Eno, Homme Say Unkle
British electronic act Unkle will release Never, Never, Land, the follow-up to its 1998 debut Psyence Fiction, in the U.S. on October 26th. Like its predecessor — which featured the likes of the Beastie Boys’ Mike D, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Badly Drawn Boy — the album features a slew of guests, including Brian Eno, Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker, Massive Attack’s 3D, South’s Joel Cadbury and Queen of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme.
“I’m a huge fan of what he does,” Unkle mastermind James Lavelle says of Homme. “[Queens of the Stone] were just finishing a tour, and he wanted to do something different and came to London . . . It was just a day of mucking around.”
Lavelle also managed to reunite two members of the Stone Roses, as Ian Brown and Gary Mounfield (a.k.a. Mani) contributed vocals and a bass line, respectively, to “Reign.”
However, Lavelle did not reunite with DJ Shadow, his partner on Psyence Fiction. Richard File instead handled the production duties on Never, Never, Land and also sang on six tracks. “Shadow wanted to make another [solo] record, and I didn’t really want to wait eight years,” Lavelle says. “To be honest, we never really talked about making another record. I started Unkle when I was sixteen, and I worked with people way before Shadow.”
The U.S. release will feature a bonus CD of remixes. And though the release date is only two months away, Lavelle is toying with the idea of adding new, original material, including collaborations with the Cult’s Ian Astbury and Queens of the Stone Age producer Chris Goss.
“I’m slightly nervous that I’m not going to be able to,” Lavelle says of the long-awaited project, “because of time.”