UNKLE. The long-running London project of James Lavelle, who founded the hugely influential Mo'Wax label in 1992 at eighteen and put out around 200 records in its first four or five years, including the debut albums that broke DJ Shadow and Dr. Octagon. UNKLE's 1998 debut Psyence Fiction, made with DJ Shadow, is a cornerstone of trip-hop, with Thom Yorke, Richard Ashcroft and Mike D among the guests. Across Never, Never, Land, War Stories, Where Did the Night Fall and The Road, Lavelle has kept it a rotating cast rather than a fixed band. The Rōnin series is a beautiful sideways move: Lavelle and producer Miink rebuilding the catalogue into long-form mixtapes, with new material and contributions from Michael Kiwanuka, Mark Lanegan and Keaton Henson.
From the notes for EKHO Sonic Chill #8 · fact-checked Oct 4, 2026.
The records
Where I played them
