Mixing it up!

Mixing it up!

Ok at least its only two weeks now, I know I’m slack but bear with me I’m in deep! We have just started mixing this week with Steve Dub which is going really well. It is really exciting, I finally feel now like there is light at the end of the tunnel! It has been a long and winding road making this record and finally knowing that we’re near the end and hearing the first few tracks mixed is such a high! Finally hearing the fruits of the past two years having been so deep in it is such an amazing experience, we have been putting the final touches on 3 tracks this week “Natural Selection” with The Black Angels, “Caged Bird” featuring the vocals of Katrina Ford who sings in a band called Celebration and who also sang with TV On The Radio on “Wolf Like Me” and “Another Night Out” featuring the mighty Mark Lanegan. Hopefully we’ll have another five done next week so I’ll let you know how it goes....
Since I last reached out I’ve had a couple of amazing dj gigs including Club Midi in Cluj, Romania and Paradiso in Amsterdam which was fucking incredible - it was Earth’s tenth anniversary and my brother’s girlfriends birthday so 14 of us hit the club and it could not of been better great crowd amazing production and a really fun night to play, I went off to the Isle of Man on Friday and was intrigued before I went as I hadn’t been before. It was great – had a good night there and then again in London on Saturday at Ministry where I played with Agoria.
We now have a release date for the Heavy drug remixes which is the 27th of December again that’s King Unique, Steve Mac and Future Beat Alliance. The mixes will be available from both I-tunes and Beatport. They might take slightly longer to go up on I Tunes in the US but fear not they will be available there too soon! They should be available on Beatport in the US on the 27th though. We also found out that Heavy Drug is going to be used in an episode of Skins in 2010 so listen out for that!

Check digweed rocking the kingunique mix on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZKNTEmWp1U
So apart from generally being locked in the studio I had a great night out with my 12 year old daughter at the O2 getting jiggy to Beyonce. She was dope! Fuck that girl can dance!! I’ve also been putting finishing touches to the artwork which is looking really beautiful its very different from before as its photographic based but with a twist, very psychedelic and other-worldly!
Right I’m out of here – it was a long weekend and need some downtime!

For some entertainment check out MGMT and all the other bands on Yo Gabba Gabba on you tube, Natalie Portman rapping on Saturday night live and our ex monitor engineer Dan trying to fly at a recent Faith No More gig oh my god its hilarious!!!!..........

http://s562.photobucket.com/albums/ss69/flaminglips515/?action=view&current=artiseverywhere.flv – MGMT on Yo Gabba Gabba

http://www.youtube.com/user/yogabbagabba?blend=1&ob=4#p/u - Yo Gabba Gabba’s You Tube Channel

Yo Gabba Gabba’s website = http://yogabbagabba.com/#

Natalie Portman Rap = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpMPFGBtE7Q

Watch out for Dan Buckley at 2:35 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU3lX5Vj_G0

Coming Up For Air

Coming up for air!!!!

Is it a bird is it a plane no its Lavelle’s blog!!! All I can say is sorry had to disappear for a while. I’ve been in the rabbit hole and finally I’m coming up for air! Hope all you folks are all good and still interested in what’s happening in the kaleidoscopic world of UNKLE.

So what’s been happening? We have been locked deep in the studio essentially driving ourselves mad trying to finish the new record. It’s been a difficult process and that’s why I had to bail for a while trying to make sense of the puzzle we have created basically trying to get the pieces to fit and finally its all starting to make sense. The last time I reached out to you I was off to New York for some r and r which was great. Since coming back it’s been recording and travelling all the way. Throughout the last three month’s journey we have worked on around 28 tracks which we have now whittled down to fifteen, recorded in every way technically possible from our studio, to others and via the internet. We’ve recorded strings with The Heritage Orchestra, worked on artwork with Ben Drury, Warren and Nick and seen a few shows to keep us sane including Massive Attack, The Big Pink, The Cult, Dark Horses, Spiritualised, seen some good art shows Anosh Kappor, Show Studios, Alex Box and Jonas Burget. I’ve played some dope parties (Fabric in particular springs to mind) seen some good movies: District Nine, Up, Whatever Works and watched some great TV shows: the new Dexter, True Blood, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Life etc.

