Music and drug culture have been known to go hand in
hand from the beginning. From the reports of Ecstasy
and Special K use at raves, to rumors of blatant
marijuana use at rap concerts and
Parliament-Funkadelic shows (and I have seen George
Clinton and crew twice -- it's not just a rumor), drugs
have become as big a part of the music scene as the
performers themselves.
Nightmares on Wax, (a.k.a. George Evelyn, a.k.a. DJ
EASE) is a band that is highly revered in the
electronica/downbeat realm as well as the world of
marijuana culture. The "stony" nature of their beats
as well as the surreal soundscapes they have brought
forth on their releases apparently go well with hits
of Chronic (that's marijuana slang, circa 1992).
Their latest release, Mind Elevation, may or may not
keep heads in both of these worlds pleased.
Nightmares on Wax's 1991 debut, A Word of Science:
The First and Final Chapter was considered by some to
be a part of a "crucial bridge between the competing
influences of New York house and electro, Detroit
techno and soul, and London rave and acid". At that
time the group was still a duo, with Kevin "Boy
Wonder" Harper and Evelyn both working the knobs. The
pair split soon after the release of A Word of
Science, with Harper pursuing a DJ career and Evelyn
releasing a few house 12-inch singles on Warp Records' Nucleus imprint before going on hiatus. Four years
later, influenced by KLF's Chill Out LP, Evelyn
released what he referred to as an "instrumental
hip-hop chill-out album". Released again under the
Nightmares on Wax moniker, Smoker's Delight became
1995's 90-minute anthem for hemp heads around the
globe, despite selling only 100,000 copies. Carboot
Soul, their third release came in 1999, and with it
came a more eclectic, genre-defying sound, combining
lite soul, jazz, hip-hop, electronica and trip-hop.
Evelyn has always had a desire to keep his sound
hip-hop friendly, and this was his motivation to have
rap pioneers De La Soul guest on The Sound of
N.O.W., an EP released in 2000.
Mind Elevation, Nightmares' fourth official album,
is vastly different from their previous albums. The
first noticeable difference is the absence of "Night's
Interlude", Nightmares' signature song, which is based
on Quincy Jones' "Summer in the City". In one way or
another (sampled, live, or a combination of both),
"Interlude" kicked off the three previous releases.
This time around, Evelyn opens with the easy-breezy
"Mind Eye", an instrumental track that brings to mind
thoughts of a lazy summer's day from the late 1960s.
According to the press release, Evelyn says he "knew
straight away that this would be the first tune on the
album. It's definitely Nightmares. It says 'we're
back'". The next two tracks, "Say-say" and "Thinking
of Omara", are basically blissed-out dub cuts, which
will keep the stoners feeling irie.
On cut four, entitled "Date with Destiny", Evelyn
dramatically switches gears and brings in female
vocalist Chyne B, who sounds like a less-annoying
Neneh Cherry. A practice virtually unheard of as far
as earlier Nightmares releases, Chyne also shows up on
the songs "Know My Name" and "Environment", a
bass-line driven head nodder with a hook that answers
a question that fans of earlier Nightmares on Wax may
ask after a quick run-through of Mind Elevation:
"You wonder where the fire went / We're shaped by our
environment". Hmm. Maybe George moved a few times
since Carboot Soul came out.
The downfall of this CD may be that George Evelyn is
trying to please everyone, from stoners to
straight-edge, while nursing a late '60s-early '70s
jones. The disc is all over the place, going from dub
("Say-say", "Thinking of Omara"), to funk ("Know My
Name"), to chill-out/downbeat ("Bleu My Mind",
"Humble", "BBH"), to some
flower-children-dancing-barefoot-in-a-field-drug
induced haze ("Mind Eye", "Soul-Ho", "Mirrorball").
Maybe the years of heavy weed intake finally took its
toll on Evelyn's gray matter. He was once a judge in
Amsterdam's High Times magazine Cannabis cup, but he
insists he has dramatically scaled down his herb
intake. While that is probably good for his health, it
may be detrimental to his fan base. Maybe while stoned
it makes sense, but sober, Mind Elevation is more
confusing than uplifting.
— 29 August 2002
