As we wind down once again for the holiday season, I leave you with one final helping of downtempo goodness from my hometown buddy Nightmares On Wax. After a slight stumble with Mind Elevation, the Wax man returns to form with a fresher take on that slightly more mainstream sound in spectacular style that dare I say even rivals the original Smokers Delight in terms of out and out quality. Oh, and be sure to keep an eye out for those tunes used in [Adult Swim] bumps!
Take Passion for example. I've posted it before, but it deserves it again. NoW is pretty good at killing it with his intros, and this is no different. Any doubts I had after the slightly bland intro of Mind Elevation were quelled and lost in that hazy sea of sound.
As you can tell, In A Space Outta Sound is all about the Hippty Hop, and pulls it off much better than Mind Elevation did. It's all a far cry from the dub infusions present on Smokers Delight, but parts of it return here: notably the bass booms just after the intro, and the ever present reggae style organ.
The Sweetest then flows ever so gracefully into what is right up there as one of the best Nightmares tracks ever, right from the downright brilliant intro to the final fade, it's just downright essential. It achieves everything that Mr. Evelyn wanted to do with his sound. There is no need for any more words, just give it a listen and you will hear just why.
The Wax man goes full on hippty hop for the next venture, The influences of the 1970s soul scene on this track and NoW himself an are quite obvious, it is after all where most good n' funky samples come from. It's kept fairly simple but that doesn't hold it back in any way, in fact it feels a lot shorter than it actually is.
A return to the longer tracks now, with Damn providing some Arabian sounding strings to go with the tried and tested beat formula we're now accustomed to. It's a pretty good track as-is, but the introduction of the vocals at about 2:40 pushes it even further into proper quality territory.
I have heard this track far, far too many times. Yet it's still as good as ever, why that is I do not know, the sample, the organ, the slight hint of vinyl crackle amidst it all? it could be anything. But damn if it isn't satisfying as hell to listen to.
Remember Me + You from Smokers Delight? Remember how great it was despite being about 50 seconds long? Well, this album has it's very own little sample-based track like that. Presenting Chime Out: the tune that says so much with so little.
I was unsure of this track on first listen, it was good alright, but it was missing that crucial, essential groove that makes Nightmares On Wax. The 'lil guitar bit at 1:05 had my back, and that led into that amazing chiller drop at 1:15. I don't even know if you would call that bit a drop, but who cares it sounds a-mazing.
As the album draws to a close, we're treated to another candidate for the best of Nightmares On Wax. (and it even has an 808 in it!) The best description of it was from a review which simply said "This track is like if Trip-Hop came out of Florida instead of Bristol". And I'd have to agree with them wholeheartedly there, it's definitely brighter than the moody musings from the likes of say Portishead.
Playing us out is African Pirates, which I believe we posted a remix of once. It's very bouncy and light, much like the rest of the album. The bassline for this one is just perfect in setting the mood. It's nothing like an outro track at all, so like all NoW releases before it leaves you wanting more.
This is not the first time I've had to stop myself from posting a full album, but I really, REALLY wanted to this time. I massively recommend you check this out, it's so well produced and catchy that it at least deserves a listen from you. That an it's probably the easiest NoW album to get into with it's easy going vibes.
Out Of Sound,
-Claude Van Foxbat
1 comment:
I discovered Nightmare on Wax through 8tracks.com & my curiosity was peaked. My search brought me here and I couldn't thank you enough for having all these wonderful tracks !
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