Mo’ Wax Records : Unreleased (1992–2002)
James Lavelle’s Mo’Wax record label existed for ten years, starting in 1992 and closing around 2002. Understandably, not everything could be released and often things would get announced, then delayed, and potentially shelved as plans changed. Here’s a look at some of the unreleased items announced by Mo’ Wax and their artists.
Mo’ Wax Please Records
Repercussions’ Promise was the first Mo’ Wax release in 1992, but before Mo’ Wax launched James Lavelle had announced another label called Mo’ Wax Please. Two 12" releases were announced in Lavelle’s Straight No Chaser column as due for release in late March 1992, but were never released in what has become a forgotten part of Mo’ Wax’s history.
First, a 12" by The Venus Project, described by Lavelle as “As yet untitled, this EP brings forth the sounds of new age jazz-funk. From ‘Freedom’, a piano/vocal storma (sic) to ‘A Brand New Day’, an amalgamation of 70’s jazz-funk fusion and new-age poetry.”
The Venus Project remain a mystery, as I’ve yet to find anyone who knew who they were, and so far my requests for comment from James Lavelle have gone unanswered.
The other 12" mentioned for release by Mo’ Wax Please was Strangers by Sweatmouth, a group who had already released some music on their own label Rhythm and Business. Lavelle described it as “The first release on M.W.P. and a change in style for the Rhythm and Business collective. Fast breakbeats meets jazz vocals with some funki club business, out in March. So Dam Tuff.”
Last year, I interviewed Rich Thair of Sweatmouth, and he revealed the group had broken up around this point which is likely why their 12" was never released. He also revealed he was part of the first UNKLE sessions when James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy remixed Ronnie Jordan, which also remain unreleased.
Headz Scanner Interludes
Headz was a compilation released by Mo’ Wax in 1994 featuring music from the label alongside other artists. There were two releases in the series, and for the first Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner) was asked to create a series of tracks to be used as interludes. Although they were recorded, they were left off the final release, but Scanner later released all 11 of them himself on his 2012 compilation Colofon & Compendium 1991–1994. He wrote in the album liner notes:
“The shorter pieces interspersed throughout the album were originally commissioned by James Lavelle for an edition of his Mo Wax compilation label series Headz, but for unknown reasons were never included.”
Headz, Headz, Headz
This song from The Prunes was apparently intended as a promo 7" for James Lavelle’s Headz club night in 1995, but until recently had rarely been heard. Only a few copies were made, and even The Prunes didn’t have one. But after a fan bought a copy in 2016 it eventually got out, and can now be heard on YouTube.
The Prunes did release a 12" on Mo’ Wax as part of the Excursions series, and also contributed to the Headz 2A and Headz 2B compilations. Unfortunately a Prunes album planned for Grand Royal Records never came out as that label closed too.
Headz 3
After the success of Headz and its followup Headz 2 album, naturally the next step would have been Headz 3. Originally announced as far back as the release of Headz 2, advertisements appeared in the August 2000 issue of Jockey Slut magazine stating the next volume would arrive in Autumn. Later, the Mo’ Wax website said it was coming sometime in 2001. But although it was definitely being worked on, this eventually stopped as Mo’ Wax closed down.
Jalal – Word To The Wise
Mo’ Wax were often mentioned in Straight No Chaser magazine, not least because James Lavelle had a column hyping records for several years. But outside of Lavelle’s column, there were occasional scoops about upcoming Mo’ Wax releases. For example, in the Summer 1993 issue (#22) they announced an album by Jalal Nuriddin of The Last Poets was coming soon to Mo’ Wax. After sitting in the vaults since 1991, a 12" Word To The Wise produced by Davy DMX was expected, alongside some remixes. Nothing ever came out on Mo’ Wax, but this album eventually was released in France in 1997 as The Fruits of Rap. Muzik called it “interesting but not remarkable.”
