Psyence Fiction

Psyence Fiction
Studio album by Unkle
Released	29 September 1998
Recorded	1994–98, London, England, UK
Genre	Electronica, trip hop, alternative rock
Length	54:57
Label	Mo'Wax
Producer	DJ Shadow
Unkle chronology
Psyence Fiction (1998) Never, Never, Land (2003)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Christgau's Consumer Guide	[2]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[3]
NME	6/10[4]
Pitchfork Media	9.8/10[5]
Rolling Stone	[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[7]
Select	4/5[8]
Spin	8/10[9]

Psyence Fiction is the debut studio album by British musical group Unkle, released in 1998 for Mo'Wax.

Notes

"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 presses 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.

"Lonely Soul" was featured in an Assassin's Creed trailer for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.^[10] It was also featured on the soundtrack to the film The Beach, in the first episode of Misfits and in the Person of Interest episode "Matsya Nyaya".

Psyence Fiction reached number 4 on the UK Albums Chart, and number 107 on the US Billboard 200. It also debuted at number 15 in Australia.

An 'ultimate edition' of Psyence Fiction is reportedly being made, as part of the rewards for backing the July 2013 Mo'Wax Kickstarter. James Lavelle claimed to be working on compiling it with DJ Shadow^[11] and it will include exclusive tracks on CD/s and a 7" vinyl picture disc.^[12] After a long period of no communication, an update was posted (on 15 July 2015) saying that the album is currently scheduled for a re-release in Spring 2016. In June 2015 DJ Shadow's management denied all involvement with the project.

Recording

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

All other mixing and recording took place in London, United Kingdom.

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

Track listing

UK cassette version

A side
No.	Title	Vocals	Length
1.	"Guns Blazing (Drums of Death, Pt. 1)"	Kool G Rap	5:01
2.	"UNKLE Main Title Theme"		3:24
3.	"Bloodstain"	Alice Temple	5:57
4.	"Unreal"		5:10
5.	"Lonely Soul"	Richard Ashcroft	8:46

B side
No.	Title	Vocals	Length
1.	"Getting Ahead in the Lucrative Field of Artist Management"		0:56
2.	"Nursery Rhyme / Breather"	Badly Drawn Boy	4:45
3.	"Celestial Annihilation"		4:45
4.	"The Knock (Drums of Death, Pt. 2)"	Mike D	3:58
5.	"Chaos"	Atlantique Khan	4:42
6.	"Rabbit in Your Headlights / Outro (Mandatory)"	Thom Yorke	7:36

European and American release
No.	Title	Vocals	Length
1.	"Intro (Optional)" (Included on UK promotional slipsleeve only)		2:19
2.	"Guns Blazing (Drums of Death, Pt. 1)"	Kool G Rap	5:01
3.	"UNKLE Main Title Theme"		3:24
4.	"Bloodstain"	Alice Temple	5:57
5.	"Unreal"		5:10
6.	"Lonely Soul"	Richard Ashcroft	8:56
7.	"Getting Ahead in the Lucrative Field of Artist Management"		0:56
8.	"Nursery Rhyme / Breather"	Badly Drawn Boy	4:45
9.	"Celestial Annihilation"		4:44
10.	"The Knock (Drums of Death, Pt. 2)"	Mike D	3:58
11.	"Chaos"	Atlantique Khan	4:42
12.	"Rabbit in Your Headlights"	Thom Yorke	6:20
13.	"Outro (Mandatory)"		1:06
14.	"Be There" (1999 UK bonus track)	Ian Brown	5:15

Japanese and Australian release
No.	Title	Vocals	Length
1.	"Intro (Optional)"		2:19
2.	"Guns Blazing (Drums of Death, Pt. 1)"	Kool G Rap	5:01
3.	"UNKLE Main Title Theme"		3:24
4.	"Bloodstain"	Alice Temple	5:57
5.	"Unreal"		5:10
6.	"Lonely Soul"	Richard Ashcroft	8:56
7.	"Getting Ahead in the Lucrative Field of Artist Management"		0:56
8.	"Nursery Rhyme / Breather"	Badly Drawn Boy	4:45
9.	"Celestial Annihilation"		4:44
10.	"The Knock (Drums of Death, Pt. 2)"	Mike D	3:58
11.	"Chaos"	Atlantique Khan	4:42
12.	"Rabbit in Your Headlights"	Thom Yorke	6:20
13.	"Outro (Mandatory)"		1:06
14.	"Guns Blazing (Drums of Death, Pt. 1)" (instrumental)		4:00
15.	"The Knock (Drums of Death, Pt. 2)" (instrumental)		3:52

