The Man From Mo'Wax

[Jon]

Looks like this documentary on James Lavelle and Mo'Wax/UNKLE is finally getting a general release this summer:

I wasn't following the music press at the time Psyence Fiction came out, so I mainly know that period from the music retrospectively a few years later when I got heavily into DJ Shadow, but this looks like this will be really interesting.

I always saw him as an executive producer type, and although he made a lot of money/fame off the back of what seems like A&R essentially (at least early on) he also in doing so introduced the world to Shadow and many others.

[Guest It'sPhilFromThursdays]

The Unkle album was a big cross over hit with the likes of NME loving the shift out of it. Never really had any love for it myself, as it felt like watered down Mo' Wax stuff and i was into them from the first couple of releases and was 19/20 around then so was all militant about it. I might like it now, who knows.

 

Plus Ninja Tunes always had them in their shadow at the time when it came out IMO so i wasn't to bother.

 

It was out at the arse end of the Britpopy times and i can imagine Zoe Ball loved the shift out of Psyence Fiction, and everyone was all like oooh, chemical brother, ooooh, big beat, in an irritating way and this fell into that group in my eye, which probably also made me prejudge it harshly.

 

Also everyone said he did hardly anything on that album, but i dunno how true that is.

 

Anyhoo as you can tell my opinion can't be trusted as i'm full of prejudice.

 

I remember an HHC article about the first releases and he was all 'this DJ Shadow is the jewel in our crown' and i got his first single/ep and was all like hhmm it's alright but i don';t see what's so great about it. Ate those delicious words when entro came out.

[Jon]

The Unkle album was a big cross over hit with the likes of NME loving the shift out of it. Never really had any love for it myself, as it felt like watered down Mo' Wax stuff and i was into them from the first couple of releases and was 19/20 around then so was all militant about it. I might like it now, who knows.

 

Plus Ninja Tunes always had them in their shadow at the time when it came out IMO so i wasn't to bother.

 

It was out at the arse end of the Britpopy times and i can imagine Zoe Ball loved the shift out of Psyence Fiction, and everyone was all like oooh, chemical brother, ooooh, big beat, in an irritating way and this fell into that group in my eye, which probably also made me prejudge it harshly.

 

Also everyone said he did hardly anything on that album, but i dunno how true that is.

 

Anyhoo as you can tell my opinion can't be trusted as i'm full of prejudice.

 

I remember an HHC article about the first releases and he was all 'this DJ Shadow is the jewel in our crown' and i got his first single/ep and was all like hhmm it's alright but i don';t see what's so great about it. Ate those delicious words when entro came out.

 

 

From what I understand James Lavelle directed the project and was head of the label/marketing etc and Shadow made all the music on the 1st album. A trip hop DJ Khaled if you will lol.

 

I'm a huge fan of Mo wax up to and including that album (stuff like Krush, Shadow, Attica Blues etc)

[Guest It'sPhilFromThursdays]

Haha, yeah that makes it sound like i didn't like all that stuff, but i truly did, i was more trying to reflect how i was at ze time. It was more the later stuff around when his album came out and after. Krush was a big influence, that headz compliation was great, Blackalicious' first album came out on that here, Attica Blues were okay.

 

As well people started bandying about the uber irritating phrase trip hop around then and lots of their stuff got sucked into that. I can't tell you how much that term irked me at the time cos it was the domain of annoying NME reader who didn't want to admit they liked hip hop at that time. They just could bring themselves to as they really looked down on loads of it. Again this was my problem, but i cannae tell you how tribal lots of people were then.

 

Waddup Itchi i see you reading this

[JHouse]

Lavelle (2003 ish) is dope. Really liked his selection. Krush always kills it. Always. Definite fan of both.

[jeljms]

The Unkle album was a big cross over hit with the likes of NME loving the shift out of it. Never really had any love for it myself, as it felt like watered down Mo' Wax stuff and i was into them from the first couple of releases and was 19/20 around then so was all militant about it. I might like it now, who knows.

 

Plus Ninja Tunes always had them in their shadow at the time when it came out IMO so i wasn't to bother.

 

It was out at the arse end of the Britpopy times and i can imagine Zoe Ball loved the shift out of Psyence Fiction, and everyone was all like oooh, chemical brother, ooooh, big beat, in an irritating way and this fell into that group in my eye, which probably also made me prejudge it harshly.

 

Also everyone said he did hardly anything on that album, but i dunno how true that is.

 

Anyhoo as you can tell my opinion can't be trusted as i'm full of prejudice.

