UNKLE - Psyence Fiction
(Mo Wax Recordings)
Release Date: 9/8/98
Review: Mark Woodleif
(October 02, 1998)
Pre-millenium tension, anyone? Nobody'll give it to you quite like UNKLE, the all-star assemblage led by Mo Wax helmsman James Lavelle and hip-hop maestro extraordinaire DJ Shadow. The project's been years in the making, and includes an unlikely teaming of guests like The Verve's Richard Ashcroft, Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Mike D, French chanteuse Atlantique, Metallica's Jason Newsted, and NYC rapper Kool G Rap, among others. But the results are worth the wait, as Shadow and Lavelle conduct a thoroughly post-modern symphony that twists and turns like a cyber-river to an oceanic climax. Emotional and haunting ("Bloodstain," Ashcroft's "Lonely Soul"), mysterious and complex ("Unreal," Yorke's "Rabbit In Your Headlights"), breathtakingly beautiful ("Celestial Annihilation," Atlantique's "Chaos") and uncompromisingly savage ("Guns Blazing," "Nursery Rhyme," with vocals from Badly Drawn Boy), Psyence Fiction draws upon hip-hop's rich (and rock's richer) tradition to create a unique sonic synthesis for music fans everywhere.
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