Pitchfork

James Lavelle has officially run out of musical ideas. Then again, did he ever really have any in the first place? Always more intrepid as a brand-man (how 'bout those UNKLE Gor-Tex coats and action figures!) or ambitious A&R (let's get Thom Yorke and Richard Ashcroft!) than a DJ or musician, Lavelle has floundered since DJ Shadow renounced the UNKLE name after the release of their still-impressive Psyence Fiction album. Without Shadow's pummeling drums, the Mo' Wax entrepreneur seemed listless on official follow-up Never, Never Land, and his recent limited-edition UNKLE Sounds DJ set CDs have been passable at best. With the likes of Diplo and Rupture cutting, scratching, and bumping far flung sounds by the hour, Lavelle and Sounds collab-buddy Richard File come off as antiquated as some of the random movies they sample on this lazy and unspectacular motion-pictured-themed two-disc set.

Originally created for a "future cinema" exhibit at London's Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Edit Music basically takes Lavelle's omnipresent love for all things ominous and cinematic and works them into two hour-long DJ sets that haphazardly cut and paste dialogue from dumbfuck obvious flicks like Scarface and Kill Bill alongside slightly tweaked seven-year-old UNKLE jams ("Lonely Soul"), and continuity-foiling soundtrack picks like Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" (Almost Famous) and Chris Isaak's "Bad Bad Thing" (Eyes Wide Shut).

Disc One is introduced by the horn-blaring 20th Century Fox theme and such cutesy flourishes (yes, the THX noise-blast and 2001 theme are here too) render these discs throwaway silly. Once the (quaint) thrill of Name That Movie dies down, there's little left besides sometimes pulsing, sometimes ambient soundtrack music that hardly coalesces into a thematic whole (an implicit goal thanks to the frustrating lack of individual track breaks). The image conscious spinner seemingly spent more time on the album's stark quasi-Vader cover than the actual mix; Lavelle's once-refreshing anything-goes ethos has fallen into aimless self-parody as he's now outdone by creative, open-minded mp3 blog-mixers on a daily basis.

Even for the few trenchant UNKLE obsessives left, this liner notes-less import is not only unessential but also kind of sad. Foolishly slaving to a lame at-the-movies blueprint, Lavelle ignores the most exciting British beat-styles of today (ahem, grime) and sticks with his trademark doomsday sludge that now sounds as creaky as a knee-jerk John Williams score. Dude should stick to pawning those tres unique (read: fugly) new UNKLE-Nike Dunks on eBay--$102.50 with an hour left!