Unkle 'War Stories' album

UNKLE return with their third album, WAR STORIES, a collection of desert songs due out in North America July 24 on James Lavelle’s new Surrender All label, marketed and sold by Red Ink, a division of RED Distribution. Co-produced by UNKLE and Queens Of The Stone Age producer Chris Goss, War Stories marries UNKLE’s trademark sound with traditional rock influences to stunning effect.

Like its critically acclaimed predecessors Psyence Fiction and Never, Never, Land, there are a host of guest vocalists that appear on this album including Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), The Duke Spirit, 3D (Massive Attack), Autolux, Gavin Clark (Clayhill) and long time cohort Richard File. James Lavelle makes his vocal debut on this album, singing on “Hold My Hand” as well as dueting with Richard File on “Morning Rage.” Rock icon Ian Astbury of The Cult lends his world-weary drawl to “Burn My Shadow,” the first single to be taken from War Stories. Built on the pulsating, insistent beats for which UNKLE are known, it ebbs and flows between foreboding and abrasiveness.

In a marked departure from the previous two albums, most of the instrumentation on War Stories is played live. UNKLE enlisted a variety of players to contribute: Jeordie White aka Twiggy Ramirez lends his bass playing skills to “Burn My Shadow”; Psychonauts’ Pablo Clements plays synth on “Twilight,” “Morning Rage” and “Restless”; Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws contributes guitar riffs to “Broken”; Eagles of Death Metal’s David Catching also plays guitar on songs “Hold My Hand,” “Morning Rage” and “Tired Of Sleeping”; and producer Chris Goss adds his various musical talents (guitar, synth, bass, organ) to many songs throughout album. There are also full band collaborations from Autolux and The Duke Spirit.

War Stories was recorded in the Joshua Tree desert outside Los Angeles, CA at the Rancho de la Luna studio (home to The Desert Sessions recordings from the likes of PJ Harvey, Nick Oliveri, Josh Freese and many others) and in London at James Lavelle’s new Surrender Sounds studio. The album comprises of fourteen tracks of epic proportions.

The War Stories packaging and artwork features a stunning set of specially commissioned paintings by 3D. This is the first time he has embarked on such a venture. The two-CD limited edition will contain an instrumental version of the album and a gorgeous 50-page booklet. Meanwhile, the main album will have a 32-page booklet, both of which will contain photographs taken in Joshua Tree by Will Bankhead while the main portrait photography is by Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones. The booklets were designed by Ben Drury. Will and Ben were the visual creative team behind Mo’ Wax and have also collaborated on major campaigns for Nike, Answer and All Tomorrow’s Parties.

The label is part of the Surrender All stable that connects James Lavelle’s famously broad range of interests in music, fashion and art through one independently run axis. Surrender All is the record label, which will be a home for exciting new talent, whatever its musical persuasion, with the aim to push boundaries in the same way that Mo Wax did. James has also set up the Surrender clothing line and the Surrender Sound studio in London.

Biography
UNKLE are back. After a three-year hiatus, the James Lavelle-helmed collective return with a new label, new home, new collaborators, new clothes label – and a new sound.

UNKLE’s third album follows the worldwide success of 1998’s Psyence Fiction and 2003’s Never, Never, Land and once again finds the collective drawing on rock, electronic and beat-driven music in new ways.

“I wanted it to be our Check Your Head,” says Lavelle, of War Stories, a 14-track album that finds him once again uniting with producer Richard File and working with producer Chris Goss (Queens of the Stone Age, Desert Sessions, Masters of Reality) and features collaborations with Ian Astbury (The Cult), Josh Homme (Queens Of The Stone Age) and 3D (Massive Attack) plus acclaimed garage fivepiece The Duke Spirit, LA art-rockers Autolux and Clayhill’s Gavin Clark.

Massive Attack’s Mezzanine was another touchstone, says Lavelle, as were records from Mark Lanegan, loads of German electronic house plus “weird 1960s and 1970s Turkish psychedelic records”. “I wanted to combine the depth of an electronic record with the dynamics of a rock record. It was a totally organic, free experience. Every UNKLE record has had its amazing moments but this was the record I felt most in tune with– the most rewarding recording experience.”

It’s another album of firsts for UNKLE. “We recorded about 35 songs,” says Lavelle, of an intense period of creativity in Los Angeles and Joshua Tree with “desert sessions” maestro Chris Goss (QOTSA/Masters Of Reality) in winter 2005. “Every other time we’ve done a record, we’ve had, like, 10!”

