung it together. I recognized bits and pieces — Ace Hood’s “Buggati”, a snippet of Big Freedia, and a couple others — but everything was tweaked and reworked by the anonymous hands of the Internet, and it was a great, great ride. At one point, a friend turned to me and said, “I feel like I’m on Lando Calrissian’s planet.” Somehow that made sense at the time. Just before Shadow was ready to hand over the decks, he knew he could not completely forget his fans. “I know this is the only track you’ll recognize all night,” he said, and he played “Organ Donor”. Then, by way of signing off he gave one last shout to the crowd, “I believe in new stuff so much I can’t keep playing old stuff. Have a great 2013!”