 

I remember an HHC article about the first releases and he was all 'this DJ Shadow is the jewel in our crown' and i got his first single/ep and was all like hhmm it's alright but i don';t see what's so great about it. Ate those delicious words when entro came out.

Blimey, that's a blast from the past. I remember back around that time that James Lavelle did a dj mix for Cream and on the sleeve it said something like 'scratched and mixed by the Psychonauts'. I thought 'so what did James Lavelle actually do'? I still don't know.

[Guest broke]

I was really into Mo' Wax in the early 90s and went to see Lavelle play at some tiny basement club on Shaftsbury Ave in '94. His mixing was terrible, but the tunes were amazing.

[joeClockwork]

I was really into Mo' Wax in the early 90s and went to see Lavelle play at some tiny basement club on Shaftsbury Ave in '94. His mixing was terrible, but the tunes were amazing.

 

Remember that clipart on Snatchcon of Lavelle as a Dalek from the waste down, with an 'I AM A CUNT' sign pinned to his arm?

[DJ Rock Well]

Yeah, Lavelle was an A&R and nothing else really. But he was a very good A&R which made starting a label a very good idea of course.

 

With the Cream mix, I never realised the truth was credited on the release! I recall he did a magazine interview soon after it dropped and was totally open about the fact that Cream were trying to get in on/understand the 'trip hop/big beat boom' so went straight to him as MoWax owner for the goods. He knew right from the start that he had no skills to do it himself, but wasn't going to miss the chance. So he got the Psychonauts to do the whole thing, submitted it to a then happy Cream and only admitted it to them after the fact. Lavelle wasn't trying to con the world, just didn't want to miss the chance or do something shit and he was adamant that Cream wouldn't have put out the mix as officially 'by The Psychnauts' because they weren't deemed worthy of being on a mix CD set with Paul Oakenfold, etc. For nerdy trivia, after Psyence Fiction came out and Shadow was done (he only ever saw it as someone's else's thing, a one-off job he was paid to produce for AFAIK), Lavelle kept the UNKLE name going with Pablo from the Psyconauts doing most of the production.

 

Like Phil said earlier though, for most of us who'd been into Mo Wax in the heyday, it was already over by the time PF came out. I pretty much ignored it until I heard Shadow dropping bits in some bootleg live sets and then subsequently, in the magnum opus that was the 'In Tune and On Time' DVD. Speaking of which, I was meant to be at the Bristol date of that tour - where they also showed Keep In Time, had Malcom Catto out and Thom Yorke turned up and did a completely unbilled guest appearance, but that's another story...

[Jam Burglar]

I pretty much remember things like you guys did, with Mo Wax being over its heyday by the time Psyence Fiction came out. I could never really get into that album and ended up buying it on vinyl at some point simply because Shadow had something to do with it. That had to be the worst of Mike D's lyrical styles by the way. Just not good.

 

I used to love getting those early Mo Wax records though. Stuff like Blackalicious Melodica came out on different labels in the states but then they did Mo Wax presses for Europe it was on much nicer vinyl and double wax so they sounded better AND had the instrumentals. Money Mark's first record came out on triple 10" and was dope. Mo Wax repressed the Liquid Liquid record. Latyrx, DJ Krush etc. They were killing it for a while there. Then it was like UNKLE came out and it sort of seemed to fall off. The main exceptions for me was that A-G EP Blackalicious put out with the instrumentals and the 4-LP Quannum box set with the instrumentals. Those Mo Wax pressings were so much better than the Quannum pressings. I used to go to a little independent record store who would stock the Mo Wax stuff and it was always worth the extra money.

[danswift]

They were killing it for a while there. Then it was like UNKLE came out and it sort of seemed to fall off.

Word.

 

Some of those early releases were great but the 1st UNKLE lp was a massive let down.

 

I could never understand for the life of me why they were making records with people like Thom Yorke or fucking Richard Ashcroft..what the fuck do those dudes have to do with Hip Hop ?

 

I just thought oh,it's like the Chemical Brothers with better beats but the same formula, just add a trendy singer from a popular Indie band ..I almost expected a collaboration with Noel Gallagher ffs.

 

This,along with Shadow's In-Flux is probably my favourite track from the Mo Wax label though and still a record I play regularly to this day.

 

[joeClockwork]

I used to love getting those early Mo Wax records though. Stuff like Blackalicious Melodica came out on different labels in the states but then they did Mo Wax presses for Europe it was on much nicer vinyl and double wax so they sounded better AND had the instrumentals.

