Unkle, the liners tell us, is James Lavelle and DJ Shadow--respectively, the head honcho of releasing label Mo' Wax and said imprint's best-known act, the Northern California audio slicer-dicer Josh Davis. Both put their best feet forward on the collaboration's first full-length effort: head-hunter Lavelle has roped in contributions from such high-profilers as the Beastie Boys' Mike D., the Verve's Richard Ashcroft, and Radiohead's Thom Yorke, while Shadow has fluffed up a cushiony bed of seamlessly mixed samples for the guests. Whereas Shadow's Endtroducing..... utilized his cut-ups as components of an audio suite, here they serve as the triggers for the stars' songs; the tactic works admirably on Ashcroft's "Lonely Soul" and Yorke's "Rabbit in Your Headlights," but much less so on Mike D.'s grandstanding "The Knock," which finds the drums and theremin of Metallica's Jason Newstead embedded in the mix. Overall, though, this is an invigorating and stylish piece of sonic adventuring.
