Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now: U.N.K.L.E. (1994)
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…
UNKLE, or Men From U.N.K.L.E. as they were initially known, released their first 12" on Mo’ Wax in 1994. Both UNKLE and Mo’ Wax were started by James Lavelle, but as Lavelle wasn’t much of a musician himself he brought in friends to help realise his ideas for the UNKLE project. Initially he was joined by Tim Goldsworthy, and the pair began their career creating remixes for artists such as Mondo Grosso, United Future Organization, and Marden Hill.
After meeting Masayuki Kudo and Nakanishi Toshio of Major Force, James Lavelle invited the pair to set up a studio in the Mo’ Wax basement for what would become the Major Force West Studios. It was during this period when Lavelle brought together Kudo, Toshio, Goldsworthy and himself to create Time Has Come, a song which was released as Mo Wax Vs. Major Force in October 1994, and sold well enough to peak just outside the UK Singles Top 100. This song was later remixed by UNKLE and re-released as If You Find Earth Boring on The Time Has Come EP, which in 1995 entered the UK Singles Chart, spending one week at #73.
While UNKLE was intended as a fun side project for Lavelle, now that they had some chart success he felt inclined to take the project more seriously. This pressure led to a series of delays for what would become UNKLE’s debut album, which I have written about in more detail for the book Making Psyence Fiction.
By the time UNKLE’s debut album Psyence Fiction was released in 1998 the group had changed completely from the experimental origins which led to 1994’s The Time Has Come and 1997’s Berry Meditation with Tim Goldsworthy and Kudo. By 1996 both members had left the group to be replaced with DJ Shadow and a series of guest artists such as Thom Yorke and Richard Ashcroft. Psyence Fiction reached #4 in the UK Album Chart, and spent a total of fourteen weeks within the Top 100.
Following the release of the album, DJ Shadow left the project and toured the USA with Latyrx and Blackalicious, while James Lavelle worked with Rich File on Be There, a collaboration with Stone Roses singer Ian Brown singing over the Psyence Fiction track Unreal. Be There was released by UNKLE as a single in 1999 and performed live on Bristish TV with DJ Shadow returning to provide live scratches. After this performance Shadow and Lavelle moved back to their seperate projects, with Shadow focusing on his next solo album, and Lavelle DJing and managing Mo’ Wax.
In 2001 Lavelle announced that he was working on a new UNKLE album, and the press focused on whether or not DJ Shadow would be returning to the project as well. Lavelle explained:
UNKLE has always been something that has moved about, and lots of different people have been involved, and Shadow was involved for that album, but he’s not involved now in that same way. This isn’t an issue between me and [DJ Shadow], this was an issue of just… everything that happened. I don’t want that pressure put between our friendship again.
In 2003 UNKLE returned with Never, Never Land, the follow up to Psyence Fiction which now featured Rich File and Lavelle as the groups two members. Guest vocalists and performers again appeared, this time including Ian Brown, 3D, Brian Eno, Jarvis Cocker, Josh Homme, and Joel Cadbury from South who had previously worked with UNKLE on 2000’s Sexy Beast soundtrack.
The album saw a change in sound for UNKLE, moving away from Hip Hop and becoming more Electronic, as Lavelle’s influences had changed in the years following the release of Psyence Fiction. Never, Never Land reached #24 in the UK Album Chart, and #6 in the USA on the Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums Chart, with generally favourable reviews.
2003 also marked the end of Mo’ Wax, with Never, Never Land one of the last releases from the label. UNKLE meanwhile continued to tour, often as UNKLE Sounds, a live incarnation with Rich File and James Lavelle DJing and creating new UNKLE remixes of songs to better fit their mixes. UNKLE Sounds released a series of CDs between 2001 and 2005, some of which have since been heavily bootlegged due to only initially being released as promos.
UNKLE next returned in 2007 with War Stories, a new album which featured a more Rock influenced sound, and featured Josh Homme, Gavin Clark, 3D, and Ian Astbury as guests. This was the final album to feature Rich File as a member of UNKLE, and Pablo Clements stepped in to the role of James Lavelle’s main collaborator after already being part of the extended Mo’ Wax family from his work as a member of The Psychonauts and previous collaborations with James Lavelle.
War Stories was followed by the album Where Did the Night Fall in 2010, which refined the Rock sound heard on War Stories and featured collaborations with The Black Angels, Sleepy Sun, Gavin Clark, and Big In Japan. UNKLE then took seven years to release their follow up album due to various behind the scenes dramas, though of course James Lavelle kept busy with other projects.
While not working on UNKLE, Lavelle has worked with the fashion and art world, collaborating with brands such as Nike and BAPE, holding exhibitions celebrating Stanley Kubrick, and introducing KAWS to the UK. Often these collaborations are billed as by UNKLE rather than James Lavelle, so the bands name has become associated with more than just the music, and UNKLE merchandise is now part of peoples BAPE, Nike, and Futura collections.
In 2017 UNKLE returned when The Road: Part 1 was released as the first part of an intended trilogy. The album featured artwork by the painter Jonas Burgert which moved away from the previous UNKLE albums’ street art styling which had featured work by the artists Futura and 3D. The album was UNKLE’s highest appearence in the UK Album Charts since Psyence Fiction, reaching #16, and featured new collaborators Elliott Power, Mink, and Liela Moss. The album was followed by the The Road: Part II (Lost Highway) in 2019, again featuring Elliott Power, Mink, and Liela Moss, as well as Wil Malone, Mick Jones, and Christiane Kubrick. This double album didn’t fair as well as Part 1, but still contained several standout tracks such as Ar.Mour.
Since the release of The Road: Part II (Lost Highway) James Lavelle has remained busy, performing The Road albums live, creating UNKLE remixes, recording his regular Living In My Headphones radio show, and releasing t-shirts.
As we are now into the second half of 2020 James Lavelle has announced on the latest episode of Living In My Headphones that he will be taking a break from presenting the show for several weeks so as to finish some projects. Whether this means the next part in UNKLE’s The Road trilogy, or the promised Psyence Fiction reissue, it’s not clear. But we can hope to hear more from UNKLE and James Lavelle in the future that’s for sure.