“It was the first time we’ve gone into a studio with no demos,” continues Lavelle. “The first day we got there was when we started with the record – juggling organic songwriting on keyboards, guitars, and organs with samples etc, and loads of people dropping by. Then I wanted to go to Joshua Tree, so we packed up and went over to [recording studio] Rancho De La Luna. We hired a 16-track, nothing lavish. In fact, there’s been nothing lavish about recording this album at all. One of Rancho De La Luna’s live rooms is in the bathroom. No big studios! It was a life-affirming and mad experience. Waking up in the National Park – very eerie and beautiful – and then going to the studio to make music all day.”

Back in the UK, War Stories was further refined throughout 2006 with additional input from former-Psychonauts beat-guru Pablo Clements and mixing from Chris Allen.

Fans of Psyence Fiction and Never, Never, Land will immediately recognise this as an UNKLE record, but War Stories represents another stage in the band’s evolution. Although it is dark it comes from a positive place, with Lavelle bouncing back from a certain personal and creative turmoil that surrounded the aftermath of the last UNKLE project.

“Chris Goss is a real good song person,” he explains. “In the past I’ve gone for people that are maybe sonically-oriented: he’s just a great songwriter. The first day he was talking about a range of influences from Larry Levan to Broadway plays. I was, like, ‘Alright, then – he gets it’.”

Significantly, it’s the first UNKLE album on which Lavelle contributes vocals, to standout tracks “Hold My Hand” and “Morning Rage.” “That was really liberating. To have Josh [Homme] come in, hear it and go ‘What the fuck’s this? I’m playing on this…”

2007 also opens an exciting new chapter in the working life of UNKLE and James Lavelle – someone who has already crammed countless careers into barely three decades. War Stories will be the first album on James’ new label Surrender All. For the first time Lavelle will have management, record label and recording studio under one roof – new West London base Surrender Sounds. Here, ever the able multi-tasker, he’ll juggle increasingly far-flung DJ bookings, film projects (movie score work has included Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast, Danny Cannon’s Goal! and an upcoming documentary on renegade King Of New York director Abel Ferrara) and remixes (recent work includes Massive Attack’s “False Flags,” Depeche Mode’s “John The Revelator,” Robert Plant’s “The Enchanter,” Metallica’s “Frantic” and Queens Of The Stone Age’s “Burn The Witch” and “No One Knows”) while overseeing the immaculate packaging and artwork specifications for which UNKLE is justly famous.

“The feeling I have now is the feeling that I had when I first started Mo’ Wax,” he explains, of the label that broke dozens of acts including DJ Shadow, Air and Blackalicious, spread the word about David Axlerod and Bathing Ape’s Nigo and defined a whole era. “It’s totally positive. From the music to the packaging to the artwork to the videos, I am able to work with the people I want to work with.”

From long-time collaborators like artists Will Bankhead and Bill Drury, photographers Warren de Prez and Nick Thornton-Jones to 3D – who provides the amazing artwork to all War Stories releases – to new names, Surrender Sounds is a thoroughly non-corporate “artist-friendly” HQ, somewhere “where we can all feel comfortable”.

Lavelle is also overseeing his own clothing label – called, simply, Surrender – initially a collaboration with a friend through a dedicated Surrender shop in Singapore selling Surrender clothing, now destined for its own London retail space.

Taken all together, Lavelle sees things thus: “We’ll be a boutique industry – constantly putting out records, soundtracks and videos; bits and pieces with interesting packaging. And we’ll always be on the look out to work with truly creative people. I don’t see a lot of that around at the moment.”

In a world where music has never been cheaper, with albums literally given away for a few quid in supermarkets, it’s surely a stand for the better. “Everything has become so disposable now,” he says. “I want to be involved in creating music and art that has a timeless quality.” Summer 2007 will also see UNKLE take to the road as a band for the first time, with a typically mind-bending extravaganza that promises to be an “end-of-the-night psychedelic show”.

“I’ve spent a lot of my time in the thick of the madness,” concludes Lavelle. “But it’s not just about rock ‘n’ roll and drugs any more. It’s about the creative process and where that leads me.”

Do you also would like to share your opinion? If so, please register or login here.

Details

Popular Songs

New Songs

Tracklisting

Unkle - War Stories