Day 591

Aka Thursday 13^th September

Des, the Samsung engineer came, diagnosed that the motor was broken, replaced the motor and fixed the washing machine. I’ve never been so happy to do some washing!

'The Man From Mo’Wax' boxset arrived and like most Mo’Wax related releases it looks really great:

…so far I’ve just watched the film, listened to the director’s commentary and watched the interview with DJ Shadow and James Lavelle and there’s just the producer’s commentary, ‘The Lost Men From UNKLE’ featurette, ‘Interview Mixtape’ featurette, ‘Aesthetic Origins’ featurette and ‘UNKLE Mark 4’ featurette to go 😊

I really enjoyed ‘The Man From Mo’Wax’, from a nostalgic viewpoint and as a story of the rise and fall and rise of an artist. When Mo’Wax/James Lavelle were at their peak at the same time that I was at university (and first entered the world of employment) and as mentioned before Mo’Wax, along with Ninja Tune and Skint, were the labels that soundtracked most of my nights out and my nights in. So, for the first half of this film I was transported back to ‘90’s London and Southend, and there was plenty of “…I used to go there...”, “…I got that record…”, etc. I also remembered thinking how lucky James Lavelle was and wondering what he did on the UNKLE records.

Now I realise that as well as being lucky Mr Lavelle was also hugely determined, confident and artistically certain of what he wanted and that most of his luck was self-generated. He basically made sure that he was at the right place at the right time. It’s also clear that, although he isn’t a traditional musician, he was a large part of the sound (and look) of UNKLE, without his ideas and him bringing people together UNKLE singles and albums would sound very different (if they existed at all!).   

There is a part of the documentary where Mr Lavelle talks about ‘tall poppy syndrome’, where successful people are attacked and brought down by the press and public simply for being successful. Which I don’t buy, while I agree that some individuals did want to get back or just knock him, I think that his time at the forefront and just passed. The only problem is that ‘the times they are a-changing’ and once Trip-Hop became ubiquitous and part of the mainstream, he was left behind, and other people were taking his sound and approach and doing better with it. 

To me, the UNKLE music after ‘Psyence Fiction’ never sounded as unique or fresh, it almost seems that after setting this template other people took it and took it forward, evolved it into fresher sounds. Although, UNKLE, UNKLESounds, did release some great mix albums.

My favourite parts of the documentary are the early years of Mo’Wax and UNKLE, Mr Lavelle spending time with his daughter, where he looks to be truly happy and content (especially as these occur during some of his dark times) and when Mr Lavelle an DJ Shadow make up, I didn’t know that they had buried the hatchet and it was touching when this was revealed.

…and I did a little job hunting, mostly sorting out whether the job was within commuting distance and thinking about what examples to use in the applications.

…and I did the G2 crossword:

…which went okayish, I only needed to cheat on four of the 19 clues, and I learnt that ‘Herm’ is ‘one of the Channel Islands’ and that ‘pulchritudinous’ means ‘beautiful’. Also, I think that ‘Zone – thrash’ is a great clue for ‘belt’.