James Lavelle

James Lavelle (2014)

James Lavelle (* 1974 in Oxford ) is a British DJ , musician , record producer and label owner . He is the founder and owner of the music label Mo 'Wax .

life and work

As a teenager, James Lavelle was already a DJ and organized parties in his hometown. At the age of 18 he founded the Mo 'Wax label, which, in addition to Lavelle's own projects, includes artists such as DJ Krush , Blackalicious , Money Mark (keyboardist for the Beastie Boys ), Dr. Octagon and South provided a platform. One of the first releases in 1993 was the single In / Flux by DJ Shadow . Shadow's groundbreaking debut album Endtroducing ..... was released on Mo 'Wax in 1996, and a little later Lavelle began to work with him on the UNKLE project. The artwork of numerous Mo'-Wax releases, including the first two UNKLE albums, bears the signature of the graffiti artist Futura 2000 .

Lavelle is considered to be the head of UNKLE, in the media the name is mostly used synonymously for James Lavelle due to changing musical colleagues. Lavelle's own publications fall musically under triphop , hiphop , break beat and drum and bass . Lavelle is also a sought-after remixer, mostly using the dotted spelling of UNKLE or his own name. In the past, remixes for Massive Attack , The Verve , Beck , Ian Brown , Garbage , Placebo and Depeche Mode were created .

In 2008, Lavelle contributed a remix version of the X-Files theme song as UNKLE to the soundtrack of the second X-Files film Beyond Truth , which also includes the song Broken from UNKLE's War Stories album .

His younger brother Aidan Lavelle also works as a DJ.

UNKLE

Lavelle with DJ Shadow

DJ Shadow and James Lavelle (1997)

James Lavelle founded UNKLE in 1994 with Tim Goldsworthy, a school friend who later became successful as a producer and remixer himself and was one of the co-founders of DFA Records . In the same year they released the hip hop single The Time Has Come EP on Mo 'Wax . After disagreements with Goldsworthy about the musical direction of future UNKLE releases, Lavelle began to work with Josh Davis aka DJ Shadow under the same name .

After a long previous performance, the first album Psyence Fiction was released in August 1998 , with various guest vocalists such as rapper Kool G Rap , Thom Yorke ( Radiohead ), Richard Ashcroft ( The Verve ), Mike D ( Beastie Boys ) and the then largely unknown British Musician and songwriter Badly Drawn Boy was added. The Music Week called the "ominous string harmonies," "sluggish rhythms", driving guitar licks and "insinuating, melancholy melodies" album as having "trip rock". The first single chosen was Rabbit in Your Headlights , written by Josh Davis and Thom Yorke , the release of which was accompanied by a visually unusual, highly acclaimed video clip by Jonathan Glazer . For the second single Be there , Ian Brown contributed lyrics and voice to the instrumental piece on the album Unreal . DJ Shadow then turned back to his own projects.

Lavelle with Richard File

Since 2002 Lavelle has been working with Richard File, who was already involved in the creation of the Be There EP , on a new UNKLE album. 2003 they released Never, Never, Land , among other things triphop- and electro - collaborations with Ian Brown and Mani ( The Stone Roses , Primal Scream ), Josh Homme ( Queens of the Stone Age ), Robert Del Naja , alias 3D (Massive Attack ) and Joel Cadbury (South) and the singles Eye for an Eye , In a State and Reign . Together, Lavelle and File brought out various DJ mixes under the name UNKLESounds, including Edit Music for a Film (2005).

With Richard File came the third UNKLE album War Stories , in which Chris Goss ( Masters of Reality ), Ian Astbury ( The Cult ), Autolux and again Josh Homme and Robert Del Naja were involved. The album, the artwork of which was designed by Del Nada, was released in July 2007 and produced the singles Burn My Shadow , Hold My Hand and Restless . The title Hold My Hand was also used for the soundtrack of the American drama 21 . In January 2008, File announced that it would dedicate itself to a new musical project, the band We Fell to Earth.

