Nightmares on Wax

George Evelyn, the Nightmares on Wax producer who provided the template for 2000-2001's downbeat movement almost a decade before it became the bane of mix album fans, returned just in time with another LP of supremely chilled beats. Unfortunately, though, Mind Elevation isn't the unqualified triumph of Carboot Soul or Smoker's Delight, with Evelyn substituting a couple of vocal tracks for the trance-state trip-hop of his previous work. Admittedly, the acid jazz groover "Date with Destiny" and the breezy dub track "70s 80s" prove that Evelyn is surprisingly proficient at crafting a good production for use under a vocal, combining a bare few elements (like the good acid house producer he is) yet weaving them together well. And he can still stop time merely by repeating the right sample and manipulating the bass (as he does perfectly on "Humble" and "Say-Say"). Still, the NoW blueprint of skeletal productions and a clever eye to detail appears to fail him in several places. The faux classical "Bleu My Mind" doesn't even rise to the level of Classical Chillout, and far too many tracks don't even rise above the quality of fair to middling downbeat. Ironically, the fact that there are so many vocals really saves Mind Elevation from being the first bland record by Nightmares on Wax; as it is, there's something to focus on for those few tracks where the old production genius just doesn't seem to be there anymore. ~ John Bush, Rovi