We’ve had some great studio visits: Noel Gallagher (what a funny motherfucker!), Nick Nicely (yes the 80’s psychedelic maestro)! Russell Amos Toys - what a legend, worked on music for the new Paul Williams movie ‘Cherry Tree Lane”...that film is gonna fuck your head up!!! . We made a new mix CD of remixes of UNKLE for McQueen, and a special UNKLE DJ mix for Playstation 3’s “Home” avatar game. We’ve put together some remixes for heavy drug which will be out next month mixes coming from King Unique, Steve Mac, Future Beat Alliance and Fergie all of which I’ve been hammering in my DJ sets lately and trying ever so hard to finish the new LP!!! So regarding that.... here’s the deal: it’s gonna be mastered on Dec 15th so until then that’s where our focus lies. The album title is “Where Did The Night Fall” but gonna keep it tight re collaborators for the time being but will keep you posted but if you fancy hearing a new cut come see me DJ I’ve been opening my set with a collaboration with the Black Angels re others like I said I’ll let you know.

Oh yeah and if you fancy some New Years Eve Mediterranean action then come and join me and Sasha at Athenaeum Intercontinental Athens,. It is gonna be a big one! I’m going to be recording some vocals today and then I have a big weekend DJing in Romania and Amsterdam. Oh yeah and I won’t disappear on you again, I just needed a bit of space to breath, so until next week keep an open mind!! lol Jx

Click on the photos at the top to link through to the photo albums. The ones in the Drum Drops studio were taken by Graham Fox.

HEAVY DRUG USA

Hi,

For those in the USA who have been trying to buy Heavy Drug - here's the low down.

This was meant to have gone on sale in the USA the same day it was released in the UK via Beatport. As far as we were aware this had gone up as planned however upon reading your comments we got our management in the US to check it was definitely available via Beatport before we started directing you to it and subsequently discovered that it wasn't!

We got straight on to our distributor and asked for this to be resolved and have been informed that this is now up.

www.beatport.com

Thanks for keeping us informed.

J.x

Escape!

Hey,

What's up?

My mind has gone into musical meltdown after our West Heath Studio sessions so I'm getting out of dodge for a week for some headspace. Heading to NY with my daughter to catch up with friends hit some new movies (District 9 and Up head the list) and go upstate to the beach for a couple of days and stay away from music for a minute!

When I return I'll fill you in on all the collaborations and where we're at and finally get all the videos and photos up from the recording sessions.

Until then be well,

James.x

Deep In The Trenches...

Deep In The Trenches...

Sorry late again!!! We're currently in mad lock down in West Heath Studios. We have been working like crazy, it's very intense! We have been working on about 17 tracks and recorded vox with myself, Lisa, Gavin, Joel and others!!! We've also been recording all the parts as much as we can whilst we're here with Chris Goss. Whilst it is going well it can be very intense at times; sometimes I feel like I'm losing my mind as there is so much going on, particularly knowing that we have to then go back and finish the main and best tracks afterwards so all in all feeling pretty overwhelmed at the moment. I have not had time for any thing else apart from studio lock down recently apart from True Blood series 2 which has been saving my sanity!!!

No it's all good just got to keep focused so bear with me and I'll hit you back when everything has settled down a bit and I'll get all the photos and videos up as soon as I get back into the real world......

Later,

J

GU MIX #1 ON ITUNES

Thank you to everyone for the support. I just heard the awesome news that my Global Underground Bangkok mix comp hit #1 in the US iTunes store!

- James

Out of Hiding

Out Of Hiding

Apologies to all for my absence over the last month it has been pretty crazy. Planes, trains and studios and a flu I’ve just not been able to shake off.

So what’s been going on in my world?

