UNKLE

By Doug Levy Catalyst

Send comments to: catalyst@wildcat.arizona.edu

(Mo' Wax)

No one's going to argue that DJ Shadow isn't a musical genius. Everything the man puts out is a step above his instrumental hip-hop peers.

So what happens when you team him up with Mo' Wax founder and producer extraordinaire James Lavelle for a project that features some of modern music's most innovative vocalists and songwriters?

Take a wild guess.

Psyence Fiction, the debut from the Shadow/Lavelle team dubbed UNKLE, has been in the works for years. Richard Ashcroft, the driving force behind The Verve, wrote and recorded the vocals for his track, "Lonely Soul."

It's one of the standout tracks on the CD, a transcendent ballad of epic proportions that's full of sadness, longing and some intensely tripped-up beats.

Also featured on the CD are the Beastie Boys' Mike D., delivering an old-school funky flow on "The Knock (Drums of Death Part 2)" and Thom Yorke of Radiohead, who adds his trademark lamenting vocals to "Rabbit In Your Headlights," the album's closer.

Psyence Fiction covers a lot of ground, from straight out hip-hop, to more traditional Shadow instrumentals, to trip-hop and rock, without missing a beat while constantly changing it up.

- doug levy