Carboot Soul

Nightmares on Wax

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 20, 1999)
• Original Release Date: April 20, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Matador Records
• ASIN: B00000I6MK
• Also Available in: Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #112,125 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Like other DJ composers, Nightmares on Wax mentalist George "Herbs" Evelyn has stopped flea-market shopping for vinyl records out of car trunks (boots, if you're English) and started rummaging around in his own mind. The gorgeous retro soul strings, vocal choruses, and chill-out trip-hop he finds rolling easy up there in his fog bank are a definite maturation of the Philly-soul redub and bass-boss Barry White attitude that was pioneered on 1995's Smoker's Delight. Since then, though, Evelyn has scratched a ton of vinyl to get to the truth: nothing is warmer than live bodies. This album was still made with a drum machine and just enough wax to keep it in the boot, but bass, keys, guitar, and vocals are live. The real secret to this soft summer vibe is that Evelyn doesn't simply hand over the vocals and let the pieces become wannabe soul singles. Instead, these cuts maintain a jazz attitude recalling George Benson's Breezin'--not his most technically challenging playing, but a laid-back, perfectly executed distillation offered up like a gift. Unwrap the fragile jazz riff of "Fire in the Middle" or the upbeat, Fifth Dimension-like background vocal and hip-hop scratch of "Ethnic Majority" and the bad-ass horn funk of "Ease Jimi." Beware of a short little strings-and-bass dub called "Jorge": If this one gets in your ears once, you'll be humming the one-word chorus all summer. --Dean Kuipers

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really is a "Smokers Delight", December 17, 1999

By	T. Turner (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Literally everyone who has heard this CD wants to buy it or get a copy of it. Gave it to my girlfriend to listen to at work - now the whole office loves it and tells her to turn it up and asks where to buy. Her mother listend to it - now shes getting both "Nightmares on Wax" for christmas. Friends want me to burn them copies. People aske me to borrow it. Receptionist at work bought it. Simply great music that everyone can enjoy. It is DEFINATELY WORTH THE MONEY. I GUARANTEE IT.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sweet soul music, December 20, 2000

By	Burke M. Gallagher (Haddonfield, NJ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Carboot Soul is aptly decribes this disc; bleeding with the influence of the Philly sound and James Brown, this disc has yet to leave my car's changer.

Evelyn creates a blend of downbeat techno a breed apart, in fact I cringe from the term which would lump NoW in with K&D. His beats are mainly of the soul and hip hop variety with no four-on-the-floor stuff. The samples are tasteful, and there are some transcendent live elements to the tracks. I find it hard to compare this album to any in the sonic wallpaper business. I love the genre (I have about 40 discs which apply), and yet this disc is singular in its listenability: without dissent, every one of my friends for whom I have played it has loved it, even card-carrying technophobes.

Variety exists in a structure which nevertheless carries a thread. Soulful bass and delicate instrumentation manifest themselves throughout, sprouting as everything from a Delfonics sound ('Morse' and 'Capumcap')to tracks which Jurassic 5 would love to get their hands on ('Ethnic Majority'). 'Ease Jimi' is reminiscent of JB's funk.

Top to bottom, this album is tight and takes its place on the mantle next to Thievery Corporation and Kruder & Dorfmeister for great cruising/ lounging/ afternoon music, though it resembles them only in its application. If repetition has previously driven you away from this type of music, download "Morse," "Ethnic Majority," and "Ease Jimi" as testers, then give this album a try.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars a disappointingly un-original remake, December 2, 1999

By	John Dennett "geek of all trades" (Longmont, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have to disagree with [e-mail] on this one. Having listened to -- and loved -- NOW's previous CD "Smoker's Delight", all I can say is they must've been too delighted with the smoke to create a new album this time around. Rather than expanding on the brilliantly mellow direction of the previous release, it seems like the guys in the band were in creative suspended animation for the intervening years: The whole thing is literally variations on the tracks from "...Delight" -- and not even interesting variations! At the very least Warp could've promoted this as variations on previous material rather than passing it off as an original release...I guess it sounds really good if you don't know that they're stealing their own work. Buy the 5-star "Smoker's Delight" disc instead!