Nightmares On Wax - Smokers Delight

Smokers Delight is the second album by British trip hop artist Nightmares On Wax, originally released in October 1995 by Warp Records.

George Evelyn (also known as Nightmares on Wax or DJ EASE), is a DJ and electronic music composer from Leeds, England. He got his start in the music industry through an interest in hip hop and on joining a local breakdancing crew.

Evelyn's father and sister introduced him to the soul music of Quincy Jones and Curtis Mayfield. Later, as rap music became more popular, he was fascinated by the likes of Rappers Delight and Buffalo Gals. In 1988 he joined a breakdance crew Solar City Rockers, where he befriended Kevin Harper, Ian Parkes, Santino Deplacido to name a few. A pioneering Leeds DJ making a name at that time, John Halnon, provided mix tapes for the crew. This caught Evelyn’s interest and the two started collaborating, originally broadcasting over CB Radio network under the moniker of Nightmares On Wax and swiftly gaining a reputation on the club and "dayer " circuit.

Their combination of hip hop, soul and funk cut and mixed with random genres ranging from dub to punk and goth, to metal through to classical was ahead of its time, and stood out from other aspiring DJ's. John Halnon eventually stepped back from the stage, Kevin Harper then taking up the mantle. Their music fell into a category of artists including The Forgemasters, LFO, and Unique 3. Commenting on their style, he has said "We wanted to do tracks that had hip hop beats but experimented with ideas."

Smokers Delight is a defining statement of intent in the development of the Nightmares On Wax sound. Moving away from the bleeps and breaks of their first album it presents a post-club comedown journey which experiments with elements of jazz, dub, soul and hip hop. In fact it’s been described as a change from bleep to bong. Smokers Delight quickly became a favourite and pretty much 20 years on it remains a favourite to NoW fans.

The lilting, rhythms the textures and the global, yet uniquely British sound really do mean that it does just what it said in the label. (Delight smokers that is rather than warp them). Even the short interlude type tracks, such as “Me + You” are enjoyable.

Standouts such as “Rise & Stars” are beautiful trippy numbers, that despite the smoky late night vibe of the album also conjure up sunshine. “Mission Venice” mixes in the sound of a vintage 60's spy theme (similar to the Persuaders theme) whilst other tracks go for real balearic chilled percussion and light keys.

You can see why George Evelyn made Ibiza his home, this album seems to be the sound of his musical vision opening up, away from the dark Warehouse and blinking into the Mediterranean sun.

NoW have come close to repeating the splendour of Smokers Delight but it remains the defining work in their canon.

This album is the 25^th Anniversary reissue on 2LP green and red coloured vinyl housed in a mirror board gatefold sleeve with printed inners and printed insert, and download code with bonus material, pressed in the UK via Warp Records.