Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now: Ilian Walker aka Ils / The Force
Mo’ Wax was a record label started by James Lavelle in 1992, which closed about ten years later. Initially they released 12" singles and licensed a compilation from Japan of Japanese Hip Hop, until 1994 when they began releasing albums of their artists original work. While some of these artists such as DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, and Money Mark continued releasing music after Mo’ Wax closed, others have seemingly disappeared from the music scene. In this series I will look at each artist on Mo’ Wax and try to find out where are they now…
Ils, aka Ilian Walker, was part of several Mo’ Wax releases, usually as engineer, and collaborated with Mo’ Wax artists like DJ Solo and Rich File on other labels. His solo work as The Force appeared on the Mo’ Wax compilation Headz 2B.
Born in London, Ilian Walker began playing guitar and bass in funk bands at the age of 14 before he bought a sampler and advertised his services in Loot magazine. He would later recall that all of his clients wanted him to chop up the famous Amen break, telling Muzik, “It was like Groundhog Day. I’d have two different clients a day asking me to chop Amen differently. I’d go to sleep at night dreaming about it.”
1994 saw his first tracks as Ils released on a label called Mistermen, with his friend G-Force, aka Mark Lipka. After G-Force got the phone number of DJ and producer LTJ Bukem, he and Ils began taking their tracks to him and LTJ Bukem began releasing them on his Good Looking Records.
His studio work got him introductions to producer DJ Solo, and they collaborated as Ils & Solo, making their debut together on Bukem’s Looking Good Records sublabel in 1995. The following year Bukem released Ils’ solo project Axis, releasing three Axis 12"s in 1996.
Things were looking good, until one day Bukem announced he owed thousands in tax and wouldn’t be able to pay any of his artists, which annoyed Ils though luckily his studio was still busy with other work which did pay. His Q-BASS studio received lots of work, and was renamed ILL MANSION in 1997 where it became the main studio for Bluprints records which launched in December 1997 with Ils & Solo’s Outer Edge.
Alongside his work with DJ Solo, Ils’ studio work introduced him to Rich File who then got him work with Mo’ Wax Records where Ils produced for File’s Forme project, Deborah Anderson, and Rob Dougan.
Ils also produced Future Tense, his only song as The Force, which appeared on the Mo’ Wax compilation Headz 2B in 1996, and in 1997 teamed with Rich File for an album promoting Nike Air shoes.
This was just one of the promotional projects James Lavelle organised Ils and Rich File to create music for, and between March-September 1997 they worked in Ils’ studio on advertisements for Coca Cola, Miller Light, and Nike.
The Nike album was recorded in three weeks, with 1 million copies of the CD made and included inside magazines like FHM, and the music was also featured in a Nike advertisement shown on SKY TV. Ils later said the experience of working on advertisements for Mo’ Wax changed the way he made music, as he told Resident Advisor:
“Through this advertising work I learned to write music differently. It was a constant learning curve — less about jamming and having fun, more learning how to make tracks in high-pressure situations. It gave me grey hair and chest pains, but it was a good experience. Maybe spiritually and creatively it wasn’t that fulfilling, but the money was good.”
While working at Mo’ Wax, Ils wrote much of the music which would appear on his debut solo album Idiots Behind The Wheel. The album was set for release in 1999 on Fuel Records, after the labels cofounder Dave Tipper asked him to make an album that was “dark, moody, and soundtracky.”
Unfortunately, the album was apparently never officially released. Fuel Records was shut down one week before the album was due to come out. Ten thousand copies were seized by the labels distributor, and Ils was never paid, but some 1,000 promos were distributed to journalists, including to Music Week who reviewed the album in May 1999. They wrote, “Ils debut album is a lavish soundscape drawing heavily on breakbeat and drum & bass influences. The accompanying short film of the same name will help drum up some interesting controversy.”
Later in 2003 Ils was asked about a possible re-release, and told DB Magazine it was unlikely.
“As far as I know I never signed a contract for that album or anything, so technically I could re-release it, but I feel I should move forward. There’s a lot more music to be written, really.”
Before releasing his second album Soul Trader on Adam Freeland’s Marine Parade label in 2002, Ils licensed the album opener Next Level for an Orange phone advertisement. It meant the album’s recording expenses were recouped before Soul Trader had even been released, and the song entered the UK Singles Chart, peaking at #75. Two more songs also entered the Top 100, with No Soul reaching #82 and Music #98. These are Ils only solo appearances in the UK Charts.
For his third album Bohemia, Ils handed in his finished album in August 2004 only for Marine Parade to temporarily close after their distributor suddenly collapsed. The label told him they weren’t in a position to put out any albums for a while so Ils released it on Distinctive in 2005 where he said it got “the best response I’ve ever had off any project I have ever worked on.”
Bohemia was followed by two more albums, 2007’s Paranoid Prophets and 2013’s 33 R.P.M. But since then, Ils has had few credits. In 2018 he spoke with Criminal Tribe about his career and a possible 6th album.
“I would make an album if the I knew a large enough audience wanted it. Breaks has always been a very specialised field. I sometimes wonder what I would be doing if I had kept on making drum & bass with LTJ BUKEM.”
While we await news of new music, in June 2022 Okbron Records released a new 12" by Ils under his Axis alias featuring two tracks left unreleased from the 90s. It marked the first new Axis release since 1998, and the most recent release from Ils since 2013 (not counting his Basement Jaxx remix in 2015). Instead he’s been travelling, and in 2018 said he was finally enjoying visiting different countries without having to DJ all night.
