UNKLE - PSYENCE FICTION

• Mo Wax / London

UNKLE is DJ Shadow and James Lavelle (Head of the Mo' Wax label), along with numerous vocalists including Alice Temple, Badly Drawn Boy, Kool G. Rap, Mike D., Richard Ashcroft and Thom Yorke. The first track, "Guns Blazing (Drums of Death Part 1)" features furious drumming and even more furious rants (by Kool G. Rap). UNKLE (Main Title Theme) is one of Shadows deeply atmospheric instrumentals. What makes this song stand out from others of its kind is its non-linear construction. It wasn't until I'd listened to the album all the way through and gone back and listened a second time that I realized that a lot of the samples in the Main Title Theme were from songs that appear later on in the album. That is just one reason people refer to DJ Shadow as a genius. If I had to complain about one aspect of the album, though, it'd be that there isn't a whole lot keeping the individual tracks together. While Richard Ashcroft's decidedly British wailing layered over doomsday drums before a violin solo is indescribably cool, linking it to the Stone-age cacaphony of "Nursery Rhyme" with a 40-something second "song" whose name is the best thing about it ("Getting Ahead in the Lucerative Field of Artist Management") just seems silly. That, however in no way detracts from Mike D's recycling of most of the lyrics from "Hello Nasty" in "The Knock (Drums of Death Part 2)", which is really two songs (first the actual song, then the jungle remix) on one track, or the "Radiohead 2000" sound of "Rabbit in Your Headlights". So, while this album just couldn't live up to three years worth of hype, (and really, what could?) the fact is that it doesn't need to.

Review by Aram at:  Frames Per Second

Main/A-C/ D-F / G-I / J-L / M-O / P-R / S-U / V-X / Y-Z /All Bands