Nightmares on Wax : Thought So

Repetition sometimes turns out to bear ripe fruits. Nightmares on Wax must certainly hope this logic will follow creator, George Evelyn, also known as E.a.s.e., in his most current experimental pursuit thought so…, the sixth Nightmares on Wax album. As with past efforts, thought so… is an eclectic mixture of hip hop, reggae and electronica in a funky `This would be better if I were inebriated’ kind of way.

E.a.s.e. describes the album as an effort to recount his journey from Leeds, his birthplace to Ibiza, where his family home is now located. The mixes have a scattered collectivity and exhibit the oddity that Nightmares on Wax has been founded on. Sitting through the entire duration of one of the excruciatingly long tracks, averaging at approximately 5:30 per song, is a feat in itself. Not only is the repetition droning and dull, the simple additions to original beats only prolong the monotony. As the repetition is drawn out long enough for you to get sick of the first beat, another gets added and is also repeated long enough to instigate the same annoyance. Once a track is finally over, listeners can breathe again until the next song brings on the same assaulting proliferation in disguise of something different than the one preceding it.

Some songs have an out of place vocalist, the same fashion popular in gospel music, which adds another weird component to Nightmares on Wax’s spacey album. The jazz influences are the only saving grace to the album, which add some sparkle of spontaneity to the otherwise bland mixes. Reminiscent of now-dated techno and house heard in a ’90s dance club, right after the wet t-shirt concert and Jell-o shooters, songs like track 5 – “Bringin’ it Back,” would prompt any clubgoer to dance, only to lose interest after the first minute and a half.

The closing track, “Hey Ego!” is the best track on thought so… merely for it’s beautiful composition. The piano is intelligently scripted along with a voice track. The occasional mixed beat also helps the final song leave a less bitter taste in the mouth after enduring the album’s beginnings. As it has worked repeatedly for hip hop artists and mixers before Nightmares on Wax, it is apparent that synonymy can produce album gold. However, the repetition doesn’t prove to bear any fruit for Nightmares on Wax this time around.

Similar Albums:
Tosca – J.A.C.
Kruder and Dorfmeister – G-Stoned
Bonobo – Dial `M’ for Monkey

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