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Part of Unkle's success lies is their ability to coerce music's top vocalists into singing; this and their knack of matching the 'right' voice with the most suitable instrumentals is central to their music hallmark - tracks that sound individual but which fall under the distinctive Unkle umbrella. War Stories, a genre-hopping feast, follows this mould. Some may argue this signals a drying up of ideas on Unkle's part or an over reliance on a failsafe formula - not so; album number three is diverse and engrossing.
The signature fusing of trip-hop beats with rock energy is here in abundance. 'Mayday' with its pilfering of the bouncing prog rock riff in Kasabian's 'Empire' features garage rock group the Duke Spirit. Ian Astbury of the Cult features on 'Burn My Shadow' with its similarity to the ear-drilling drumming of Pendulum's 'Voodoo People' remix; Astbury reappears on 'When Things Explode' which uses the same sparse drumming as Radiohead's 'Climbing Up The Walls'.
The main criticism then is that War Stories draws too heavily from other musical sources and sounds tired or familiar. But there is enough variety here to narrowly miss falling into the heard-it-before trap. Tracks such as 'Chemistry' flying the trip-hop flag are urgent and compelling while 'Broken' featuring Clayhill singer Gavin Clark is unashamedly pop but speeds along with an absorbing vibrancy. Josh Homme guests on the attitude-laden 'Restless' while 'Hold My Hand' (James Lavelle's vocal debut) exudes Manchester Britpop soul minus Mani and Ian Brown.
War Stories is one of two things - a dynamic collection of songs from a pair of audacious experimentalists or a hackney-ed attempt to recreate the success of the Psyence Fiction days. Whichever view you take, there's no question of Unkle's enduring reputation as master genre mergers. --Gemma Padley
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
MIXMAG
about to become dance musics tarantino, thanks to his inspired move of
drafting in the cults near forgotten ian astbury ( of "she sells sanctuary"
fame) for the albums epic first single.
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Customer Reviews
A tad over-long at 14 tracks (including the 14 minute finale, 'When Things Explode') War Stories is nevertheless like good quality dark chocolate: rich and flavoursome, with a distinct and pleasingly bitter edge.
Matt Pucci
an inspired choice of guest vocalists (the Gavin Clark of Clayhill & Ian Astbury tracks are fabulous) just show how on top of his game Lavelle is.
sometimes an lp grabs me so much intitally that after a week or so, i'm almost bored of it, but trust me, there's no way you could be bored by this...it's got the lot.
without a doubt, one of the top three lps of the year.
I thought I wa sbeing retarded when people said they couldnt get the packing open. Read more
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