NIGHTMARES ON WAX - In A Space Outta Sound

If we really believed that a name says something about the music it stands for (though the Pixies should have taught us otherwise), the moniker Nightmares On Wax would set us up for a spectacular misjudgment. In fact, the decade-plus story of George Evelyn (the man behind the project) and his trusted collaborator, keyboardist Robin Taylor-Firth, has followed a dead-straight path through a modern, electronically tinged dub. Off-kilter rhythms and laid-back grooves built to send the mind travelling, soundtracking its hazy trips, soft downtempo with a dreamy, distinctive sound. Everything, in short, except nightmares.

So what does the 2006 incarnation of Nightmares On Wax bring to the table? Nothing new, really, for an artist who has always played with his cards on the table: there's little point expecting major shifts from one album to the next, especially by the time you reach your fifth record. The foundation remains his trademark futuristic dub, and while downtempo has for years been a genre in its death throes (or already dead and buried, depending on your point of view), Evelyn still manages not to worry about the agony of a scene he was never really a conscious part of, and to which he's been linked more through coincidental similarities than any deliberate design. The sheer freedom that comes with being Nightmares On Wax lets him comfortably sidestep the worst clichés of aperitivo-hour compilations. True to form, he never lets the production dip below state-of-the-art. The real issue, as often happens with careers already well underway, lies instead in the content, in the need to dodge the pitfalls of the already-heard. Evelyn largely manages it, pulling himself out of the quicksand on the strength of his sheer craft.

Once again, there's no shortage of substantial moments. The opening "Passion" is downright exhilarating: a soulful vocal sample punctuates an impossibly smooth groove, all seduction and velvet sofas. And then there's that bass. Bass as deep as the Mariana Trench, a hallmark of every Nightmares On Wax record. This time that notorious low end pulls Evelyn closer to Isaac Hayes territory than to Lee "Scratch" Perry's, helped along by the arsenal of vintage keyboards deployed across the whole record. Plenty of other ideas follow along this path, making "In A Space Outta Sound" a record whose relaxed pacing is anything but bland. The rastafarian sweetness, whistles and handclaps of "Flip Ya Lid", one of the few sung tracks on the album; the compressed sound of sampled horns in "Pudpots", looped to build the track's backbone; "Damn", with a smooth vocal that resolves into gospel and a sample of Al Hirt; the charming Africanisms and percussion of the two most lighthearted compositions, "Deepdown" and "African Pirates".

But there are also more formulaic moments. As the title perhaps suggests, "Me!" is the track that most closely fits the (all too) classic Nightmares On Wax template, while "I Am You" is old-school soul through and through, a vaguely vacuous distillation of Marvin Gaye. The most substantial change, then, ends up being the soundsystem itself. The new one, at least visually, is impressive: it's the one pictured on the cover, with its owner standing there to show just how imposing it is (the soundsystem, not the aforementioned owner). It looks like it could deliver real satisfaction... If it ever comes to a venue near you, consider yourselves warned.

In conclusion, if you're completely unfamiliar with George Evelyn's music, you'll probably enjoy this album, maybe even a lot. But then again, why not start with "Smokers Delight" or "Carboot Soul", his best records, rather than this one? Even the previous album, "Mind Elevation", struck us as superior, buoyed by two pop gems like "Know My Name" and, above all, the melancholic "70s 80s": here he tries to replicate that magic formula with "Soul Purpose", but it works far less well. And yet even "In A Space Outta Sound" has its merits, weighed down mostly by what is admittedly an excessive similarity to previous work (and by now there's quite a bit of it), but also bolstered by a genuine uniqueness within the indie and electronic landscape: that's no small thing. Save the panda.

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04/05/2006