Artist: Unkle
Album: War Stories
Website: MySpace

DJ James Lavelle and Richard File are the unrepentant experimentalists that make up UNKLE. This British musical package and trip-hop conductors switch gears slightly to produce a more traditionally defined rock record.

Known for making records with guest stars including Radiohead front man Thom Yorke, Richard Ashcroft and Beastie Boy Mike D, File and Lavelle have furthered their musical cause with more guest spots and musical styles.

This time out they’ve recruited Ian Astbury of The Cult and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, among others, to add further dimension and star power to their musical assemblage of styles that mix techno, electronic and straight ahead rock and roll. It works, as their earnest collaborators help out with the songwriting and their solid production, keeping this from being more than a high falutin mix tape. Though it sounds more rock and roll, it’s still firmly planted in techno territory overall.

Yorke is somewhat missed on this record, the same could be said about every record he’s not on, but Astbury delivers with “Burn my Shadow”, which may be the best Cult song in a while. Meanwhile, London’s The Duke Spirit add to the sonic fray with “May Day”, a galloping rhythm guitar that recalls Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”.  L.A. based Autolux add a sarcastically emotive “Persons and Machinery”. “We’re all getting tired of you” they sing in a nonchalant whisper, and they sound like they mean it until you notice the sarcasm.

Alt-rock fuzz guitar mixes with high tech Casio, giving a surprisingly good effect on “Price you Pay”, the best of the UNKLE originals. “I’m falling away,” sings Fife against a synth bass and cello. They spare the subtlety and go right for orchestral explosion, but that shouldn’t surprise because behind every musician of UNKLE’s style is a kid with a mixing board and a synthesizer as playroom.

Gavin Clark of Clayhill gives the record a couple dashes of pop, especially with “Keys to the Kingdom” where his talent for pop hooks provides contrast to some of the more darker droning numbers. Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age adds a reliable vocal to “Restless” against the solid dance hall beat UNKLE aptly provides, dotted with a swirling sound mix.

It’s hard to tell who’s trying to sound like whom at times. You wouldn’t expect to hear Clark and Homme back to back on a record but the destination here isn’t so much a different place, but a small, yet intriguing, overlap.

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