Lavelle with Pablo Clements

During the production phase of UNKLE's third album War Stories , James Lavelle was already working with Pablo Clements , who said he was a long-time friend of Lavelle's. As part of the duo The Psychonauts (with Paul Mogg ) known for drum and beat-heavy, sample-based tracks, Pablo Clements from now on influenced the direction of the UNKLE project towards a live band. First, however, the concept albums End Titles ... Stories for a Film and End Titles ... Redux (2008) were released.

The fourth album Where Did The Night Fall (2010) already shows the clearer focus on a less electronic than instrument-based live band. In addition to Pablo Clements as the main partner, Sleepy Sun , The Black Angels , Autolux , Big In Japan , Katrina Ford , Elle J and Mark Lanegan as well as those artists who have already been part of War Stories : Gavin Clark and Joel Cadbury (formerly South ). Pablo Clements described the style of the album as eclectic and psychedelic.

Discography

Albums

With Unkle

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	CH	UK	US
1995	The Time has Come EP	-	-	UK73 (1 week) UK	-
1998	Psyence fiction	DE77 (2 weeks) DE	-	UK4th gold (14 weeks)UK	US107 (2 weeks) US
2003	Never, never, land	-	-	UK24 silver (3 weeks)UK	-
2005	Edit Music for a Film	-	-	UK96 (1 week) UK	-
2007	Was stories	-	CH58 (2 weeks) CH	UK58 (2 weeks) UK	-
2008	End Titles - Stories for Film	-	-	UK70 (1 week) UK	-
2010	Where Did the Night Fall	-	CH94 (2 weeks) CH	UK42 (2 weeks) UK	-
2017	The Road: Part 1	DE92 (1 week) DE	CH55 (1 week) CH	UK16 (1 week) UK	-
2019	The Road: Part II / Lost Highway	-	-	UK33 (1 week) UK	-

More albums

• 1997: Berry Meditation EP
• 1998: Rabbit in Your Headlights (Single, feat. Thom Yorke)
• 1998: Be There EP (feat. Ian Brown)
• 2001: Narco Tourists (single, slam remix)
• 2004: UNKLEsounds vs. UNKLE (self- remix album)
• 2007: Psycho Pab's Def Mix (Megamix Of The Album War Stories) (Promotion Mix)
• 2008: End Titles ... Redux (orchestral versions of the previous album in internet music shops, CD versions limited to 3000 copies and can only be ordered in the Unkle shop)
• 2008: Remix Stories Vol. 1 EP
• 2009: Remix Stories Vol. 2 EP
• 2011: Where Did the Night Fall: Another Night Out

Solo albums

• 1996: Cream Live Two (remix album)
• 1997: Bitter Sweet Symphony (feat.Richard Ashcroft)
• 2001: Fabric Live 01 (remix album)
• 2002: GU023 Global Underground, Barcelona
• 2004: GU026 Global Underground, Romania
• 2009: GU037 Global Underground, Bangkok

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)	Remarks
		UK
1997	Berry Meditation SubUrbia	UK77 (1 week) UK
1999	Be There Psyence Fiction	UK8 (6 weeks) UK	feat. Ian Brown
2001	Narco Tourists	UK66 (1 week) UK	vs. Slam
2003	Eye for an Eye Never, Never Land	UK31 (4 weeks) UK
	In a State Never, Never Land	UK44 (2 weeks) UK
2004	Reign Never, Never Land	UK40 (2 weeks) UK	feat. Ian Brown

swell

1. ↑ Hypnotic Beats and Sounds. Unknown Psyence fiction . In: MusikWoche . The news magazine for the music industry. No. 35/1998 , August 24, 1998, news, p. 16 .
2. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE CH UK US
3. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK

Web links

Commons : James Lavelle  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Official site (English)
• UNKLE at laut.de
• James Lavelle at MusicBrainz (English)
• UNKLE on MusicBrainz (English)
• James Lavelle at Discogs (English)
• UNKLE at Discogs (English)
• Mo 'Wax at Discogs