UNKLE

James Lavelle launched UNKLE in 1992 as his chief creative platform. As co-founder of Mo' Wax, one of the decade's most influential British independents, he enlisted a rotating cast of core partners and a shifting lineup of guest artists, enabling explorations that spanned sample-driven hip-hop and brooding stoner rock. Temporary collaborator DJ Shadow molded the 1998 debut Psyence Fiction, which climbed to number four on the U.K. chart, yet its stylistic detours foreshadowed the increasingly ensemble-driven records that followed into the late 2010s. With Richard File and Pablo Clements steering subsequent efforts alongside repeat contributions from underground rock figures such as Josh Homme, Chris Goss, and Mark Lanegan, expansive releases including Never, Never Land (2003) and Where Did the Night Fall (2010) established Lavelle as more than a trip-hop originator. Following a seven-year recording hiatus, Lavelle and his circle resurfaced with the stark, cinematic double offering The Road: Part I (2017) and The Road: Part II (Lost Highway) (2019).

Lavelle and childhood friend Tim Goldsworthy started Mo' Wax together in 1992, issuing early material from Repurcussions, Palm Skin Productions, and DJ Shadow. Still a teenager at the label's outset, Lavelle drew impetus from American underground currents such as hip-hop and electro, alongside British developments including rare groove, acid house, Sheffield bleep, and acid jazz—the last of which he had chronicled in Straight No Chaser. After the pair, operating as Men from U.N.K.L.E., reworked tracks for United Future Organization and Mondo Grosso, they were joined by Kudo of Major Force, Skylab, and Love T.K.O. The resulting trio issued their first Mo' Wax project as UNKLE in 1994, the EP The Time Has Come, highlighted by the fourteen-minute sample-laden instrumental hip-hop piece "If You Find Earth Boring" and additional mixes from Portishead, Howie B, and Plaid. Even as Mo' Wax surged in profile—securing a partial A&M stake and scoring a U.K. Top 20 success with DJ Shadow's Endtroducing.....—UNKLE followed with the Money Mark-assisted Berry Meditation EP and became one of the era's most in-demand remix teams, working for Radiohead, Massive Attack, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Beck, and Tortoise.

While Goldsworthy and Kudo handled detailed production tasks, Lavelle focused on overarching concepts, arrangements, and A&R duties, sketching rough ideas and leveraging his network for further input. Those two were supplanted by DJ Shadow on the 1998 debut full-length Psyence Fiction, which established the template of wide-ranging styles and eclectic guests—among them Radiohead's Thom Yorke, the Verve's Richard Ashcroft, Talk Talk's Mark Hollis, Metallica's Jason Newstead, and hardcore veteran Kool G Rap. The set also reached the top of the U.K. independent chart and narrowly missed the upper half of the Billboard 200 in the United States before Shadow departed to prioritize solo work.

Between DJ engagements, Lavelle brought aboard singer, songwriter, and producer Richard File, previously involved in an UNKLE remix and Mo' Wax output under the names Forme and DJ Aura. File played a central role on the 2003 follow-up Never, Never Land. Broader in scope and less anchored to hip-hop, the album drew samples more often from cinema and well-known hard rock and post-punk sources than from lesser-known jazz, soul, and funk records, foregrounding File's compositions. Guests encompassed Graham Gouldman, Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, Brian Eno, Jarvis Cocker, and Massive Attack's 3D. The album peaked at number 24 in the U.K. and entered the Top Ten of Billboard's U.S. dance/electronic chart. Lavelle and File reconvened four years later for War Stories, featuring earlier and fresh associates such as Alice Temple, the Cult's Ian Astbury, Masters of Reality's Chris Goss, and Homme, the final pair shaping the record's stoner-rock and alternative-metal leanings.

After File exited, longtime Mo' Wax associate Pablo Clements—writer and producer with Psychonauts—stepped in. The 2008 odds-and-ends sets More Stories and End Titles...Stories for Film mixed archival and fresh tracks, among them selections from UNKLE's score for the documentary Odyssey in Rome. The fourth studio album, Where Did the Night Fall, appeared in 2010, adopting a band-focused approach aided by three-fifths of Lake Trout (also known as Big in Japan), the Black Angels, Nick Cave, and Mark Lanegan. No new UNKLE album emerged for seven years, though live shows continued alongside smaller endeavors such as soundtrack work, Lavelle's production on Queens of the Stone Age's "...Like Clockwork," and his curation of the 2014 Meltdown Festival, which included an UNKLE performance. The 2016 documentary The Man from Mo' Wax chronicled Lavelle's career. UNKLE reemerged with the intricate, often somber The Road: Part I and The Road: Part II (Lost Highway) in 2017 and 2019, respectively, drawing on an extensive roster of returning and new contributors including Lanegan, Goss, Mick Jones, and Eska.