I think from where we last left off the first main thing that happened is that I spent time in Brighton recording drums with Mike Pelanconi of Drum Drops’ fame (the motherfucking beatman) and two drummers who will feature on most of the tracks on the new album: Graham Fox the Joe Strummer of hitters from his look, voice and his attitude and Joshua Block of White Denim fame. I spent a total of nine days, between myself Pablo and James locked in a bunker experiencing moments of ‘Das Boat’ towards the end, recording all the new drums for the record, a truly amazing experience even if slightly brain damaging after hearing the beats for 12 hrs a day! Luckily there were a few breaks for me including Ibiza with Carl Cox in which I played at the opening of his night on the terrace at Space, which as always was great. That said you could definitely feel that the island nightlife is hurting this season. I thought Tiesto’s unannounced free gig on the same night was a pretty low blow but a sign of the times. A lot of what that island is becoming club wise is not what I remember about the good times.

After that I was in London for a bit whilst Lorna worked with Nike on an INSA show at the 1948 space. It was good to catch up with a lot of old friends on the opening night, a lot of old school Mo Wax heads who I’ve not seen for a long time and it was good fun watching my daughter helping spray paint logos pre the show. Next up saw Lisa’s band “Dark Horses” support Kasabian at Brixton Academy – she is truly talented and I was really impressed as it was one of her first shows, the music sounded amazing especially her voice. It was a great visual show as well.

I’ve also been spending a lot of time during this period working on new artwork ideas with Ben, Warren and Nick. I met up with Paul Williams the director of London to Brighton about working on his new film and I recorded Phillip Sheppard for the new Vertu ringtones, which we have created the music for. It is currently being mixed.

I went to see Oasis at Wembley the other week, which is always a good laugh, Noel was as hospitable as ever. Then after that I played Ministry of Sound for the GU CD launch with Agoria. This was the first time I have ever played the main room there and I have to admit I have been slightly dubious about playing there in the past but I had an amazing night. The crowd were great and I was surprised by how open minded they were – there was a really fun energy in the room, great hospitality and great to see Sebastian – it has been too long since we have played together and it always works really well.

We are putting out “Heavy Drug” as a single in August; the version, which is on GU’s Bangkok CD out soon. I have been doing promo and getting remixes together and also doing press for global underground including radio interview and magazine shit!

Most recently over the weekend I spent Saturday at my best girl friend’s wedding so congratulations and ever lasting love to Kate and Ed a truly amazing day. Also having the honour to watch my daughter being a bridesmaid. I couldn’t keep the tears back! This was followed obviously by a long day of drinking in the sun with friends and family. Then Sunday straight to Murcia in Spain for an MTV event with myself, Placebo and James Murphy. It was a strange night, long journey from Wales to find myself in front of 15000 people as Placebo had pulled out half way through their gig. My set got really messed around so it was hard to keep a focus but I think I pulled through. It was nice to see James Murphy. It has been a while – I haven’t seen him since Australia last January. Then it was straight through to get a flight at 7.30am to go back to London to work with Warren and Nick on the beginning of the album artwork which we shot at Nig Sky studios for two days. All I can say is that involved two beautiful semi naked girls, a host of serial and psychedelic sets, great costumes by Boudica, music and hair from the French maestro Raffe and crazy make up via Alex and of course a lot of weed to help one through the days all in all a pretty good Monday and Tuesday!

Also Monday Chris Goss arrived. The guitar Buddha is in town to help start us on our journey as we are trying to craft our madness. I spent yesterday working with Gavin, today getting into guitars and working with Joe Cadbury and tomorrow we are going to work on some of my songs, Saturday in with Lisd and Monday we are into Edwyn Collin’s studio. The adventure begins…


So I promise I’ll be back next week. Gonna hit you with a load of studio photos from both recording and from photo shoot sessions and things along the way but I will leave you with this rather entertaining photo montage courtesy of Pablo and Maff.

As you can see this is the type of thing I have to deal with on a daily basis. Enjoy!

PS - Get well soon Adam Yauch.