Psyence Fiction

Psyence Fiction
Studio album by Unkle
Released 24 August 1998 (1998-08-24)
Recorded 1994–98
Studio
Genre
Length 54:59
Label Mo' Wax
Producer Unkle
Unkle chronology
Psyence Fiction
(1998)		 Never, Never, Land
(2003)
Singles from Psyence Fiction
  1. "Rabbit in Your Headlights"
    Released: 1998 (1998)
  2. "Be There"
    Released: 8 February 1999 (1999-02-08)

Psyence Fiction is the debut studio album by British-American electronic music group Unkle, released on 24 August 1998 by Mo' Wax. The creation of the album was helmed by the duo of James Lavelle and DJ Shadow – with the former overseeing the album's thematic concepts and the latter handling music and production – in addition to a varied cast of guest musicians recruited by Lavelle.

Psyence Fiction reached number 4 on the UK Albums Chart and number 107 on the US Billboard 200.

Composition

"Unreal" is an instrumental version of the song "Be There" (featuring Ian Brown), which was released a year later as a single. On some early pressings of the album, instrumental versions of "Guns Blazing" and "The Knock" were added as tracks 13 and 14. On some re-releases of the album, "Be There" was added as track 13. Some versions (mainly the Japanese release, but also the US promotional copy) contain the hidden track "Intro (optional)" as "track zero", which is actually the pre-gap (index 0) of track 1. This can be accessed by "rewinding" the first track on some CD players.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Christgau's Consumer Guide[2]
Entertainment WeeklyB+[3]
The Guardian[4]
NME6/10[5]
Pitchfork9.8/10[6]
Rolling Stone[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[8]
Select4/5[9]
Spin8/10[10]

Psyence Fiction was released to mixed critical reviews.[11] The album's critical reception suffered from the large pre-release hype stemming from its "star-powered guests... ambition and expectation",[11] as well as its creators' reputations, with DJ Shadow's involvement in particular leading to expectations that Psyence Fiction "would be a sort of Endtroducing..... Part II".[12] John Mulvey of NME felt that the album's "prevailing air" is "one of clumsy compromise rather than mutual inspiration" and found that Shadow's music "rarely gels with Lavelle's chosen singers or even comes to terms with the song (as opposed to groove) format of much of the material".[5] Joshua Klein of The A.V. Club wrote that the album's hip hop-oriented tracks were superior to the "more conventional alt-rock outline" which pervades the album, concluding that "Psyence Fiction can be chalked up as an ambitious failure; its principals can put it on their résumés, but cultural historians needn't put in their books."[13]

Among positive reviews, Barry Walters of Spin wrote that DJ Shadow "frames suitably eloquent voices with chaotic but never overwhelming aural bricolage", calling Psyence Fiction "the illest soundclash since the last time a B-boy crashed a George Romero film festival and refused to turn off his boom-box".[10] Writing in Rolling Stone, Lorraine Ali found the album to be "neither a lofty concept album nor the sonic equivalent of cinema", but concluded that "it is Shadow and Lavelle's striving for such greatness that makes UNKLE a compelling work in progress".[7] Entertainment Weekly's Tricia Laine wrote that despite the presence of filler, "the best bits... are like a soundtrack for a surreal, melancholy art film that exists in Shadow's and Lavelle's heads."[3] Gareth Grundy of Select wrote that Shadow's production provides the album with coherence, and that when he and Lavelle "click... it hums with joie de vivre – the sound of a vision thrillingly realised".[9]

Disillusioned with the project, DJ Shadow departed Unkle following Psyence Fiction's release and distanced himself from the album.[14][15] Years later, James Lavelle would express the opinion that the album's hype ended up overshadowing its musical content, adding that he felt it was released at a time "when people wanted [him] to fail".[11] Shadow would later refer to Psyence Fiction as an album that despite being "somehow flawed" he "deeply [loved]".[16]

Legacy

In the years following the release of Psyence Fiction, the album's reputation has steadily improved.[11][12] In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine found that Psyence Fiction, despite its musical flaws, "gains momentum on repeated listens" due to "Shadow's imagination and unpredictable highlights", which make for "a superstar project that doesn't play it safe and actually has its share of rich, rewarding music."[1] Writing in The Vinyl Factory, Elliot Wilder noted that the album had "gained cult status for its chaotic collages and maverick collaborations", adding that it "feels today like the kind of crazy, alt-star-strewn mash fest that it is".[12] Chris DeVille of Stereogum wrote that Psyence Fiction helped popularize the concept of gathering multiple artists of wide-ranging genres for a single album and presaged "likeminded ecumenical collectives like Gorillaz and Handsome Boy Modeling School", and that "In terms of quality alone, it's worthy of remembering as one of the best albums of its era."[17] In 2015, Fact named it the 45th best trip hop album of all time.[18]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Guns Blazing (Drums of Death Part 1)"
5:01
2."UNKLE Main Title Theme"Davis3:24
3."Bloodstain"
5:57
4."Unreal"
  • Davis
  • Jules Blattner
5:10
5."Lonely Soul"
8:56
6."Getting Ahead in the Lucrative Field of Artist Management" 0:56
7."Nursery Rhyme / Breather"
4:45
8."Celestial Annihilation"
  • Davis
  • Malone
4:44
9."The Knock (Drums of Death Part 2)"
3:58
10."Chaos"Atlantique Khanh4:42
11."Rabbit in Your Headlights"
6:20
12."Outro (Mandatory)" 1:06
Total length:54:59
Sample credits[19]
  • "Bloodstain" contains samples of "Alone", performed by BeBe K'Roche.
  • "Unreal" contains samples of "Birth", written by Jules Blattner and performed by The Jules Blattner Group, and "Pre-Dawn Retrospective Chant", written and performed by Steve Forman.
  • "Celestial Annihilation" is based on the composition "Concerto for Strings and Beats" by Wil Malone.

