James Lavelle is the center point of UNKLE. One could say that Lavelle is something of a renaissance man; he’s the head of theMo Wax record label, he is a graphic designer, clothing designer, excellent DJ and father among other things. The original incarnation of UNKLE was something of a hip hop flavored affair with DJ Shadow playing counterpoint to Lavelle. Never Never Land saw DJ Shadow leaving this collaborative, to be replaced by Richard File, chief engineer for Mo Wax.
On War Stories Lavelle and
File continue their relationship along with producer Chris Gross. There’s also a whole host of new guests, including Queens
of the Stone Age vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme, The Cult’s Ian Astbury, and Massive Attacks Robert Del Naja among others.
When I purchased War Stories and listened to it the first time, I realized that this was a new direction (yet again) for UNKLE. This is a dark and melancholic rock album, w/ live drums, guitars, traditional keyboards, strings and bass all mixed in with electronic
production that creates a fusion that is more rock than electronic. The tunes are thoughtful, with intelligent lyrics and thick
layers of sound that forms a sonic landscape befitting each of the various vocalists. There are not any real vocal pyrotechnics
and as with previous UNKLE records, the vocals on the tracks remain relatively subdued – you’ll probably not hear Ian Asbury sing
like he does on “Burn My Shadow” again. Some tracks are weaker than others, but overall this is a cohesive and well constructed
album.
UNKLE is touring with a full band, something I don’t think they’ve done before. Personally, I’d love to be
able to catch their show. Unfortunately
Here’s
what others have had to say about “War Stories”:
The listener gets the sense that Lavelle and File
not only treat the music as being club ready but also as forms of art that requires close attention in order to get it, similarly
to Van Gogh's paintings. It's not the swirls or the colors that change but the listener's perception about what those swirling colors
do. You pick up something new with each listen of War Stories and you start to figure out that it's not as mish-moshed as it once
appeared. It's art that reflects life from an altered perspective. When Astbury calls out "How I loved you," those are words from
the subconscious, an altered perspective of a situation that lingers on with the artist and the listener. Lavelle and File showed
signs of infiltrating the subconscious realm in their debut album Psyence Fiction and their second disc Never Never Land, but they
outdid themselves with their latest release War Stories.
So, after trying to move things forward for so long--
first with his Mo' Wax label and then with UNKLE's early incarnations-- James Lavelle takes it back to a Britpop B-side wasteland
filled with has-beens and never-will-be's. Such willful nostalgia doesn't do him many favors. While Lavelle's previous work can still
be looked upon as visionary, his latest is anything but. Even with its repeatable tracks sounding instantly dated, War Stories marks
the official end of this one-time progressive's soothsaying days.
What happens when rock and electronica
blend together? The answer is one of this year’s best albums: War Stories. A set of intense rock songs softened and polished with
electronic beats, masterfully arranged by trip-hop artists: Unkle. With the collaboration of high profile musicians as guests in almost
every song, the chemistry throughout the album is pretty clear and the results are just incredible. . . .