Awunsound Unreleased Excursions EP
The Excursions series was released by Mo’ Wax in 1995 and featured ten 12" singles, with five focused on techno and five on hip hop. After those initial ten, James Lavelle mentioned he wanted to focus his attention on Mo’ Wax instead of sublabel projects like Excursions.It was assumed that was it, but in 2020 someone uploaded an unreleased EP by Awunsound to YouTube which purported to have been intended for the Excursions series.
I reached out to Awunsound who confirmed the EP was recorded for Excursions, but he was told the release was cancelled because Mo’ Wax wanted to focus on their key artists, DJ Shadow and DJ Krush, after Mo’ Wax became part of A&M Records.
Awunsound (aka Saleem Andrew McGroarty) had already featured on the first volume of Headz, and in 2017 Joseph Malik collected several unreleased tracks from Awunsound and their M.F. Outa ‘National project for a mix. It contained alternative takes of their song Miles Out Of Time (Astrocentric Mix ’n’ Beats) which had also appeared on Headz.
Sam Sever
Mo’ Wax released from Sam Sever’s What’s That Sound 12" in 1995, and a follow up Zone Alone was produced but has remained unreleased. Two 12" white label promos exist, which include the tracks Zone Alone, Lost In Space (Higher), Keep On Shining, and Zone Alone (Dub). They’re now all on YouTube.
An album titled Something For The Head was also mention on unreleased alternative artwork from What’s That Sound, but otherwise was never officially announced. Later in 2006 an album titled The Sam Sever Project was teased on Sever’s official website, but was also never released. When I contacted him in 2020, Sam Sever told me he hadn’t released any music since What’s That Sound but was hoping to put out some new music soon.
Donut Productions
Mo’ Wax had a partnership with the German record label Marlboro Music in the 1990s, as detailed in this article I wrote. The German releases usually followed those in the UK, but for reasons no one can remember, an album by the US group Donut Productions was only released by Marlboro Music, even though it was intended for Mo’ Wax.
When I interviewed Marc Lariviere in 2021, he explained how Donut Productions had met with people from Grand Royal who introduced them to James Lavelle and DJ Shadow, which led to Mo’ Wax put their song Wirecutter on the compilation Headz 2B.
Their album $19.95 features a Mo’ Wax logo, and James Lavelle sent the group some copies, but the album was never released outside of Germany.
UNKLE’s 1995 “Belmondo” album
Recorded in LA at the end of 1995, with an album release date of February 1996 announced to the press, this album was ultimately scrapped. These sessions featured the original UNKLE collaborators Tim Goldsworthy and Masayuki Kudo and were recorded with producer Mario C.
Goldsworthy and Kudo worked with Money Mark on some songs, while DJ Shadow worked on his own contributions with singer Zoe Bedeaux. One of the DJ Shadow tracks later appeared on his compilation Total Breakdown as Perilous Journey (Gab Demo 3), but unfortunately it’s an instrumental version and the version with Zoe Bedeaux’s contributions remain unreleased.
The LA sessions were given the nickname Belmondo at the time, and were covered in The Face magazine, but ultimately James Lavelle was unhappy with the direction and scrapped them. Of the song recorded, only Berry Meditation was released as a single, while another called Garage Piano appeared on the second Headz compilation.
Two more of the Goldsworthy, Kudo, and Mark tracks were later released by Mo’ Wax on the Major Force West album 93–97, but don’t credit James Lavelle or UNKLE.
Grand Royal VS Mo’ Wax
Mike D of the Beastie Boys and James Lavelle were close friends, so it’s not surprising they would want to collaborate, and at one point they were discussing an album featuring artists from their two labels, Grand Royal and Mo’ Wax.
In 1995 Mike D teased that the album would be released “If James and I ever get our shit together.” He later sent a fax to Lavelle explaining the concept, with each label contributing new or unreleased songs from their label, with the suggested artists including UNKLE, DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, Blackalicious, Mike D, Adrock and Mario C.
The plan was to release multiple 12"s in the lead up to an album on vinyl and CD. But although the album was said to be “coming soon” in 1996, 1997, and 1998, it was never released, and it seems as though it never went further than the idea stage.
