UNKLE challenges more than just spelling

By Andrew Chan

U-N-K-L-E. What kind of name is that? I have always been wary of deliberately misspelled words in the music industry (like "Musik" or "ATTAQUE!!"), but I suppose this one is different, since UNKLE has, in essence, created a new word (though the jury's still out on "psyence"). Whether or not this curious name is supposed to mean something, I don't know. What it does do is display UNKLE's enormous ambition--to be as musically influential as their notable peers in infamous misspelling, the B-E-A-T-L-E-S.

A reporter on Channel 4 news in London said of the band about a month ago, "This is, apparently, what music in the future will all sound like." Channel 4 then showed footage of hundreds of people queuing up at Tower Records, eagerly awaiting this album's release. Remember how The Verve was the It band in the UK last summer? Well, this year, UNKLE is It.

UNKLE is basically DJ Shadow and James Lavelle. Lavelle happens to own Mo Wax records, which happens to be UNKLE's label. It all sounds remarkably convenient, and many cynics in England have already voiced their disapproval of Lavelle's role in the project. However, most of these moaners are New Music Express writers who don't want music in the future to sound anything like this.

Unfortunately for them, their darling Britpop superstars have other ideas. This time, Thom Yorke (Radiohead) and Richard Ashcroft (The Verve) have decided to follow in the footsteps of Noel Gallagher and the Charlatans, who previously joined forces with the Chemical Brothers, and begin an imminent expansion of their art to include electronica. (Interestingly, Yorke and Ashcroft recorded for UNKLE before the huge successes of OK Computer and Urban Hymns.) Other famous musicians featured in Psyence Fiction include Mike D. (Beastie Boys), Jason Newsted (Metallica), and Kool G Rap. In other words, UNKLE will sell, even in America. If half the fans of these part-time UNKLErs bought the album, it would go platinum by the end of the year.

The music in PF covers many genres; as Dean Brodhead might say, the music is diverse. The album kicks off with a booming hip-hop anthem in typical DJ Shadow fashion and ends with Thom Yorke crooning--of course--about something weird like rabbits and headlights. There are several gems scattered in between, including "Bloodstain," which sounds like a Massive Attack song, the rocktastic "Nursery Rhyme," and "Chaos," which has vocals so sweet that your whole body will just mellow out by the end of the song. And if you want some evidence of mad DJ skills, there's "The Knock," co-written by Mike D. and DJ Shadow.

But the track that really caught my ear was the instrumental UNKLE main title theme, which also happens to be the only song penned solely by DJ Shadow. There's something remarkably melodic and catchy about it, but you don't really know exactly what it is, and that's the crunch. It's about different presentations of sounds and listeners' reactions to them. Melodies become secondary to their own coating on Psyence Fiction. Purists may have a problem with this, but music is already heading in this direction and showing no signs of stopping. The hype generated by this album will, no doubt, heighten this trend.

Will "UNKLE" ever make it into the Oxford English Dictionary? Probably not, but for anyone who hasn't realized it already, PF carries an important message: technology is finally catching up to music. (Mo Wax/London)

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