Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now: Rich File / DJ Aura / Forme
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…
In 1995 Mo’ Wax created a spin-off label called Excursions. It put out ten 12" singles which were then collected onto a compilation album, also called Excursions, and released by Mo’ Wax in 1996.
Richard “Rich” File is perhaps mainly associated with Mo’ Wax and James Lavelle due to his time in UNKLE. Rich joined UNKLE for their second album, which was released after Mo’ Wax had closed, but he also produced his own music on Mo’ Wax as DJ Aura and Forme, some of which appeared on the Excursions and Headz compilations.
Rich first met James Lavelle in 1994. At the time, he was living in Brighton, studying, skateboarding, and DJing on pirate radio, and through skating he met Will Bankhead who worked at Slam City Skates and was also collaborating with Mo’ Wax. When James Lavelle came to Brighton to DJ with Will Bankhead he met Rich File and this introduction led to over a decade of collaborations.
Through his DJing, Rich File also met Ilian Walker, aka Ils, who had set up his own studio and released some of his own productions on LTJ Bukem’s label. Rich in turn introduced Ils to Mo’ Wax, and Ils worked as the in-house engineer on several releases between 1995–97. These included Rich File’s debut on Mo’ Wax, Solo & Aura’s Take Heed, a collaboration with DJ Solo aka Mark Wilkins.
In 2019 Rich File shared a photo of him and DJ Solo on Instagram and wrote about how Take Heed came about:
“…after I’d been DJ’ing for a year or so on pirate radio, and was now itching to get in the studio and have a go at making some music myself, I just went up to him [DJ Solo] in our local record shop and asked him if we could make a record together. Mark and I made Take Heed — which I’m still so proud of! — which was my first release on Mo’Wax’s sister label, Excursions and it sold over 5,000 vinyl copies in the first week!
Take Heed reached #96 in the UK Singles Charts on 25 November 1995, and was followed by Justice in 1996, another 12" by DJ Solo & DJ Aura engineered by Ils, though this time it was released on Flavour Vinyl.
Although he had a few releases on different labels around this time, Rich File continued working with Mo’ Wax too, and in 1995 he collaborated with Will Bankhead on some new music as Forme. They recorded New Element at Ils’ studio, and it was included on Mo’ Wax’s Headz 2A compilation and LTJ Bukem’s Logical Progression mix. Rich explained how that came about when I interviewed him about his work with Mo’ Wax in 2018.
“Just through me and Will Bankhead going in the studio, well firstly me going round Will Bankheads house and going through a bunch of records and finding some samples and that dictated what the song sounded like, just what records, what samples we got together. It was very much a case of find some samples that excited us both and then take them in a studio and see what happened when we put them all together on the sampler and had an opportunity to fuck around with them. So it wasn’t really much method beyond just lets get some samples and go in a studio and see what happens.”
Bukem had been an early influence on Rich File, and he later described the experience of hearing his mixes as life changing, so he was blown away to hear Bukem play NYE New Element on New Years Eve at Dreamscape 1995.
Later in 2002, Rich released more Forme on Adam Freeland’s label Marine Parade, this time without Will Bankhead. After three 12"s on that label, one more Forme track was released on Jonathan Lisle’s M Theory in 2005, before Rich File put the alias to rest again until 2019.
Back in the 90s during his time at Mo’ Wax, Rich File also collaborated with Ils on a series of advertisements, which included music for Coca Cola, Miller Light, and Nike. Of those, the Nike project was released on CD in 1997 featuring music by Rich and Ils with athletes talking about their sport over the top. When I spoke with Rich he told me about the project.
“To be honest it was just being in the right place at the right time…it was quite near to Christmas or a couple of months before and this job came in and it was for a fair amount of money…It was a really quick turnaround and we put all of the sports stars voices put onto acetates, we got them all cut on to dub plates so we could manipulate them on top of the music we made. It was the first album I’d ever made and me and Ils made it really quickly and everyone loved it.”
Although that was his first album, he almost appeared on another Mo’ Wax album which could have changed his career trajectory.
Between 1995–1998 James Lavelle had been working on the debut album of his UNKLE project, first with producers Tim Goldsworthy, then with Kudo and Toshi from Major Force, and finally with DJ Shadow. The album Psyence Fiction was released with guest vocals from Thom Yorke and Richard Ashcroft, but at one point was also meant to include Rich File.
