Somewhere in space this could all be happening right now...
Back to the Futura (2000) this is not - the Beats Atlas shows the way.
Somewhere in space this may all be happening right now… In fact it is, it could all be happening in your headphones too. It’s the finest breaks and beats from 1990s label, Mo’ Wax.
With James Lavelle and DJ Shadow’s UNKLE project hitting the road again for a summer of gigs, this dusty fingers mix shows why they are where they are.
It's an hour of bending time into new shapes and places.
Famously purveyors of trip hop or instrumental hip hop or whatever your preferred nomenclature is, Mo’ Wax like Ninja Tune pushed boundaries. They knew where the treasure was buried, and gave enigmatic glimpses of how the future would sound.
Beats Atlas takes these original tracks, many you’ll know by heart, and through unusual pairings, and expeditions into the originally sampled source tracks, finds uncharted territories.
The map is not the territory. But this Atlas builds landscapes in your mind.
New technologies are giving creators access to approximations of the original studio stem recordings, and Beats Atlas takes full advantage of this new world. What looks familiar, often has a new spin. This is more than a new skin for the old ceremony. Almost everything's taken back to the bone, and flesh grows in new forms.
Mo’ Wax was always a space created by many amazing artists coming together. It was always more than the sum of its parts. Yes it was DJ Shadow, UNKLE, DJ Krush, Rob D, Major Force and Quannum. But it wouldn’t have its place on the map without La Funk Mob, Tommy Guerrero, Nigo, Palm Skin Productions and Attica Blues.
This isn’t nostalgia. This is resurrection through reinvention. This is liberation from nostalgia.
- Nigo - Ape Sounds Opening
- UNKLE - UNKLE Main Theme
- UNKLE - If You Find Earth Boring
- DJ Krush, C.L. Smooth - Only The Strong Survive
- UNKLE - Berry Meditation (The Darker The Berry, The Sweeter The Juice Attica Blues mix)
- Palm Skin Productions - Slipper Suite
- Rob D - Clubbed To Death (Kurayamimo Version)
- Palm Skin Productions - Trouble Rides a Fast Horse
- Men Against Cool - Anger
- UNKLE - Unreal
- Dub War - Strike It (Attica Blues remix)
- UNKLE - If You Find Earth Boring (UNKLE vs Howie B mix)
- La Funk Mob - Motorbass Gets Phunked Up
- Money Mark - Ba Ba Boom
- Nigo - March of the General
- UNKLE - Guns Blazing (Drums of Death Pt 1)
- DJ Shadow - Right Thing
- UNKLE - Eye for An Eye
- DJ Shadow - High Noon
- DJ Krush - Interlude
- DJ Shadow - What Does Your Soul Look Like Pt. 4
- Major Force West E.M.S. Orchestra - Mugen In The Morning
- DJ Shadow - In Flux (Alternative Interlude '93 Version)
- Nightmares On Wax - Stars
- DJ Shadow - Fixed Income
- DJ Shadow - Building Steam With a Grain of Salt
- Skull - Destroy All Monsters
- Tommy Guerrero - Blue Masses
- Visionistics - Mysterious Ways (JDS Hip Hop Jazz remix)
- The Groove Robbers feat. DJ Shadow - Hardcore (Instrumental) Hip Hop
- DJ Krush - 89.9 Megamix by DJ Shadow
- Blackalicious - Rhymes for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind
- DJ Shadow - Lost and Found
- DJ Krush feat. DJ Shadow - Duality (2006k mix)
- La Funk Mob - Ravers Suck Our Sound
- Tranquility Bass - They Came In Peace