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 masterpiece steeped in reggae and dub, blending jazz, soul, and funk with Jamaican and African influences, hip-hop-infused, monochromatic, bluesy, melancholic downtempo, downbeat, and chill masterpiece—Nightmares On Wax’s biggest global hit, “In A Space Outta Sound”—is, 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 Records head Adrian Sherwood, and released as a new dub album titled “In A Space Outta Dub”!!!
Featuring not only modern dub-style spatial aesthetics infused with avant-garde experimentation and effects, but also it has been reimagined and explored with new 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 works—starting with No Protection, in which Mad Professor reimagined Massive Attack’s album Protection—while also resonating with Adrian Sherwood’s own recent series of reworks and latest album, which have reinterpreted the works of artists such as Primal Scream, Panda Bear & Sonic Boom, Spoon—and resonates with Adrian Sherwood’s own recent series of reworks and his latest album. I’m really looking forward to his Japan tour this fall. (Original Japanese text by COMPUMA)