» Music: James Lavelle and UNKLE
Mo’Wax legend James Lavelle gears up for a live collaboration between his UNKLE project and the Heritage Orchestra writes Jeff Hemmings
Many of you might know James Lavelle as the man behind the legendary Mo’Wax label, set up in the early ‘90s, which gave the world the likes of DJ Shadow and Japan’s DJ Krush. But even before that he was organising parties in his home town before migrating to London, where he set up club nights such as the Mo’Wax Please night (which he also DJed at) and started making music of his own.
“My Grandmother was a cellist and I started to learn that instrument in my teens along wth the piano,” says James from his base in Camden.
With school friend Tim Goldsworthy, Lavelle started UNKLE, a group that initially traded in trip-hop. Goldsworthy left to eventaully set up DFA with James Murphy, but Lavelle has continued the UNKLE project ever since, releasing a stream of highly regarded albums that incorporate trip-hop, rock, hip-hop and cinematic sounds. Along the way he’s had a veritable who’s who of cool playing on his recordings and contributing visuals including Thom Yorke, Mike D (Beastie Boys), Richard Ashcroft, Ian Brown, Josh Homme, Mani (Stone Roses) and 3D (Massive Attack).
UNKLE’s new album, Where Did The Night Fall, is dark and edgy in places, more upbeat and rocking in others: there’re touches of Primal Scream, Massive Attack, The Cure and dance beats in there, and it features contributions from Mark Lanegan and Brighton-based Elle J (Lisa Lindley-Jones) amongst others. “On the War Stories tour she came on to do a couple of tracks with us and that sowed the seeds!”
But it’s Lavelle’s interest in classical and film soundtracks that concerns him now as he embarks on a number of dates in collaboration with The Heritage Orchestra, including one at Bexhill’s De La Warr Pavilion. ”I’ve always appreciated classical music and film score stuff, but I prefer classically-led songs. Massive Attacks’ ‘Unfinished Symphony’ was a huge inspiration for me,” says James.
The Heritage Orchestra – who are resident at De La Warr Pavilion – are a contemporary orchestra that likes to collaborate with all sorts. “They approached us to ‘replay’ our music,” says James. After performing and recording a fully orchestrated re-interpretation of UNKLE’s instrumental album End Titles… Stories For Film at London’s Union Chapel two years ago, they’ve kept in touch ever since. “They scored the strings for our new album, and that’s what they’ll be interpreting for these shows… There’s about 25-30 of them… it’s a bit of luxury for me – I get to just watch the show!
“A lot of our ideas and weird sounds come out of the studio really late at night. I’m longing to see them interpret our studio madness – us messing around at 6am in the morning!”
UNKLE and Heritage Orchestra, Saturday 10 July, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill On Sea
