REVISITED: Nightmares On Wax "A Word Of Science"

NIGHTMARES ON WAX
A WORD OF SCIENCE
WARP [WARP LP 4]
1991

The first N.O.W. album was, to the untrained ear, a schizophrenic mess. Most everyone nowadays remembers them for their chillout/trippy hip hop masterpieces Smokers Delight and Carboot Soul. While both are indeed classics of that genre of dance music, their debut was fully realized during the time when acid house and Madchester was heading out of fashion and warehouse/farm raves were all the rage. Not sounding chilled out enough to be like the aforementioned albums, A Word Of Science does have one of the finest ambient tracks ever, the oft-chronicled "Nights Interlude". Really, most any ambient/chillout compilation worth your hard-earned cash should have this track on it. It's a standard of sorts, a Warp Records classic to rival the Big Life Records classic, "Little Fluffy Clouds", by The Orb. The schizophrenia herein lies with the big beats of hip hop tracks like "Mega Donutz" and "Playtime" residing next to rave classics like "Dextrous" and "Aftermath". The identity of N.O.W. was still developing, and the rave kids, obviously, were going to be sorely disappointed with the rest of their catalogue from 1995 onwards. They were a duo comprised of George Evelyn and Kevin Harper, but Harper left immediately after this album and it is apparent that his love of rave music was the reason why this album has the bleeps and blips. Evelyn carried on with the N.O.W. name and his brand of chilled out hip hop shone brightly in the mid-90's. With Stereo MC's in the midst of their 9 year hiatus during the middle of that decade, N.O.W. carried the UK hip hop flag for a good long while. The Bristol crews during the years 1994-1998 [Portishead, Massive Attack, Tricky] were a bit on the dark side of the genre, and Evelyn made classic records that were a bit lighter for the soul. But, it all started here, and whether you want to dance in a warehouse or sit on a sofa, this record is a bonafide classic of both the rave and chillout genres, and deserves a listen. Essential.