Customer Reviews

In a Space Outta Sound

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's been a long while since i've bought a downtempo/instrumental hip-hop record that i've thoroughly enjoyed all the way through...until i grabbed this album. "In A Space Outta Sound" takes the best elements of classic Studio 1 rocksteady and dub reggae, golden era street-corner hip-hop and flashes of classy, funky electronic dance music and assembles them into a great album (as opposed to just a collection of aimless tracks). "The Sweetest" and "Damn" are top notch vocal tracks packed with soul, while instrumental jammers like "Flip Ya Lid", "Passion" and "African Pirates" blow cats like RJD2 and Blockhead out of the water. Spring and summer are right around the corner and this is going to turn out to be the essential sunshine soundtrack to the barbecues, rooftop parties, house parties and block parties we're all looking forward to.

To many musical artists, the idea of "impressive ambience" or "notable chill" is a contradiction in terms. If the music is meant to be little more than the decor for dreams, if it is designed as a batten for the back wall, then what's the point in giving it indelibility? Thankfully, many artists (Kruder and Dorfmeister, Ulrich Schnauss, et. al.) are capable of creating atmospheres that are both evocative and unobtrusive. It's a delicate kind of chemistry, but it can be done.

Nightmares on Wax aims for ambient funk and hits the target, but almost too well. The music on "In A Space Outta Sound" is so laid-back, it limbos right under the rader. It would provide the steady and subliminal pulse for any number of quiet nights or get-togethers, but it's unlikely anyone would take notice and ask the host, "What's this you've got playing?"

Okay, maybe some of their numbers would pique interest. I'm thinking of the quirky conga coolness of "Deepdown," or the ghostly lounge sensibilities of "Passion," or the classic rock shadows interlaced throughout "You Wish." There are, really, no bad songs on this album; they all play soft shoe with equally soft music, and they know the moves by heart. But it's a dance you'll forget as soon as the stereo has been turned off, and it's even likely you'll forget that you forgot.

Ambience is good, and chill is great, but truly relaxing music stays in the air, lingers in the heart, and saturates the soul long after the notes have ceased to sound. Give me barbs, give me hooks, give me risks; the rest may be good, but it's also nothing else at all.

VICTORIA MOREHEAD's igloomag.com REVIEW ::
(03.28.06) Nightmares on Wax put out their first album with Warp Records, Dextrous, in the late 80s, a combined effort of George Evelyn and Kevin Harper. Soon after, Harper left to pursue other routes, and Evelyn took a break, coming back with Smoker's Delight in 1995. Since then, Evelyn has continued to mix up and put out a consistent brand of downtempo music, releasing many additional albums including the most recent, In a Space Outta Sound.

In a Space... isn't new territory for Evelyn. It's full of soul, groove, funk, jazz, reggae and sweet vocals. But that could be the issue holding NOW back from ever growing beyond the category of "music that's good to chill to."

Taking the flavors of other music and amalgamating them into a funktronic sound has become de rigueur of downtempo electronic music. It's the background music in trendy clothing stores and the soundtrack in commercials for German cars. Evelyn's talent is obvious, but if he would just break out of that sterile, perfectly synchronized world of downtempo layers, he might surprise himself. Perhaps it's just a matter of keeping it a little rough around the edges. Maybe if Evelyn let in a little more of the blues raunch and the soul of-well, soul-he could take it to the next level.

This is not to say that In a Space... doesn't have it's respected place. It's just a place that seems to be getting overcrowded with other musicians doing exactly the same thing. Why have five albums from the same artist if they all sound exactly alike? We're looking for evolution, experimentation-something surprising. Maybe NOW's next album will let that funk stay funky, rip the edges and keep 'em raw, and show us some soul that's not so shiny and new.

Better than "Mind Elevation", but not nearly at the level of "Carboot Soul". Don't get me wrong, it's still an amazing CD and better than just about any other artist in this genre of music, but it's hard to compete with one of the truly great CDs of this whole DJ/Jazz/Downtempo thang ("Carboot Soul").

If you like Nightmares, also check out Bonobo, Skalpel, and Four Tet (slightly more electronic than the rest).

Happy Listening

a perfect compliment to NOW's fantastic albums of the past, "smokers delight" and "carboot soul" in particular. not really messing with the formula of previous work, but still sounds fresh, positive and grows with each listen.

This latest effort from Nightmares On Wax continues in the spirit of his previous work, smoked out mellow downtempo with elements of funk, soul/r&b, jazz, underground hip-hop and more. Like other reviewers have mentioned In A Space Outta Sound is a little weaker and less inventive than some of the earlier albums, but it is still a decent chill-out disc. It must be said though that the production on some of the tracks is a little sub-par IMO (at least for an established artist like NOW) and some of the sample choices are a bit obvious and overused. However, there are some quality tracks on here and the album as a whole works rather well so if you're just looking for some mellow tunes to chill out to then this cd might just be for you, but if you don't own any of the earlier albums you should probably pick up one of those instead.

Outta Sound is an upgrade of the older stuff. It is more edgy and loud, more interesting. The past few albums are similar, yes, but with less tenacity. Those of you wanting the old NOW stick to the old NOW. This cosmopolitan revolution of George's music is catchy and could become more mainstream, which may be why those of you who have rated it low don't like it. It isn't what we are used to, but it's good to open one's mind and embrace change within ourselves and the music that catalyzes it. Give it another listen.

One of my favourite albums in my library is "Smoker's Delight". Just having my first listen to In a Space... and I'm definitely having fun listening to this. As button mentioned, it is a good compliment to the other NOW albums. I've the idea that this one's gonna get a good deal of playtime on my iPod...

Nightmares on Wax "In a Space Outta Sound" is just ok. I am having a hard time justifying having paid almost $15 for this.

That said, it's alright. It's kind of funky, groovy, cool electronica music with some hip-hop undertones.

The main problem is that the songs never really go anywhere. The beats for the most part are really good, but the songs drag on and don't do a lot.

After awhile it's tedious sitting through the entire 62 minutes. This might work better as background music.

I'll probably end up trading this in. There's nothing that "exciting" or "amazing" here. Very average.