 

That's one of my favourite LP's. So is the first Dr Octagon album, which also got a European release on Mo' Wax 3xLP.

[Jon]

 

this and the shadow stuff were my faves

[Guest It'sPhilFromThursdays]

Yeah, Mieso was sick. Krush is a don. He's the person who did the most seamless mixing i've ever seen, he was taking off records when i didn't even realise a new record had begun. I thought it was a shame Sam Sever never did more tunes with them.

 

Anyway as you see above my opinions have been validated, hooray! I wasn't just being a jerk about them.

[Guest It'sPhilFromThursdays]

 

I used to love getting those early Mo Wax records though. Stuff like Blackalicious Melodica came out on different labels in the states but then they did Mo Wax presses for Europe it was on much nicer vinyl and double wax so they sounded better AND had the instrumentals.

 

That's one of my favourite LP's. So is the first Dr Octagon album, which also got a European release on Mo' Wax 3xLP.

 

 

But the mowax cd i bought of Doc Oc had the most irritating cover in the history of cds. You had to slide the plastic case of a stupidly tight cardboard sleeve and then try to slide it back in which you would have successfully done after about 10 mins.

[DJ Rock Well]

 

I used to love getting those early Mo Wax records though. Stuff like Blackalicious Melodica came out on different labels in the states but then they did Mo Wax presses for Europe it was on much nicer vinyl and double wax so they sounded better AND had the instrumentals.

That's one of my favourite LP's. So is the first Dr Octagon album, which also got a European release on Mo' Wax 3xLP.

Yep, Dr Octagon will always be amongst my favourite rap albums and I'm so glad I got the 3LP version on release. Sounds much better than the US 75Ark/Bulk double.

[DJ Rock Well]

My other all time fave MoWax release, apart from Endtroducing was Krush's 'Milight'. But rather frustratingly the 2LP version was definitely inferior to the CD with its 'future interludes' and few extra tracks. That CD was the soundtrack to a good chunk of my youth. I'm not saying it was their best release, but controversially I probably have listened to and got more enjoyment out of that album than any other MoWax release.

[Guest It'sPhilFromThursdays]

Fuck yeah Milight was awesome, i had that too. Love Krush so much, that album he did with that japanese trumpet man was great, used to go always down well when i played out

[JHouse]

I was really into Mo' Wax in the early 90s and went to see Lavelle play at some tiny basement club on Shaftsbury Ave in '94. His mixing was terrible, but the tunes were amazing.

Same experience here, but it was with DJ Logic. Man, his mixing f'n sucked, but dayum, his records were ill as fuck. The whole time I was checking out his set, I kept thinking 'golly, this nigga's a digga.'

[arkei]

My other all time fave MoWax release, apart from Endtroducing was Krush's 'Milight'. But rather frustratingly the 2LP version was definitely inferior to the CD with its 'future interludes' and few extra tracks. That CD was the soundtrack to a good chunk of my youth. I'm not saying it was their best release, but controversially I probably have listened to and got more enjoyment out of that album than any other MoWax release.

 

Milight > Entroducing

 

I love that Album. First had it on CD then bought the Double-LP.

[DJ Rock Well]

Same!

 

Although I was bit gutted when I found out it was the slimmed down version.

[medinah_nitro]

Lavelle was good till he went up his own arse

 

Ike most scratch djs lol

[Guest petesasqwax]

A trip hop DJ Khaled if you will

 

Lavelle will forevermore be this in my mind!

 

Always had an odd relationship with MW. Over the years I've had easily more than a hundred MW releases pass through my hands and even went for the full discography at one stage... before realising that I was buying more and more records that I really didn't like. Thanks a good friend of mine being tight with the 2 Tobys who used to run the label, I used to be on the promo list after the A&M thing... which ultimately meant I got records free in the period that you'd largely only ever want any of the stuff they put out if it was free. For what it's worth I still have a few dozen records they put out and cherish them above most others, but James Khaled always was a knob who largely would have put out jazzwankhop had he not got insanely lucky with Shadow.

[Tenshun]

i really dug all the Old Mowax trip hop stuff back in the day.

i still bump Dj Krush Meiso ,Kakusei and Strickly turntablised and some of the tracks off the Heads comps when i have my ipod on shuffle.

also that Prunes 12 they dropped was ill. i remember smoking blunts and scratching over those beats.

 

i also liked that they had Futura doing some of the artwork.

[Wax On]

 

I wasn't following the music press at the time Psyence Fiction came out

Just think of him as another DJ Lethal PS ohai