Samples

• "Intro (Optional)"
  • Quannum MCs – "Blue Flames"
  • Massive Attack – "Teardrop"
  • Air – "All I Need"
  • Invisibl Skratch Piklz – "Invisibl Skratch Piklz vs. Da Klamz Uv Deth"
  • Timbaland and Magoo – "Clock Strikes" (Remix)
  • The Chemical Brothers – "Elektrobank"
  • Jurassic 5 – "Jayou"
  • The Verve – "History"
  • Radiohead – "Just"
  • Cornelius – "Mic Check"
  • Oasis – "Wonderwall"
  • Portishead – "Numb"
  • Peshay – "The Nocturnal (Back on the Firm)"
  • DJ Krush – "Kemuri"
  • Björk – "Human Behaviour"
  • Innerzone Orchestra – "Bug in the Bassbin"
  • Nirvana – "Come as You Are"
  • 808 State – "Pacific State"
  • Orbital – "Chime"
  • Young Disciples – "Apparently Nothin'"
  • A Tribe Called Quest(featuring Leaders of the New School) – "Scenario"
  • Gang Starr – "Just to Get a Rep"
  • Ice Cube – "Get Off My Dick and Tell Yo Bitch to Come Here (Remix)"
  • Massive Attack – "Unfinished Sympathy"
  • Soul II Soul – "Keep on Movin'"
  • Main Source – "Looking at the Front Door"
  • De La Soul – "The Magic Number"
  • The Stone Roses – "I Wanna Be Adored"
  • Talk Talk – "The Rainbow"
  • Ultramagnetic MCs – "Give the Drummer Some"
  • M|A|R|R|S – "Pump Up the Volume"
  • Public Enemy – "Public Enemy No. 1"
  • Depeche Mode – "Stripped"
  • Major Force West – "Kiss FM Radio Promo"
  • Beastie Boys – "The New Style"
  • Metallica – "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)"
  • Eric B. & Rakim – "Eric B. Is President"
  • Frankie Goes to Hollywood – "The Last Voice"
  • Newcleus – "Jam on It"
  • UTFO – "Roxanne, Roxanne"
  • Art of Noise – "Beat Box"
  • Run-DMC – "30 Days"
  • New Order – "Blue Monday"
  • Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force – "Planet Rock"
  • Malcolm McLaren & the World's Famous Supreme Team – "Hobo Scratch"
  • Rammelzee and K-Rob – "Beat Bop"
  • Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – "The Message"
  • Kraftwerk – "It's More Fun to Compute"
  • Zapp & Roger – "More Bounce to the Ounce"
  • Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – "Superrappin"
  • John Oswald – "Brown"
  • Sound taken directly from the opening scene of Contact
  • Juice – "Catch a Groove"
  • Herbie Hancock – "Chameleon"
  • James Brown – "The Payback"
  • Sun Ra – "Space Is the Place"
  • Terry Callier – "Dancing Girl"
  • Silver Apples – "Lovefingers"
  • Incredible Bongo Band – "Apache"
  • The Doors – "The End"
  • Mickey & The Soul Generation - "Get Down Brother"
  • The Meters – "Cissy Strut"
  • The Beatles – "Tomorrow Never Knows"
  • David Axelrod – "Holy Thursday"
  • Velvet Underground – "Venus in Furs"
  • Jimi Hendrix – "Happy Birthday"
  • Nina Simone – "Feeling Good"
  • The Elvin Jones/Jimmy Garrison Sextet - "Half and Half"
• "Guns Blazing (Drums of Death Part 1)"
  • Alan Hawkshaw – "Countdown"
  • The trailer for the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (vocal sample: "Somewhere in space, this may all be happening right now")
  • Tullio De Piscopo – "Medium Rock"
  • Frank Zappa – "Apostrophe"
  • Wizzard – "Buffalo Station/Get On Down To Memphis"
  • Sound effects from the video game Galaxian
• "Unkle (Main Title Theme)"^[13]
  • Joy Unlimited – "Rudiment"
  • Promo for the TV series The Twilight Zone (vocal sample: "It is the middle ground between light and shadow")
  • The trailer for the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (vocal sample: "An adventure unlike anything on your planet")
  • The film Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (vocal sample: "There were too many of us...")
  • The film Blade Runner (vocal sample: "Fiery the angels fell.. burning with the fires of Orc")
  • LL Cool J – "Jingling Baby (Remixed and Still Jingling)"
  • Fab Five Freddy featuring Beeside – "Change the Beat"
  • Eric B. & Rakim – "Microphone Fiend"
  • The Luv Bandits – "Mizzer-Bahd"
  • Matthew Cang and Eddie Chin – "Slow Glide"
  • Unkle - "The Knock (Drums of Death Part 2)"
  • Hubert J. Bernhard – "The Planetarium Lecture Series: No. 3: The UFO's (Side 1)"
  • Rage - "A Pilgrim's Path"
• "Bloodstain"
  • Head West – "Attention"
  • Isaac Hayes – "Walk on By" (album version)
  • BeBe K'Roche – "Alone"
  • The Grodeck Whipperjenny – "Evidence for the Existence of the Unconscious"
  • The Star Wars Holiday Special (vocal sample: "You are alone?")
• "Unreal"
  • The Star Wars Holiday Special (vocal sample: "Maybe I can help you")
  • The Other Brothers – "No Class"
  • The Jules Blattner Group – "Birth"
  • The final episode of the TV series Twin Peaks
  • Leroy Vinnegar – "Reservation"
  • The Eclectic Mouse – "Pre-Dawn Retrospective Chant"
• "Lonely Soul"
  • Lionel Morton – "Fearless Fred's Amazing Animal Band"
  • "Do Lung Bridge" from the soundtrack to the film Apocalypse Now
• "Getting Ahead in the Lucrative Field of Artist Management"
  • A commercial for the 1976 game Ball Buster
• "Nursery Rhyme/Breather"
  • The New Dave Pike Set – "Ritmos Do Bahia"
  • L.A. Dream Team – "Calling on the Dream Team"
• "Celestial Annihilation"
  • Wil Malone – "Concerto for Strings and Beats"
  • Newcleus – "Let's Jam"
  • Byron Davis and the Fresh Krew – "Now Dance"
  • Toddy Tee featuring Mix Master Spade – "Do You Wanna Go to the Liquor Store"
  • Grace Jones – "Operattack"
  • Channel One – "Technicolor"
  • DJ Magic Mike - "Magic Mike cuts the record"
• "The Knock (Drums of Death Part 2)"
  • Nirvana – "Modus Operandi (Method of Work)"
  • Frank Zappa – "Apostrophe"
  • Wizzard – "Buffalo Station/Get On Down To Memphis"
  • Manfred Mann – "Snakeskin Garter"
  • Troy the Wonder Boy and Electric One Thousand featuring Boo-Boo B – "Boo-Boo's Break"
  • Billy Squier – "The Big Beat"
  • The TV series Graffiti Rock (vocal sample: "Whew, that was hot, now dig this")
• "Rabbit in Your Headlights"
  • Supersister – "Pudding en Gisteren - Music for Ballet"
  • Talk Talk – "New Grass"
  • Osanna – "Variazone III"
  • David Axelrod – "Holy Thursday"
  • The film Jacob's Ladder (vocal sample: "If you're frightened of dying...")
  • A humming noise from the film Contact
• "Outro (Mandatory)"
  • Alan Hawkshaw – "Countdown"
  • Whitley Strieber, the host of the weekend edition of Art Bell's Coast to Coast nightly radio talk show. (vocal sample: "I feel that this has given me...")