One night, after Rich had been DJing with James Lavelle, they took a cab back home and James heard Rich singing to himself and thought he’d be perfect for the project. They flew to San Fransisco to record a demo at DJ Shadow’s home studio where Rich attempted to sing a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Dream over what would become Celestial Anhialation. The session didn’t go well though and the track remains an instrumental on Psyence Fiction.
While he didn’t get to appear on Psyence Fiction, Rich said the experience left him hungry for more and he recorded some further demos with Major Force producer Masayuki Kudo at the Mo’ Wax studios, and another with Massive Attack’s producer Jonny Dollar, but they weren’t released.
Following the release of Psyence Fiction, the song Unreal was re-recorded as Be There featuring new vocals by Ian Brown who hadn’t been able to contribute to the album in time. This new version featured additional arrangements from Rich File, and became his first credit on an UNKLE single.
James Lavelle and Rich File next worked together producing South’s album From Here On In and the Sexy Beast soundtrack, as well as several UNKLE remixes. Then in 2002, James Lavelle shut down Mo’ Wax, he moved in with Rich File, and they began DJing and making mixes together as UNKLESounds, as Rich told Sound on Sound.
“We began experimenting with various rock records and other records that weren’t right for a club context unless we f**ked with them, ie. re-edited them and remixed them. We also remixed a lot of the Psyence Fiction stuff in a more club, uptempo way. We were just using an Akai MPC2000XL, an Atari, and an Emu 6400, which were standing in a corner of the flat. James introduced me to the MPC, and I really got into it.”
They began recording new music as well, which developed into UNKLE’s second album Never Never Land, released on Island Records in 2002.
Rich kept working on his own projects too though, and in 2006 he announced the release of his first solo EP under his own name, as he told Clash, “It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while. I write shit loads of songs and I don’t want them to be just sitting there. I just want to put out as much music as possible.”
The Neon One EP was meant to be followed by an album in 2007, which never arrived, and then in 2008 Rich File announced he was leaving UNKLE to concentrate on his new band We Fell To Earth with Wendy Rae Fowler, who he had began collaborating with in 2005. They released one self-titled album in 2009, but then “differences with their label” are said to have put the band on hiatus, with Rich contributing to a solo album of Wendy’s instead.
In 2017 he revealed he had three finished and abandoned albums, and was now working with producer Ben Hillier on what would be his debut album.This was released at the end of 2018 as a self-titled album (later renamed Only The Lucky Ones), and made available for streaming and sale. Unfortunately Rich later pulled the whole thing in 2021, while also deleting his Instagram feed detailing the release. An empty YouTube playlist still exists with the album credits, but otherwise there is little proof the album ever existed.
Now, only two songs remain on his Bandcamp, Nights In White Satin from 2012, and Falling Apart which was released in 2019.
Also in 2019, Rich recorded new music as Forme to accompany a November 2020 reissue of New Element. Rich wrote at the time about being approached by Alex from Okbron Records about the reissue, and whether there was anything else in his archives to release.
“He then asked me if I had anything for the B side in my archives, which after a little root around in my studio I realized that sadly I hadn’t. But then I thought, I may not have any other tracks from back then, but I most certainly have the skills and the inclination to make some more music in this vein. How fun it would be to feel like I was 20 again and make some new music inspired by those crazy times!
And that’s what I did.”
Earlier in February 2020, Rich and Andrew J Millar both teased something following a polaroid photo collaboration which was a portrait of Rich. It’s unclear what was planned, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to take hold around that time and so many people’s plans were put on hold.
More recently, Rich announced he was releasing an autobiography. But rather than write a book, he is making a series of music mixes called Listen To The Sound Of The World Spinning Round, Good Vibrations Thru My Bedroom Walls,1975-present. The first part was performed live as a DJ set, and was later uploaded to Mixcloud, with more to come.
While Rich File has a large body of work, either from his time with UNKLE or other collaborations and productions, it sounds as though a lot of it remains unreleased. Whether this is because Rich himself is unhappy with it, or it’s been tied up with labels like the rumoured second We Fell To Earth album or collaborations like the unreleased UNKLE demos which preceded Psyence Fiction, we can hope some day these do come out. But more so, we should hope Rich will release a solo album he’s happy with one day too so he can move on to a second and third album, and enjoy the acclaim his work deserves.
