Beat logo

In Profile: UNKLE

Someone who really should be on your musical radar!

By Gary PackerPublished 3 years ago Updated 3 years ago 14 min read
Like
James Lavelle, Unkle album covers

Snippets of mentioned tracks in this article

Founded in 1992 by a British DJ/ producer, UNKLE are musical group that has slipped under most people’s musical radars. James Lavelle has been the mainstay over the last nearly 30 years, and worked with several musicians – Josh Homme, Nick Cave, Richard Ashcroft, DJ Shadow and Ian Brown to name but a few. The albums released have been crafted by Lavelle from more of a composer position, crafting various sounds and voices together to produce work that centres around a theme, whether it be either musically or visually influenced. Founder of Mo’wax in 1992 (which released DJ Shadows’ ‘Endtroducing’), Lavelle used his profile, and his pull in music circles to attract people to work/feature on his UNKLE albums.

Each album has a unique sound, ranging from Trip-Hop, to Electro, Rock, House and Orchestral. In this article I will attempt to breakdown each album, along with a few key tracks that reflect the sound and direction of each, including detail about the personnel who feature.

1998 – Psyence Fiction

A very raw, trip-hop album, heavily influenced and reflective of the signature sound brought to it by DJ Shadow. There’s a strong industrial rock sound also thrown in for good mix too, with tracks like ‘Bloodstain’ and ‘U.N.K.L.E. Main Title Theme’ containing almost Nirvana-esque rock samples. There is a strong foreboding dark sound that dominates this album, which is encapsulated by ‘Lonely Soul’ and ‘Rabbit in Your Headlights’ featuring Richard Ashcroft (The Verve) and Thom Yorke (Radiohead). Both are brooding tracks that stay with you. ‘Lonely Soul’ in particular (which is probably the UNKLE track you’ll know, but never knew you knew,) which was featured in the movie The Beach starring Leonardo Di Caprio. ‘Rabbit in Your Headlights’ is a haunting track, which perfectly matches Thom Yorke’s vocals, delivering the lyrics to perfection and has an accompanying music video that’s definitely worth a YouTube search. ‘Be There’ features Ian Brown in classic form, again much like Yorke delivers perfectly sung lyrics that echo the music’s dark trip-hop tones.

Key Tracks

#2 – Bloodstain

#3 – Lonely Soul

2003 – Never, Never, Land

This album marks a change in sound. DJ Shadow’s departure also removes his trip-hop sound, and in comes a more electronic sound, with slight dance house overtones and arrangements. It also marks the start of a signature of UNKLE albums from this point on, the opening track ‘Back and Forth’ along with a few others feature spoken word samples from movies, tv shows or interviews woven into the music. ‘An Eye for an Eye’ makes use of this trick to great effect to produce a driven rock guitar-esque song that contains samples of biblical verse and speech. ‘In a State’ is a pounding piece of house, with haunting lyrics that almost sound as if they’ve been sung from the beyond. ‘Reign’ is perhaps the jewel of the album, an orchestral dance number featuring Ian Brown delivering lyrics in his classic style of being almost gently spoken, with holding and drawing out the note on specific words to give an echo to the music, creating a perfect sync. ‘Invasion’ interestingly harks back to the trip-hop sound of the previous album Psyence Fiction, but with a more refined, simpler cleaner sound that contains softer DJ record scratching, and a laboured monotonist guitar riff that breaks occasionally to a gentle lulling but occasionally sharp violin, which punctuates the song perfectly.

Key Tracks

#2 – ‘An Eye for an Eye’

#9 – ‘Reign’

2007 – War Stories

James Lavelle takes the UNKLE sound down a rock path and WOW does it deliver! In my opinion this is thee best UNKLE album to date, and a must starting point one for all UNKLE virgins. To boil this album down to a few tracks is almost impossible, and it bursts at the seams with features from Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Gavin Clark (Clayhill), Ian Astbury (The Cult) as well as 3D (Massive Attack) plus plenty others. The album chucks rock music into a blender along with orchestral samples, then sets them to dance tempo’s with thick layers of lyrics. ‘Chemistry’ lull’s you in with gentle sharp piano keys, before hitting you in the face with a sharp drum solo then booming notes from a bass to get you going. ‘Hold my Hand’ starts with a synthesised sound of a train setting off, before a swaggering bass (that Kasabian would be proud of) kicks the song into touch and away we go, lyrically monotonist evoking an almost Ian Brown-esque sound. The song even indulges us with a sample of David Bowie’s – Be my Wife at 4:15. ‘Restless’ gives space for Josh Homme to show his vocal range, matching every beat of the music, before deciding to distort him into pure sonic sound half way through the song – increasing the tempo and almost daring him to attempt to keep up lyrically, before fading out. ‘Keys to the Kingdom’ features the late Gavin Clark singing his lines in a warbling heartfelt manner. This track is a pure un-adulterated driving track. Designed to get the blood pumping and the brain firing on all cylinders (interestingly it’s been used heavily in segments on old school Top Gear – don’t worry I got you Jezza!), the crescendo at 3:18 will having you pushing the pedal to floor as the spaghetti western style strings creep in. ‘Price You Pay’ begins life as an eerie gentle haunting vocal piece with almost lullaby notes and chimes, before juxtaposing itself with a searing crashing electronic that could be used effectively in a movie to highlight the entrance of the villain and his evil forces. Drifting between dreamlike and crashing notes, synchronistically with the singer’s voice and the music is what makes this song. The album then segues into ‘Burn My Shadow’. Featuring Ian Astbury of The Cult fame (google ‘She sells Sanctuary’), this song also employs the juxtaposition technique, however instead of starting softly and rising it instead starts off dramatically. Grabbing your ears and taking you along for an intense, strong audio trip before slowing every now and again to let you catch your breath and regain composure, before smacking you back over the head with some heavy bass playing. The song is rough, moody, high tempo, melodic, dance-y and lyrically soothing all in one package. If one song summarises this album, then it would be this one, and if you only listen to one – then make it this!