Personnel

• DJ Shadow – production
• James Lavelle – vocals, engineering
• Sie Medway-Smith, Jim Abbiss – engineering
• Kool G Rap, Alice Temple, Richard Ashcroft, Damon Gough, Mike D, Atlantique Khan, Thom Yorke – vocals
• Mark Hollis – piano on "Chaos"^[14]
• Jason Newsted – bass, theremin

Charts

Chart (1998)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[15]	15
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[16]	22
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[17]	60
French Albums (SNEP)[18]	39
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[19]	77
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[20]	33
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[21]	18
UK Albums (OCC)[22]	4
US Billboard 200[23]	107

References

1. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Psyence Fiction – UNKLE". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
2. Christgau, Robert. "Unkle: Psyence Fiction". RobertChristgau.com. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
3. Browne, David (12 October 1998). "Psyence Fiction". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
4. Mulvey, John (19 August 1998). "UNKLE – Psyence Fiction". NME. Archived from the original on 15 June 2000. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
5. Schreiber, Ryan. "UNKLE: Psyence Fiction". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on 16 November 2006. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
6. 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.
7. Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian, eds. (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-743-20169-8.
8. Grundy, Gareth (September 1998). "The rebel alliance". Select (99): 80–81.
9. Walters, Barry (November 1998). "UNKLE: Psyence Fiction". Spin. 14 (11): 117–18. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
10. "Assassin's Creed: Ubidays 07 Trailer HD". GameTrailers. 22 May 2007.
11. http://www.mowaxplease.com/kickstarter-psyence-fiction-update/
12. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mowax21/urban-archaeology-21-years-of-mowax/description
13. "Unkle Lyrics, Photos, Pictures, Paroles, Letras, Text for every songs". Alwaysontherun.net. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
14. McGee, Alan (9 April 2008). "Wherefore art thou Mark Hollis?". theguardian.com. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
15. "Australiancharts.com – Unkle – Psyence Fiction". Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
16. "Ultratop.be – Unkle – Psyence Fiction" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
17. "Dutchcharts.nl – Unkle – Psyence Fiction" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
18. "Lescharts.com – Unkle – Psyence Fiction". Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
19. "Offiziellecharts.de – Unkle – Psyence Fiction" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
20. "Charts.org.nz – Unkle – Psyence Fiction". Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
21. "Norwegiancharts.com – Unkle – Psyence Fiction". Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
22. "Unkle | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart Retrieved 12 June 2016.
23. "Unkle – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Unkle. Retrieved 12 June 2016.

External links

• Psyence Fiction at Discogs (list of releases)