UNKLE is a British musical outfit founded in 1994 by school friends James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy. Originally categorized as trip-hop, the group once included producer DJ Shadow and has employed a variety of guest artists and producers.

The first release was the EP The Time Has Come, created by Lavelle and Goldsworthy with Kudo and T. Nakanishi of the Japanese Hip Hop crew Major Force (later Major Force West). At this point, UNKLE consisted of Lavelle, Goldsworthy and Kudo, who surrounded themselves with various guest artists, including Money Mark (keyboard player for the Beastie Boys), the Scratch Perverts and Japanese clothes designer Nigo and Takagi Kan (both also of Major Force).

In 1995, whilst working on their debut album, Goldsworty and Lavelle disagreed over the direction the music was taking. Goldsworthy wanted to continue with the Mo Wax house style of earlier tracks, while Lavelle wanted to bring in singers and Hip Hop and rock artists. Goldsworthy left the group and went on to work with Belfast DJ and producer David Holmes.

Lavelle drafted in DJ Shadow and essentially discarded all previously recorded material. "Berry Meditation" and several tracks with Money Mark and Beastie Boys producer Mario Caldato Jr., recorded at the house of singer Meat Loaf, were released as singles, and several without Lavelle surfaced on the album Major Force West in 1997. In early 1998 three exclusive Japanese EPs were released, the last of the earlier UNKLE sessions to surface.

Lavelle and Shadow released the more commercial Psyence Fiction in 1998, on which they collaborated with an all-star lineup including Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Mike D (Beastie Boys), Kool G. Rap, Jason Newsted (Metallica), Badly Drawn Boy and Richard Ashcroft (The Verve).

Shadow left the group after touring Psyence Fiction and was replaced by turntablist group the Scratch Perverts who deconstructed the album and performed it live on turntables in 1999. Just prior to this, Forme producer Richard File remixed the track "Be There", adding vocals by Ian Brown.

In 2001, Lavelle and File resurfaced as UNKLEsounds with a DJ mix created for Japanese radio entitled Do Androids Dream of Electric Beats?. This highlighted the new, more electronic direction the group had taken, and featured a number of tracks from Psyence Fiction, remixed in an ambient style.

File co-produced, played and sang on 2003's Never, Never, Land. The album featured another stellar lineup which included Ian Brown, Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Robert Del Naja (Massive Attack) and Mani (The Stone Roses, Primal Scream) among others.

This album was less hyped than its predecessor. Unfortunately, due to label changes and Lavelle's trademark insistence on multiple formats, it was not a major success. It is currently available in several forms from Global Underground, for whom Lavelle has provided several DJ mixes.

In the meantime, Lavelle and File continued releasing mixes as UNKLEsounds, and several earlier mixes appeared as bootlegs. The bootlegs are generally live recordings featuring DJ Shadow or The Psychonauts.

The mix album Edit Music for a Film: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Reconstruction, featuring tracks and songs from movie soundtracks as well as movie samples, was created for the After Dark 2004 event at the ICA London. A single CD version was handed out at the event. It was released somewhat officially as an extended two disc set in 2005.

In September 2006, Global Underground released Self Defence: Never, Never, Land Reconstructed and Bonus Beats, a CD box set of remixes and bonus tracks related to Never, Never, Land, including tracks previously only available on the original DVD
release of the album. It also contains remixes of a track mooted from the forthcoming album, featuring Ian Astbury of The Cult, titled "Burn My Shadow".

UNKLE's new album War Stories was released on 25th June and features guest appearances by Josh Homme (Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age), Brody Dalle (The Distillers), The Duke Spirit, Chris Goss (Masters of Reality), Psycho Pab and Autolux. [1]. Currently playing gigs all over the world...

   
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