U.N.K.L.E.
U.N.K.L.E. is the recording name originally employed by James Lavelle (b. 1974, Oxford, England) of leading UK hip-hop label, Mo' Wax Records, and American turntablist DJ Shadow (b. Josh Davis, 1 January 1973, Hayward, California, USA). Their Psyence Fiction set was released amid a blaze of hype and publicity in September 1998, debuting at number 4 on the UK album chart and establishing itself (for a brief time, at least) as the album to be listening to. Three years in the making, the album featured the talents of Richard Ashcroft of the Verve, Mike D of the Beastie Boys, Thom Yorke of Radiohead and Damon Gough aka Badly Drawn Boy. It embraced a range of styles from brooding, orchestrated trip-hop to breakbeat and rap. A brave project, it received mixed critical responses and was felt by some to have suffered from over-ambitiousness. The tour supporting the album caused some controversy when fans discovered that it did not feature any of the celebrity guests on the album or DJ Shadow, and was effectively a "James Lavelle Live With The Scratch Perverts" experience. A single, "Be There" was released in February 1999. It was a reworking of the track "Unreal" from the album and vocals were provided by Ian Brown (ex-Stone Roses). The single broke into the UK Top 10 and received excellent reviews, but by this point the main protagonists had returned to other projects.
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- Berry Meditation
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