Digital Dubz — You Know We Roll
Signed to Mo’ Wax in 2001, Artful Dodger reportedly produced this 12" which was left unreleased due to not being able to clear the samples which included elements from the soundtrack to Psycho. You Know We Roll was pressed as a promo on 12" and CD, but otherwise was never officially released. It featured vocals from Elephant Man, aka O’Neil Bryan.
James Lavelle was asked about this release during an interview, but simply stated that many things never get released by record labels. Digital Dubz did release two remixes in 2000, but otherwise never released a thing. You can hear You Know We Roll on YouTube.
More Unreleased Music
As James Lavelle once said, “There were a lot of things that’s just got unreleased, there were so much going on.” Below are some other releases announced or rumoured but which never came out.
Deborah Anderson only released one single on Mo’Wax and a long rumoured album was said to have been scrapped.
A Sun Ra remix album was planned and rumoured to feature Thurston Moore and Bjork. It never materialised, and was likely just an idea.
Blackalicious announced a compilation called B-side & Live which never came out, and there’s even more unreleased stuff in their vaults since they said they’d record around 70 songs before picking the best for their albums.
Ceri Evans of The Brand New Heavies told Music Week in 1992 he was working on something for Mo’ Wax that remains unreleased.
Similarly, Muzik Magazine announced in 1995 that Alex Reece had recorded a single for Mo’ Wax under the name Playboys. It was never released on Mo’ Wax, but Reece did release a 12" on R&S under that title.
When James Lavelle and A&M signed a deal for Mo’Wax to be supported and distributed in Germany by MotorMusic in 1996, their German website announced several new releases as coming soon including:
- An UNKLE / Belmondo LP and 7"
- Richie Hawtin’s Jungle 12”
- Material from Danny Breakz
- Headz 3
- An album by The Dust Brothers
None were released, and The Dust Brothers spent over 10 years teasing their debut album which still remains unreleased, though some of their songs did get released on Mo’ Wax’s Headz compilations.
In February 2002, a follow up was announced for Mo’Wax’s dancehall compilation Now Thing. Although this wasn’t released then, a follow up did eventually come out in June 2021 and was compiled by some of the same people who put together the original.
Also in 2001, DJ Magic Mike’s The Journey (Era Of Bass Part 2) was announced by Mo’ Wax as the follow up to The Journey (Era Of Bass Part 1). A test pressing was made which collects some of the songs released as singles by Mo’ Wax, but the album remains unreleased.
While some things remained unreleased, others would eventually come out on other labels, like the debut album from Rob Dougan. After releasing Clubbed To Death on Mo’ Wax in 1995, Dougan had been working on an album which eventually became Furious Angels and was released on BMG in 2002.
Back in 1996, when MotorMusic had teased new music on Mo’Wax they mentioned something coming from Peshay. Although he did appear on Headz 2, his Mo’ Wax album was only released as a promo in 1998 and was officially released by Island Records as Miles From Home in 1999 after Mo’ Wax ended their deal with Island’s parent label A&M.
The long planned debut album from the Psychonauts was also meant to be released on Mo’ Wax in 2002, just as the label was shutting down. A promo was released, but fans had to wait another year before the album Songs For Creatures was released by International Deejay Gigolo Records.
Finally, Black Lodge’s Hotline 12" was scheduled as one of the last releases in the Mo’ Wax catalogue but was only released as a promo before the label closed. It was eventually released in 2018 by Arcola, a sublabel of Warp. The EP was called MWR157, a reference to it’s original Mo’ Wax catalogue number.
Further Reading
If you want to know more about Mo’ Wax, their artists, and their music (released and unreleased), I’ve written about most of them in an online series called Mo’ Wax: Where Are They Now.
I also wrote a book called Making Psyence Fiction which details the makings of UNKLE’s debut album, and includes further details on the unreleased Belmondo sessions from 1995.
If you’re interested in more unreleased Mo’ Wax stuff, check out this list of Prototypes and Unreleased Merchandise.
