Sonic Perfection - UNKLE

An appearance on Top Gear is perhaps only rivalled by one Soccer AM, so kudos to James Lavelle because he featured on every episode of the former for an entire series. Well sort of. Much of his War Stories LP provided the soundtrack to Clarkson and co’s warblings last year. “They just do it," he confesses. “We’ve got a nice person at the BBC who has obviously got a bag.”

The music business has moved on a long way since Lavelle borrowed a grand off his then boss to set up his infinity successful Mo’Wax label – something he will always be revered for. For those that grew up under Tony Blair, being reminded at every turn that you’ll get nowhere without further education, Lavelle’s self-belief whilst barely old enough to drink is inspirational. And without a hint of pretentiousness he says: “Not really, it was more just trying to blag it.”

Not many electronic music artists last the distance without deviating their style. As it his many of his contemporaries have either deceased or become more radio-friendly. The alternative requires all the business acumen Lavelle showed as a teenager, or as he puts it, the need to “explore in order to survive.

“We’re not a radio-led band, we’re not an MTV band so we have to find other ways to create income,” he says.

Choosing to soundtrack films, television programmes and computer games means the UNKLE's sound will develop without the need to fit the chart mould.

Lavelle’s appearance on the BEEB is ironic perhaps considering his beginning. Lavelle established himself as a DJ, playing alongside Giles Peterson in the early 90s at That’s The Way It Is. Ironically Peterson played the classics while Lavelle provided the edgy tunes. Peterson went on to spawn a successful career with the BBC, and most memorably on Radio 1. Yet Lavelle never followed suit. “I did radio a bit but I didn’t have the patience. There’s not enough records that I like on a weekly basis to keep me wanting to play new music in that way.”

In the sleeve notes to his latest outing, 'End Titles…Stories For Film', Lavelle states that this is “not a new album in the usual sense”. All 22 tracks on this record have been written and recorded in the two years since the last LP 'War Stories', but derive from different sources. From computer games to film, television to documentaries, this soundtrack defines UNKLE’s last two years.

Originally titled 'Film Stories', the concept was to tie in the LP with the B-sides collection 'More Stories', that was released in January. However distributors reckoned this would inhibit the project and the name was changed. “I wanted to keep the artwork though [the alien-like figure painted by Massive Attack’s 3-D] there always has to be some kind of continuity, for me, when your working within a period of time so it’s basically the same kind of character."

The bulk of the work - 10 of the 22 tracks - was produced for a documentary on the infamous New York director, Abel Ferrara Loud – and the intense Ferrara is classic New York, or as Lavelle puts it, “like a character from Casino or something.”

The directive was outlined by a previously attempted score, mapped out in moods it gave UNKLE the ingredients for their, at times, very incidental 60 minutes. “You’re not setting up a fight scene or a love scene, it’s very much like in the background really, subtle [in order not to detract from the movie itself].”