It's difficult to briefly sum up the legacy of James Lavelle's Mo'Wax Records. When you have an entity this influential, this prodigious, it doesn't make for easy summarizations. That's why Pleasures' commemorative collection for Mo'Wax's 30th anniversary is equally sprawling.
Technically, Mo'Wax hasn't been around since 2002 or so; it officially shuttered exactly a decade after it was founded in 1992.
But Lavelle and his primary musical outlet, Unkle, have remained active since. Through their activities, the good name of Mo'Wax has is consistently burnished; for instance, Lavelle still books shows through the Mo'Wax brand.
Even if Mo'Wax was properly retired in the early aughts, though, its legacy is solid gold. For 10 years, Lavelle and his coconspirators curated the nascent sounds of turntablism and trip-hop. In lesser terms, that means no lo-fi beats to chill/study to. In the big picture, that means no Endtroducing, no Portishead, and probably no backpacker/cloud rap scene in the years that followed.
Even if that influence wasn't immediately sent rippling out from London and all we had were Mo'Wax's tunes, they still sound just as good today as they did back then.
And that's not even touching on Lavelle's streetwear bonafides. When we called him a "true pioneer," we meant it: this is the man who put out Ape Sounds, NIGO's debut album. That album boasted cover art from Futura, a man so close with Lavelle that the pair shared collaborator credit on one of the world's rarest Nike Dunk sneakers.
So, yeah, Mo'Wax's 30th birthday is a big milestone, one worthy of a deep drop from California clothing label Pleasures.
It's a far-reaching affair, extending from T-shirts printed with classic Mo'Wax poster imagery to wool/leather varsity jackets laden with a bespoke illustration from another Friend Of Mo'Wax, graffiti-cum-fine artist Eric Haze.
Japanese music equipment company Roland gets in on the mix, printing the specs of the TB-03 synth on one hoodie and sharing a three-way logo treatment on another.
It all drops October 14 on Pleasures' web store but, because this is a Mo'Wax joint, there's obviously a tie-in DJ set on October 12.
Music first.
