<b>Artist:</b> UNKLE
<b>Album:</b> Psyence Fiction
<b>Year Released:</b> 1998
<b>Review:</b> UNKLE is a collaborative group compiling together James Levelle and DJ Shadow, and their first full release (and the only one featuring Shadow) is a brilliant album full of scifi sounds and sprawling song concepts. Shadow's recognizable heavy beats and dark low-key samples are prevalant here, but seem a little more fleshed out than in his other efforts. Probably the most stand-out point of the album is all of the outside collaborations with other artists, such as Thom Yorke of Radiohead on "Rabbit In Your Headlights" and Richard Ashcroft of The Verve on "Lonely Soul," which is easily the standout song of the album. It is a melting pot of genres, starting out with pretty heavy gangster-style rap (made all the more easier to listen to due to Shadow's masterful manipulation of sound) and continues on to pop-sounds, rock, and even a full string section in the middle of the album with "Lonely Soul." The only thing that feels very out of place is Mike D from Beasty Boys, whose rapping on "The Knock (Drums of Death pt. 2)" sounds like it was ripped straight out of their single from the time, "Intergalactic." If you like things that deviate from the norm, blending multiple styles to achieve a single effect, check this out. It blews me away when I first listened to it.
<b>Rating:</b> 5 out of 5