Revolutionary download platform? Join up here.
We’ll hurl exclusive access, free tunes and a world of new voices at you too.
History. It has a lot to answer for. We are all defined by what we love. Clash has paired up with mflow, a new and radical download platform that allows you to follow your friends and their ongoing musical romances.
With all the tribalism of Twitter, delivering 320kbs quality MP3s and splicing full track previews, it’s got a wide vision of how a musical community should work.
On mflow you can easily shop for music and simultaneously build your network by choosing to follow the recommendations or ‘flows’ of other users, friends, artists, record labels, DJs, venues and maga- zines, meaning your voices can be trusted.
If anyone buys from your own hot tip you get 20% of the price refunded as a store credit. Bring it on!
We have dived headlong into the past of UNKLE’S James Lavelle to find all the strands that tie this man’s life and musical realm to- gether.
From his childhood gaze at the start of the burgeoning hip-hop scene to his development of his own label, Mo‘Wax, and onto his work with Ian Brown, Josh Homme, Carl Craig and Thom Yorke, James Lavelle’s been around and has the tales to tell.
Jump into his musical DNA, ahead of their album ‘Where Did The Night Fall’ – and come get a down- load from the UNKLE album: ‘Natural Selection’
UNKLE, AKA James Lavelle and Pablo Clements, have brought us some hefty collaborations. James Lavelle has rarely stayed still, revealing here a musical genealogy that traverses from Vangelis to Carl Craig to Ian Brown.
Beastie Boys
“‘Check Your Head’ and ‘Paul’s Boutique’ were hugely defining records for me growing up – two of the greatest records ever made. They had a massive impact on Mo‘Wax too because they had an alternative approach to hip-hop and so did we.”
Public Enemy
“Public Enemy were like aliens, I’d never seen any- thing like it and I’ve never had that feeling again within music. America was in colour then and we were still in black and white. They were the fucking coolest thing you’d seen in your life: big, unique, hardcore, loud, political. It blew your mind.”
The Stone Roses
“They made my favourite rock record of my generation. Simple. Also they were big in what they represented in my relationship with Ian Brown (who collaborated with UNKLE). I did Top Of The Pops with Ian Brown in ‘98 along with Cher, Blur and some other bizarre acts. I remember Damon Albarn turned round and said, “You’ve blown it now. You could have got away with it, but now you’re on Top Of The Pops!””
Queens Of The Stone Age
“As contemporary bands go, Josh Homme is prob- ably my biggest relationship; he’s been an important influence and an important friend as well. I’ve made five songs with him… We have history.”
Carl Craig
“He’s the longest and greatest serving techno artist of all time. I started DJing his records about 16 years ago at a club I did with Gilles Peterson called That’s How It Is. Carl Craig helped create a type of music that’s become very international but that’s come from a very small scene that was fighting against what was going on with hip-hop – and techno has become one of the most influential areas of music over the last ten years.”
Vangelis
“Songs like ‘Aphrodite’s Child’ were a massive influence on everything from ’70s psychedelia right through to Kasabian. From this song right up until ‘Blade Runner’ he’s probably one of my favourite composers and ‘Blade Runner’ is my favourite sound track. His melody, his technique – he’s an analogue keyboard genius, one of the greatest there is.”
DJ Shadow
“‘Endtroducing’ was THE defining Mo‘Wax record; it was an amazing, naïve, transatlantic, loving, musical, obsessive relationship that flowered one of the best records of the ’90s. It was an amazing time, anything seemed possible and everyone was at the right place at the right time. We were swapping tapes of stuff we were into, and it was mates, it was trust: we were just two young kids trying to find our way.”
ESG
“This band were featured on probably the greatest ever collection of music that defined our generation of DJs and producers – a bootleg series called ‘Ultimate Breaks And Beats’. It was all the samples from Amer- ica that contained all the classic beats that DJs would cut, from James Brown to ‘War Of The Worlds’. ESG was on there. I turned Tim Goldsworthy onto it and he went off and did DFA, and based most of his career on that sound. The Wild Style soundtrack combined New York punk with very raw disco that has become hugely influential and defined half the bands that kids are listening to today.
DOWNLOAD THESE 5 SONGS FOR FREE!
UNKLE ‘Natural Selection’ The Future Beat Alliance (Exclusive)
Ian Brown ‘Corpses’
DJ Shadow ‘Midnight In A Perfect World’
Public Enemy ‘Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos’
Carl Craig ‘Movement 3’
Download MFLOW HERE and get your five free tracks.
