Next up I travelled to Liverpool to talk at Laces Out: Liverpool's celebrated sneaker convention. I want to thank Paddy and the crew from Liverpool's original skate store Lost Art. This was a follow up to the Size Sessions DJ mix from last year, which is available on the UNKLE mixcloud. We then decamped to the Merchant for the afterparty where I DJed and got to warm up for my next adventure.

Then last weekend I was at We Out Here festival in Cambridgeshire, where Gilles Peterson and I got to play our long awaited "That's How It Is" revival session. It was great to be reunited with founding members Janine Neye and Ben Wilcox and guests Mr Thing (Scratch Perverts) and Bristol's finest DJ Krust and DJ Die with original stage banners by Mode 2. It was an explosive five hour festival opening session. It was such a joy to play these kinds of records again with Gilles for the first time since Meltdown in 2013, with an incredible crowd at what has to be one of my favourite UK festival DJ experiences in many years. Hopefully we will be doing a club session in the not too distant future.

In between being on the road, I finally finished Rōnin 2 in collaboration with Miink, which I am excited to share more information about in the coming months.

I'm also looking forward to some more Rōnin remixes dropping in the near future.

Elsewhere it has been amazing to see the immersive album experience Beyond the Road, Seoul open to rave reviews. One of the artists appearing in the show is NANA, with whom I recently collaborated on two T-shirt designs. The show is running until the end of November, so go and check it out if you are in that part of the world.

Until next time, stay safe.

With love,
James and Studio:UNKLE

To celebrate the 23rd anniversary of the release of Psyence Fiction this month, there will be an exclusive merch drop this Tuesday at 5PM BST. As Original Headz subscribers, you have exclusive first access. Use the links to add a reminder to your calendar, or click to below receive an email reminder too.

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Following a series of remixes from the recent Rōnin mixtape, UNKLE presents a brand new reworking of 'Sick Lullaby', a track that originally featured on 2017's The Road: Part I. Featuring haunting vocals from Keaton Henson, the track has been morphed into a liquid drum and bass roller courtesy of Polymod. Having had critically acclaimed releases on both Pets Recordings and Last Night On Earth under his Polymod alias, Simon Neale (AKA Shadow Child) delivers a highly atmospheric rework inspired by the early Metalheadz releases, that is aimed squarely at the dancefloor. Out just in time for the bank holiday weekend!

James Lavelle and Kazuki Kuraishi's second Ar.Mour drop is available now in Japan, featuring designs by Giovanni Estevez. Follow Studio Ar.Mour on Instagram for more info.

Marrakesh-based producer Abel Ray delivers a set of brand new remixes for UNKLE. This time, it's the turn of 'Catch Me When I Fall' to receive the remix treatment. A standout track from the recent Rōnin 1 mixtape, 'Catch Me' features North Londoner Callum Finn on vocal duties. Abel Ray gives a hypnotic tribal take on the track, turning it into an epic journey through layers of electronic production. The highly percussion-lead track builds through its eight minutes to an epic crescendo.

Limited edition screenprinted t-shirts celebrating the opening of the immersive Beyond The Road exhibition at The Hyundai in Seoul, and produced in collaboration with NANA, one of Korea's most prolific graffiti writers. Her tagging forms a central part of the Beyond The Road show. Each tee is limited to an edition of 50 in each colour and features a pack of two stickers.

Please note this is a pre-order. Products are being manufactured currently and are expected to ship from the week commencing 13th September. Orders are not part-shipped so if you wish to order other items, we recommend you place a separate order.

Listen back to Living In My Headphones, episode XXXVI over on the Soho Radio Mixcloud.

La Funk Mob - La Doctoresse
Portishead - Strangers
Blackalicious - Alphabet Aerobics
Shirley Bassey - Light My Fire
F.B.I. - Talkin' Bout Love
Sault - Bitter Streets
Abstract Mindstate - A Wise Tale
Tyler The Creator - HOT WIND BLOWS (feat. Lil Wayne)
Blackalicious - Swan Lake
Sylk 130 - Gettin' Into It
Krust - Hegel Dialect (UNKLE Reconstruction)
Studio Pressure (Photek) - Fusion
SHERELLE - 160 DOWN THE A406
UNKLE - Do Yourself Some Good (Diplo Remix)

This is the third instalment of Urban Archeology - a feature exclusive to Original Headz, where James shares artefacts and ephemera from both the UNKLE/Mo' Wax archives and his own personal history.

"Celebrating the 23rd anniversary of the release of Psyence Fiction I wanted to share some never before seen footage of the UNKLE Pointman (Futura) characters. These were developed in collaboration with a company called Wonderland, for an animation project to accompany the record. Unfortunately for reasons I can't recall the project didn't actually materialise. I suspect this was due to budgets; at the time animation was super expensive as the technology was still being developed. I did however develop the characters further in collaboration with Channel Four Films for our second album Never Never Land in a short film called Shin Gi Tai, created in Japan.

I recently uncovered a video tape of these test shots of the characters, which I had been searching for, for nearly two decades!

I wanted to share with you an example of what I was trying to create around the record at the time. Unfortunately not all dreams came to fruition but this is a great example of how creative our vision was, some 23 years ago."