Key Tracks

#5 – Keys to the Kingdom

#7 – Burn My shadow

2008 – End Titles……Stories for Film

This album is a strange one, James Lavelle even went so far as to state in the album credits that it wasn’t an album in the traditional sense. Released 2 years after War Stories, it is composed of music inspired by, and for use in different aspects of visual and audio media. Instead of it going to waste and hoping the work would find an audience, Lavelle decided to release it under the UNKLE name as most of the personnel were the same. It does share quite a large chunk of DNA with its predecessor, and many singers to feature on War Stories do again so here, and a few tracks from the same album also get a re-working. A great example being ‘Chemistry’ from the previous album, which now has Josh Homme singing lyrics over it and gives the original a new lease of life, along with being renamed ‘Chemical’. Much of the 22 tracks on this album do in some regards feel like sections omitted from War Stories, or in other cases incomplete sections or songs worked to a conclusion. By no means worth dismissing, but one maybe more for purists. Tracks such as ‘Cut Me Loose’ and ‘Blade in the Back’ feature Gavin Clark, with his signature hurt style of singing recapture the sounds of War Stories like an echo. Also singing vocals on ‘Heaven’ his voice takes on a melancholic sound, which perfectly fits the sad down-beat tempo speed of the track. This and the distorted backing samples of voices wailing in and out, all give this the vibe of an end credits song in a movie, of when the main protagonist of the movie is dying and fades out. ‘Nocturnal’ is another orchestral/dance/rock hybrid of Lavelle’s that almost sounds like it could have been produced for U2. ‘Trouble in Paradise (Variation on a Theme)’ and ‘24 Frames’, are all instrumental pieces, no vocals here. It’s in these tracks we see Lavelle’s most experimental side, ’24 Frames’ itself could be used in a car chase sequence of a movie, or as background music on a race circuit in a Gran Turismo or Forza game. ‘Trouble in Paradise (Variation on a Theme)’ itself is a dramatic orchestral piece, which featured in a BMW commercial. Building itself into a crescendo which breaks into a soaring wave of electronic sounds and violin’s, before fading back down into the gentle dramatic pitter-patter of piano keys and xylophone notes. Again, this track could easily find itself being used in a videogame, one in which the main character finds themselves in a stunning landscape or epic castle. This album is interesting, and holds many gems, but is more for the completionist, or an enjoyer of experimental music.

Key Tracks

#13 – Trouble in Paradise (Variation on a Theme)

#21 – Heaven

2010 – Where Did the Night Fall

Do you like samples and synth’s, and every type of musical instrument you can imagine? This is what this album is all about. Lavelle produced this with a strong clear vision of what this album is all about from the visuals, to the sounds to the artwork. The compliment of contributors, and instrumentation on this album is extensive (and largest to date of any UNKLE album), with Viola, Double bass, Tuba, Organ, Piano, Trumpets, Keyboards, Guitar, French horns, Drums, Brass, backing vocalists, synthesizer’s, sound and vocal engineer’s. Lavelle goes into full DJ mode here, with a refined approach to music production procedure, sounds and arrangements touched upon and glimpsed on previous albums and songs, used as the template of how to layer a track the nth degree. This album is a hard nut to crack, praise is due for the scope and execution, but there is less stand out tracks than previous albums. ‘On a Wire’ a driven guitar and drum sample, framed into a dance track is perfectly married with ELLE J’s vocals sung in an almost trance-like state, drifting from focused directed sung lyrics that give way to a layered sampled vocally broken sung chorus with high tempo drums. ‘Falling Stars’ features returning vocal contributor Gavin Clark, his voice initially distorted before taking main stage as he sings the chorus of ‘run, run, run’ while tribal sounding drums play like a demonic chant under it all. It’s pause for breath highlighted by a gentle piano/guitar/synthesiser hybrid base track, before lurching back into a driving guitar as he repeats ‘run, run, run’, before breaking again to an 80’s style Blade Runner sounding synth, before fading out with a steel guitar. This song probably best sums up this album, once you think you have it worked out, it shifts and warps into something else in enigmatic fashion. As an aside this album is the last to feature Gavin Clark, who died in 2015 due to breathing complications after struggling with alcoholism. ‘Ablivion’ is similar in style to sounds explored on War Stories and End Titles… a strong drum baseline layered with sharp violin that come on like ‘Trouble in Paradise’, swirling and building through dense layers of samples and synth pieces, before an echoing mix and mash of faded vocals with viola fade out. Another album maybe for purists, however the execution and sonic wonderland put out by this album is worth the listen.

