George Evelyn, better known as Nightmares On Wax—the WARP label’s longest-serving and most important artist—released this album on the label in 2006. It’s a monochrome, bluesy, melancholic downtempo-downbeat-chilling masterpiece steeped in reggae and dub, with elements of jazz, soul, funk, Jamaican, and African influences, hip-hop-influenced, monochrome, bluesy, melancholic downtempo, downbeat, and chill masterpiece—Nightmares On Wax’s biggest global hit, “In A Space Outta Sound”—is now, believe it or not! As part of a 20th-anniversary project, eight tracks from the album have been reworked and reconstructed by UK dub legend and ON-U label head Adrian Sherwood, and released as a brand-new dub album, “In A Space Outta Dub”!!!
Featuring not only modern dub-wise spatial aesthetics blended with avant-garde experimentation and effects, but also it has been reimagined and explored with the addition of fresh performances by masters such as Cyrus Richard (Horace Andy / Dub Assante Band) and Doug Wimbish (Tuckhead / Living Color).
The finished product feels like it belongs in the lineage of classic dub albums—starting with No Protection, in which Mad Professor reimagined Massive Attack’s Protection—while also resonating with Adrian Sherwood’s own recent series of reworks and latest album, which have featured collaborative reinterpretations of works by artists such as Primal Scream, Panda Bear & Sonic Boom, Spoon—and resonates with Adrian Sherwood’s own recent series of reworkings and latest album. I’m very much looking forward to his Japan tour this fall. I highly recommend this album.