Track Listing

1. Slow Process
2. Breakneck - Only Child
3. Ay, Ay Studder
4. Break It Down - DJ Paul Nice
5. Shake Up [Jaddle Remix] - Grand Unified
6. Ease Jimi - Nightmares on Wax
7. Flash $
8. Thick - D.I.T.C.
9. Burn Me Slo - Nightmares on Wax,
10. Play On - Corrina Joseph, Nightmares on Wax
11. Get on Down - Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez
12. Superkat - Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez
13. Award Tour - A Tribe Called Quest
14. Swamp Fever
15. Alphabet Aerobics - Blackalicious
16. Tis Place - DJ Trax
17. It's a Latin Thing - Freddy Fresh
18. Underground Crownholders - Aim
19. Catchwrecka
20. Sand Steppin - Martin Brew
21. Overooped - Smokers Blend 3000
22. Pick Me Up - Deadbeats
23. Weissenfeldt, J/Weissenfeldt, M/Krause, J

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #589351 in Music
• Released on: 2000-09-26
• Number of discs: 2

Album Description
The tightest Hip Hop set of this series. Features DJ Ease's classic 'Smoker's Delight' one of the milestones of the 90s. Featured artists are: A Tribe Called Quest, Kenny Dope, Aim, Blackalicious, Freddy Fresh, Jerry Beeks and DJ Trax.

Amazon.com
Nightmares on Wax's DJ Ease is best known for producing a pacific (even come-down) version of hip-hop or downtempo music. Compiling and mixing this album for the DJ Kicks series (which has included rapturously received collections from Stereo MCs and Kruder & Dorfmeister), he presents a subtle mix that moves from hazy breakbeat jazz into left-field, modern (and politically correct) U.K. and U.S. hip-hop. Using material from Mo'Wax (the high-velocity delivery of Blackalicious), A Tribe Called Quest, New York's Kenny Dope, and Manchester's Grand Central, Ease scratches and fuses an expert selection of alt-hip-hop. At times he layers tunes which themselves sample other tunes to create a complex mesh of meaning and reference. He also includes a couple of his own productions and narcissistic sound-alikes (DJ Trax's "This Place" is more N.O.W. than N.O.W.). "Overall Ease" journeys from serious music toward the light--he finishes, exultantly, with disco-inflected work from Deadbeats and Syrup. Going out on a high note. --Tony Marcus

Customer Reviews

Very good, but you better like hip-hop
Good hip-hop mix, with some nice old school jams that you probably haven't heard in a long time, as well as some nice and occasionally very funky instrumental passages and rare hip-hop grooves mixed in. However, DON'T make the mistake of assuming that because you liked Carboot Soul that you'll like this. This is NOT for the most part a trip-hop album. If you are looking for chillout music, this isn't for you (get Thievery Corporation instead). If you liked the Terranova or Stereo MC's DJ Kicks albums, then you'll like this too.

Green pleasure!!!
The British DJ / Producer George Evelyn, aka DJ Ease, aka NIGHTMARES ON WAX, despite his relative lack of years, has for more than a decade already numbered among the most visionary musicians on the island. He has never left his hometown of Leeds since he was born, but his sound is nonetheless universal and his recordings for the English label Warp have frequently set new trends. Even his first single, "Dextrous", found its way into the English Top 75 and his subsequent releases are still today regarded as prototypes for the downbeat genre. The following album, "Word of Science", with its combination of soulful bleeps and clonks, underscored his creative potential, but even so it was a full 6 years before he released his classic, "Smoker's Delight" (1995), one of the milestone records of the nineties.

Opening with his trademark song, "Nights Interlude", this record has played itself into innumerable hearts, record collections and annual charts, has been a dope beat classic ever since its release and has yet to lose any of its allure. His album, "Carboot Soul" (1999), as well as his collaborations with De La Soul, O.C. and Corinna Joseph, seamlessly picked up where the success of their predecessor left off and charted all over Europe. The album "Mind Elevation" 2002 release is the fourth album, is another welcome hit of chilled beats, entrancing melodies and soothing soul-drenched vocals. While persevering with the use of live instrumentation, Evelyn--a one-time judge of Amsterdam's High Times Cannabis Cup--has fortunately not sacrificed any of the dreamy ambience and looped samples that made 1995's Smokers Delight such essential post-club listening. He has though finally abandoned "Nights Interlude", an interpretation of Quincy Jones' "Summer In The City", that traditionally opened all prior Nightmares on Wax (NOW) albums. In its place lies "Mind Eye", a languorous spiralling instrumental groove that sets the pace way down low and stirs an entrancing breezy summer vibe that drifts throughout the album. Alongside the cool mix of mellow hip-hop, soulful r'n'b, and ambling ambient effects, comes the lilting if occasionally overstretched vocal talents of Chyne B. "Got To Know My Name", the most upbeat NOW track to date, sees her joyously waxing lyrical over an impossibly funky, retro-soul melody. Sadly her other contributions such as the r'n'b-lite "Date with Destiny" prove disappointing. But with the majority of the album bringing the feel of a joyous sun-drenched afternoon to your speakers, you can sit back and rest assured that Mind Elevation really does do what it says on the tin.

Excellent live shows translated into an exultant progression across Europe and NIGHTMARES ON WAX can today enjoy a substantial worldwide fan base.

His record collection might soon be almost equally broad, the foundation stone for which was laid with the acquisition of two dub 7-inches when he was eight years old (!) and which to this day serve as a source of inspiration (and samples). The idea of making a mix CD with NIGHTMARES ON WAX came about (and was carried out) as early as 1995, but the project was also subject to George Evelyn's "leisurely" working practices - all good things take time. Now he sends us, just a little later than expected, shooting into his beat orbit. He has put together an excellent selection of hip hop and downbeat tunes for his "DJ-Kicks" set and has found the perfect blend of the old and the new, UK and USA as well as vocal and instrumental tracks. Tunes from A Tribe Called Quest, Kenny Dope, Aim, Blackalicious, Freddy Fresh, Jerry Beeks and DJ Trax amongst others, as well as some of his own tracks of course, come together in a phat set with plenty of funk!

Not bad, not great
The "DJ Kicks" compilation series has had some realy, really great CDs come out of it, most notably the mixes by Giles Peterson and Kemistry & Storm. They've been stylistically very unique and wide, with really good songs strung together regardless of the style. This one by N.O.W. isn't one of the best ones, but it's not bad. It's a great hip-hop disc minus the rapping, so if you're looking for hip-hop mood music sans vocals (for the MOST part), this is it. I thought it might be a little more moody - more in the vein of say, early DJ Cam - but it's beats are very traditional hip-hop.

The soundtrack for bombing subway cars and school buildings with spray paint, but not as underground in parts as you may like if you're a hip-hop head.