Nightmares on Wax

Giles Peterson’s Worldwide Show 2002

Nightmares on Wax is an institution, albeit a delightfully different one. The man behind the moniker, George Evelyn, just keeps reinventing – not in a wilful Bowie way, but flowing along, going at whatever speed he fancies to wherever his ideas carry him. For the last seven years he’s lived in an Ibizan farmhouse and, while he’s Warp Records’ longest serving artist – “the granddaddy,” as he puts it – he overwhelmingly focuses on his current projects, letting them revitalize his music.

Perhaps best known in Europe for his ground-breaking ‘90s albums ‘Smokers Delight’ and ‘Carboot Soul’ – although in America the cinematic lo-funk of 2006’s ‘In A Space Outta Sound’ is better known – Evelyn’s pride and joy these days is his four year old underground party on the white island. Wax Da Jam at Las Dalias, Ibiza’s oldest nightclub, 50 this summer, has become a go-to haunt for locals, for promoters and insiders – the place where, George explains, “Everyone turns up as individuals but everybody leaves as one.” Here he soundtracks a night of groove, experimentation, percussion and improvisation, alongside guests such as DJ Shadow and Roots Manuva. It’s all fun, though, all for kicks. It’s all about ‘Feelin’ Good’, hence the name of his new album.

If that sounds a bit hippy dippy, forget it; ‘Feelin’ Good’ is zesty with funk, soul, even the throbbing low slung house tune ‘Tapestry’. Of the latter he says, “House was always about fun to me. There was a period when it didn’t sound like it was made by people who could dance but now it feels like the groove is back.”

He should know – he was there at the start, delivering those seismic 1989/90 bleep classics ‘Dextrous’ and ‘Aftermath’. But it was his KLF-influenced, five-years-in-the-making dissection of hip hop to its stoned component parts, ‘Smokers Delight’, that proved he was about more than the dancefloor. He followed this with 1999’s ‘Carboot Soul’, ten tracks that had a more organic funk feel. (Read More)