The Quietus - A new rock music and pop culture website

Baker's Dozen

Irrepressible Discoveries: James Lavelle Of UNKLE's 13 Favourite Albums
Elizabeth Aubrey , September 18th, 2017 14:19

With a new album on the way and a much-anticipated set at Brighton's Attenborough Centre at the ready, James Lavelle, the man behind UNKLE and Mo' Wax, takes Elizabeth Aubrey through the 13 records that shaped him

Endtroducing_1505742204_resize_460x400

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing

I think this is the best record I put out. It's the record that defined Mo’ Wax! It was one of the most wonderful relationships of that time that I had, it was a love affair of music and transatlantic record-collecting and hip hop. I think the fact that it’s defined and changed a time and that it’s entirely made out of samples.

I was going between London and San Francisco and it was just amazing being involved in that record. It was very much like me and Shadow vs. the world at that point. At the time, when I signed him, he was trying to get more into being an American hip hop producer. People weren't interested in what he was doing really, and, you know, I’d heard a remix that he did called Zimbabwe Legit, and it blew my mind.

I contacted him through a friend of mine at Tommy Boy, [who] put us in contact. H’'s like, “what do you want me to do?” and I'm like, “I want you to make it more mad, more out there.” He came over and heard drum and bass. His exposure to clubs like The Blue Note, and Bar Rumba, and Double Bass and what we were doing, and him and me just hanging out...our time together was just something that was an amazing thing to be part of. But it’s also something that I'm incredibly proud of, of what it is.