Gilles Peterson

Rapper Rodney P. presents the story of Britain's second wave of pirate radio DJs. In the 1980s a new generation of pirate radio stations appeared broadcasting from London tower blocks.

In an unconventional and upbeat form, “Broken Vibes” takes us off to the heart of the Broken Beat universe, a musical mixture born at the end of the last century brewing and drawing influences from the wide spectrum of Black Music : Jazz, Hip-Hop, Soul, Drum&Bass... Reaching further the mere documentary on a musical genre, “Broken Vibes” aims at exploring the social, cultural and economical aspects of a movement, once local and now international, that grew amid a collective of talented and dedicated young people stemming from “West London”, a neighbourhood which had previously witnessed the birth of Punk, Acid Jazz, Jungle music…and of the sound systems culture nowadays embodied by the infamous Notting Hill Carnival.

James Lavelle played his first DJ set at 14, launched pioneering record label Mo'Wax at 18 and released the genre defining UNKLE album Psyence Fiction at 22. His phenomenally rapid rise seemed limitless, but it's only when you're going so fast that the wheels fall off. The Man from Mo’Wax tells the remarkable story of one of the most enigmatic yet influential figures in contemporary British culture. Unearthed from over 700 hours of footage including exclusive personal archive spanning three decades, we get the rare opportunity to watch a boy become a man in the world of music. The result is an exhilarating, no holds-barred ride into the life of an extraordinary man and an equally extraordinary era, taking in some decidedly flawed decision-making (both personal and professional), Lavelle emerges as an innovative artist who thinks big and consistently overcomes adversity.