Key Tracks

#6 – On a Wire

#7 – Falling Stars

2017 – The Road, Pt.1

Produced after a lengthily hiatus of 7 years, this is the first UNKLE album produced solely by Lavelle himself. Similar in vain to Where Did the Night Fall, but with a more stripped back, less layered feel that harks back to the days of War Stories. The album contains interesting oddities as well, there is a few ‘songs’ which are simply spoken pieces over ambient sounds, which intercut the musically focused tracks on the rest of the album. Songs also contain multiple vocalists, which each have their time to shine through on songs individually, each singing a segment, before melting back into the one harmonised vocal. ‘Farewell’ starts as a gentle piano ballad, building into a striking operatic number with searing violin cords and reverbing vocals that sound as if you are in a large auditorium. ‘No Where to Run/Bandits’ has a mix of drowny/distorted Nirvana-esque guitar, with drums and epic guitar riffs coupled with haunting vocals which recall ‘Keys to the Kingdom’. There is still signs of the dance orientation which influenced earlier albums here too, ‘Arms Length’ has a classic almost old- school house keyboard sound to it. Phat dance bass repeating for a base track, overlayed with haunting backing vocals, and strong London rhyming that suggests the style of Massive Attack. ‘Sunrise (Always Comes Around)’ could be almost Moby-ish in sound, a simple house tune with a strong female vocal that shifts in perfect time, lyrically to mirror the music, its ‘breakdown’ even sounds like it could be a sample of ‘Moby – God Moving Over the Face of the Water’. This album is more art than music in parts ( the album cover even shows this, a sort of mash up of a Banksy and Damien Hirst art piece), however again it does deliver something interesting, and is probably more accessible than other UNKLE albums.

Key Tracks

#6 – No Where to Run/Bandits

#14 – Sunrise (Always Comes Around)

2019 – The Road: Part II / Lost Highway

This album is to The Road Pt.1, what End Titles… is to War Stories. Basically put it’s a collection of songs that were unfinished, or didn’t make the grade for The Road Pt.1 for whatever reason. It’s described by Lavelle as more of a mixtape than an actual album. In the 2 years between these albums, Lavelle re-worked and finished these tracks, giving them new life, and releasing them as an extension of the previous album – hence the title. Similar in tone musically, it does take the darker grungier sound from The Road sessions and stretch it out, although the epic dreamlike and orchestral tones remain strong. Spread over 2 ‘sides’, almost in a classic vinyl album of yesterday year style, it contains a total 22 tracks. Again more of one for a purest fan, it does contain highlights such as ‘Ar:Mour’ calls back to classic tracks in the style of War Stories, ‘The Other Side’ soaring classically sounding in the vain of ‘Trouble in Paradise’ but with added vocals. ‘Feel More / With Less’ piano driven with haunting female vocals, ‘Only You’ calls to mind ‘Lonely Soul’ from Psyence Fiction while ‘Crucifixion / a Prophet’ recalls ‘Bloodstain’ from the same album. For the first time Lavelle also ends each side with cover songs. To call them this is unfair as they are almost deconstructed, reimagining’s of ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ originally by black female soul singer of the 60’s Roberta Flack, and ‘Touch Me’ a distinct take on the classic dance anthem Touch Me by Rui Da Silva from 2002. This album also contains sample of people speaking, and again actor Brian Cox features, as he did on The Road Pt.1, as do several others from that album. All in all, this album should be treated as extension of The Road, and it makes sense in the context of that album, and the creative relationship that exists between them.

Key Tracks

Side 1 #3 – Ar:Mour

Side 1 #5 The Other Side

Side 1 #6 Feel More / With Less

*Bonus Track UNKLE – On My Knees*

This track is the latest by UNKLE, and features on the album ‘Music Inspired by the Film Roma’. The album itself is a collection of the director Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men and Gravity), the movie itself is a love letter to the director’s life growing up in Mexico. It was produced after the director contacted all his favourite musicians, asking them to contribute a track inspired by his movie ‘Roma’. Again a track that would fit comfortably on any of the last 2 albums mentioned, sharp operatic violin and piano tones simmer under a strong, at times pained soulful vocal by Michael Kiwanuka, worth checking out if any of the other tracks have tickled your fancy!

If you enjoyed this article, then please feel free to check my profile out, and some of my other articles/stories. I appreciate your support and time !

techno
Like

About the Creator

Gary Packer

Jack of all trades, master of none

https://entertainmentthought.com/

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.