Personnel

Credits for Psyence Fiction adapted from album liner notes.[19]

Recording information

  • "Guns Blazing (Drums of Death Part 1)" and "Nursery Rhyme / Breather" were mixed and recorded at The Record Plant in Hollywood, California.
  • Vocals for "Guns Blazing (Drums of Death Part 1)" and "Rabbit in Your Headlights" were recorded at The Site in San Rafael, California.

All other mixing and recording took place in London, England.

  • "UNKLE Main Title Theme", "Lonely Soul", "Celestial Annihilation" and "The Knock (Drums of Death Part 2)" were mixed at Metropolis.
  • "Bloodstain" and "Chaos" were mixed at Rak Studios.
  • Vocals for "Bloodstain" were recorded at The Strongroom.
  • "Unreal" was mixed at Matrix.
  • Vocals for "Lonely Soul" were recorded at Milo.
  • Strings for "Lonely Soul" and "Celestial Annihilation" were recorded at CTS Studios.
  • "Rabbit in Your Headlights" was mixed at The Strongroom.

Charts

Chart (1998) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[21] 15
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[22] 22
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[23] 60
French Albums (SNEP)[24] 39
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[25] 77
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[26] 33
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[27] 18
Scottish Albums (OCC)[28] 7
UK Albums (OCC)[29] 4
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[30] 1
US Billboard 200[31] 107
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[32] 1

References

  1. 1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Psyence Fiction – UNKLE". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  2. ↑ Christgau, Robert (2000). "Unkle: Psyence Fiction". Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-24560-2. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  3. 1 2 Laine, Tricia (12 October 1998). "Psyence Fiction". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  4. ↑ Sullivan, Caroline (28 August 1998). "UNKLE: Psyence Fiction (Mo' Wax)". The Guardian.
  5. 1 2 Mulvey, John (19 August 1998). "UNKLE – Psyence Fiction". NME. Archived from the original on 15 June 2000. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  6. ↑ Schreiber, Ryan. "UNKLE: Psyence Fiction". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 16 November 2006. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  7. 1 2 Ali, Lorraine (17 September 1998). "U.N.K.L.E.: Psyence Fiction". Rolling Stone (797). Archived from the original on 13 November 2007. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  8. ↑ Ryan, Chris (2004). "UNKLE". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon & Schuster. pp. 837–38. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  9. 1 2 Grundy, Gareth (September 1998). "The rebel alliance". Select (99): 80–81.
  10. 1 2 Walters, Barry (November 1998). "UNKLE: Psyence Fiction". Spin. 14 (11): 117–18. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "The men from UNKLE". The Age. 3 October 2003. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  12. 1 2 3 Wilder, Eliot (24 August 2018). "20 years of UNKLE's Psyence Fiction". The Vinyl Factory. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  13. ↑ Klein, Joshua (29 March 2002). "UNKLE: Psyence Fiction". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  14. ↑ Cooper, Sean. "UNKLE (Biography)". AllMusic. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  15. ↑ Werde, Bill (June 2002). "The Shadow Knows". CMJ New Music Monthly (102): 32–39. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  16. ↑ Doran, John (18 October 2010). "Megadef: DJ Shadow Interviewed". The Quietus. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  17. ↑ DeVille, Chris (24 August 2018). "Psyence Fiction Turns 20". Stereogum. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  18. ↑ Twells, John; Fintoni, Laurent (30 July 2015). "The 50 best trip-hop albums of all time". Fact. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
  19. 1 2 Psyence Fiction (liner notes). Unkle. Mo' Wax. 1998. MW085CD.
  20. ↑ McGee, Alan (9 April 2008). "Wherefore art thou Mark Hollis?". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
  21. ↑ "Australiancharts.com – Unkle – Psyence Fiction". Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  22. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Unkle – Psyence Fiction" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  23. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Unkle – Psyence Fiction" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  24. ↑ "Lescharts.com – Unkle – Psyence Fiction". Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  25. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – Unkle – Psyence Fiction" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  26. ↑ "Charts.org.nz – Unkle – Psyence Fiction". Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  27. ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – Unkle – Psyence Fiction". Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  28. ↑ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  29. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  30. ↑ "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  31. ↑ "Unkle Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  32. ↑ "Unkle Chart History (Heatseekers Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
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