Like a diehard vegetarian sneaking a piece of sticky bacon, I cautiously pressed the play button to hear "Thought So...", the new Nightmares on Wax album, which comes after two mildly-received records, even amongst the sun-deprived nerds of the post-rave hordes. It's indeed been almost a decade since the Yorkshire-based project of George Evelyn and Robin Taylor-Firth dropped a decent set of microelectronic beats.
After Matador put out the excellent "Carboot Soul" in 1999 and the cold reception that its descendant "Mind Elevation" deservingly got, I wrote a mental note to myself to never again judge a record by the glory of a band's past. But my reconciliation with the English duo may be on the right track. For one, the surprisingly fresh cut that is "195 Lbs" struck a nerve with me almost immediately, while the retro-futuristic, sax-driven "Bringin It" made me dream of the day when house, electro and soul will break into the same party, and accelerate both hips and brains with all their funky ways.
The first half of the record is thus more derivative, less focused, but at times better than the second. Maybe there's a geographical explanation for that as the tracks were recorded in various locations, from a soaking wet Leeds all the way to a sunny, cocktail-imbibing Ibiza.
The guitar-centered number "More Time" evolves around a circular note squeezed out against such improbable odds, making the record all the more malleable and, one should admit, a bit surly too. "Pretty Dark" is cut from the same cloth, letting in the guitar factor, even if a little later in the game – the track starts all smooth and lounge-like. And seriously, is that Morse code that I hear on "Still? Yes!"? Beautiful!
Nightmares on Wax may now be less hot on the lips of the underground, and maybe their music goes automatic pilot more often that not. But the duo is building a backdrop of music that is conciliatory in the right measure, by adding more ingredients to their recipe than an aspiring fusion cook. Let's wait and see where the wax sounds will be heading after this.
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