In an increasingly shallow musical world where everyone wants to be – or believes they are – a budding DJ, I have a profound respect for Josh Davis. No, in fact it goes beyond that. It is sheer adoration for the man that goes by the name of DJ Shadow.

Cranking out his sample tracks back in the early 1990s in California, Shadow has managed to take the art of DJing to a whole new stratosphere. And I mean DJing in its purest sense. DJ Shadow is a one-man show, utilising his fingertips to puppeteer the music he creates through his Akai MPC 3000 or 60, Korg Triton (a music workstation synthesiser), Technics 1200 turntable, and an Alesis ADAT. DJ Shadow is a true master of his genre; a category-bending sound that goes far beyond hip hop.

Now, with Shadow’s new tour, he has further outdone himself. Aptly named the Shadowsphere, DJ Shadow has taken the one-dimensional set-up of every DJ around the globe and turned it on its head. The DJ desk is no longer a work station for the ‘press play’ approach, but a sphere of innovation that could only house DJ Shadow.

At Melbourne’s Palace Theatre on Sunday night, the Shadowsphere definitely came into its own. Accompanied by a huge background screen, the sphere was positioned front and centre of the stage. It acted not only as a 3D addition to the visual side of the performance, but it was also where DJ Shadow played from, within its lit up shell as it revolved, opened and closed. It is the ultimate optical illusion to suit clever, layered tracks.

The opening visuals of DJ Shadow’s set began as a computer matrix, all green lines and microchip cores. It then evolved constantly from city grids seen from a bird’s eye view to speeding cars and long lashed eyes staring intensely, to celestial bodies and astrology signs. There was a focus on the moon and other spherical shapes, including marble statues holding lunar globes to sand dunes giving rise to liquefied marbles.

The set- up, sound and stage was a true sensory overload. Other visuals included the Star Wars Death Star (that got a few cheers from the nerds nearby; I may have joined in) as well as iconic images from DJ Shadow’s own film clips including You Can’t Go Home Again, Walkie Talkie (consisting of psychotic chainsaws hacking through the Shadowsphere itself) and High Noon to name a few.

Being the humble performer that he is, the majority of Shadow’s performance was executed inside the Shadowsphere, allowing the audience to take in the music and images without a focus on him and his manoeuvring skills. He is the wizard behind the curtain.

However, when those sphere doors opened to reveal this musical wizard, it was tremendous to get a first-hand look into the dexterity that defines a DJ Shadow performance. He is constantly moving; jumping from one piece of equipment to another as the bass trembles under his fingertips, ricocheting off the sphere to the walls of the Palace Theatre, as beat after beat was dropped and everyone in the crowd reacted with an electricity that was befitting.

Loading a brand new track into the artillery, from his new album named The Less You Know the Better, hit the mark, as did old favourites This Time, Six Days, Walkie Talkie, Number Song, Blood on the Motorway and one of my own personal beloveds, Organ Donor. The DJ Shadow beats are his signature and it seems after this most recent performance, the ink will never run dry.