For
just over ten years now, Nightmares On Wax has been almost sole
purveyor of smoky beats and dopey ambiences in the UK. So, since
chill out music has become a household brand in the second part
of the nineties, can Mind Elevation still break boundaries?
The answer is yes, yes and yes again.
The brainchild of George Evelyn, Nightmares On Wax first appeared
in the aftermath of the scene explosion. Hailing from the industrial
city of Leeds, the then duo, comprising Kevin Harper, established
themselves with the seminal Dextrous and Aftermath,
characteristic of the bleepy techno sound taking the country
by storm, alongside fellow Yorkshireman and label mate Mark
Bell, aka LFO. The album that followed, A Word Of Science
introduced some elements of hip-hop on tracks like Mega
Donutz or Back In Time. By the time the second
NOW album surfaced, almost four years later, Evelyn was on his
own and the sound had developed into a magnificent blend of
hazy soul, lazy beats and lush hip-hop/dub that was to become
his trademark.
Following 1998’s Carboot Soul, a reminder of
the times when Evelyn was hunting 12” in car boot sales,
comes the fourth episode in the Nightmares On Wax adventures.
Expanding on the same influences, Mind Elevation reaffirms
the Nightmares’ connections with soul music and dub, with
the opening tracks, Mind Eye and Say-Say,
setting up the tone perfectly. As the years go by, the music
appears more and more laidback, and this album is not an exception,
with Evelyn progressing gently into familiar territories. Looking
to take his music to the live environment once again, this time
with a thirteen piece band, he develops here the blueprint for
live instrumentation by taking his samples to a different level.
But the main evolution here is the introduction of four impeccably
shaped songs scattered amongst the collection of instrumentals.
Date With Destiny, Know My Name, the first
excerpt of the album, are both sweet soulful moments, featuring
Chyna B on vocals. If Know My Name proves to be rather
upfront, Date With Destiny has a more nonchalant feel,
reminiscent of some of Massive Attack’s early classics.
Environment and 70s 80s, by far the two highlights
on this album, are classic NOW soul-tainted dub hip-hop. While
Chyna B presides to the destiny of Environment, LSK
takes control of the seismic and militant 70s 80s,
reminiscing about riots, racism and recession during the Thatcher
years.
Still on top of his art, George Evelyn produces with Mind
Elevation a brilliant piece of soulful laidback dopey dance
music. Here, once again, Evelyn takes the NOW sound to yet another
level by introducing more proper songs in his usual scope.
5/5 |
