19 July 2025

Nightmares on Wax - 1995 - Smokers Delight

Nightmares on Wax - 1995 - Smokers Delight @320

Smoker’s Delight is the second album from Nightmares On Wax. It was released back in 1995 on Warp Records. Nightmares On Wax’s first album was A Word of Science The 1st and Final Chapter and was released on 1991. On that album George Evelyn worked with Kevin Harper, who subsequently left the band prior to the recording Smoker’s Delight.

George Evelyn describes his sounds as a mixture of soul and hip hop. That is apparent when you listen to the Smokers Delight . Also apparent, is Evelyn’s musical influences, which he states are soul music. He grew up listening to, and being influenced by, Curtis Mayfield and Quincy Jones. Maybe that is why there is a soulfulness is his work, especially in Smoker’s Delight and Carboot Soul. Carboot Soul is the follow up to Smoker’s Delight’, and was released in 1999. Evelyn, to some people, is perceived as being responsible for founding the trip hop genre, if so, he deserves our thanks, as many people, like myself, love this genre of music.

When you listen to a Nightmares On Wax, you may find that you recognize some of the tracks. Over the years, many of Nightmares On Wax’s tracks have featured on compilation albums, such as Serve Chilled and Winter Chill on the Hed Kandi label, Cafe Del Mar Volumen Tres and The Chillout Room 2. All of these albums are worth buying as the feature some wonderful downtempo music.

Smoker’s Delight in my opinion, is one of the best downtempo albums ever. I know that is a big statement to make, but if you listen to it, then I am sure that you will find yourself agreeing with me. There are sixteen tracks on Smokers Delight, and from the first track Nights Introlude, to the final track Gambia Via Vagatorbeach, this album is pure quality. You will find within Smoker’s Delight, sixteen tracks that feature, and are full of, atmospheric and soulful sounds and slow, spacey, drumbeats. What you will also hear on this album are gorgeous lush strings and quality rhythms that would not look out of place on a 70’s Philadelphia soul album.

Smokers Delight truly is an album that you will listen to time and time again. Certainly I have had it on heavy rotation since its release back in 1995, and I never tire of hearing this album. In fact, every time I listen to Smokers Delight I hear something new. I am forever hearing subtle nuances that I have never heard before on this album. Should you decide to buy Smokers Delight, it will take you on an interesting and enjoyable aural journey, where you will visit places you have never visited before. Like its follow up Carboot Soul, this is classic downtempo or chill-out album. Smokers Delight will help you relax, unwind, and forget the stresses and worries, of modern day life. Surely if it can do that for you so easily, then it is well worth buying Smokers Delight. In fact, while you are buying Smokers Delight, why not just buy a copy of Carboot Soul as well, and then you will be the proud owner of two of the greatest albums within the downtempo or chill-out genre. Standout Tacks: Nights Introlude, Pipes Honour, Stars, Waiting For A Jeepbeat and When I’m Feeling Good. (DericksMusicBlog)

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Janis Ian – The Essential 2.0 (2017) @320

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The Glands

Double Coda

(2018)

320

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Your comment will be very welcome!

18 July 2025

Alpha & Omega - Lost Dubs of A&O, Pt. 1 to 3 Dubplates (2013) @320

PT1

PT2

PT3

Well the covers for all three part are exactly the same, there are four tracks in each part, but I am going to upload all three parts in the one link. I looked on Discogs but they are not listed, well I couldn't see them any way. So have added screenshots so you can see the tracklist for each part.

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The Routes - Four More Flac albums no.2

Friday Flac

Ok another Friday and another Flac post, four more albums from The Routes to share today. The post next Friday (25th) will be four more albums from The Routes and the Friday after that (Aug 1st) will contain two albums and the EP's and Singles that I have by The Routes in Flac.

As last week there will not be link to listen to the albums first, before downloading them, but most are on the band's Bandcamp page, so if you require a preview of the album just visit that site.

I would also like to thank Concha for filling some gaps in my Flac collection of The Routes.

The Routes - Instrumentals (2012)

The Routes - Instrumentals II (2021)

The Routes - Dirty Needles and Pins (2017)

The Routes - In This Perfect Hell (2017)

As always the links will be posted in the comments once they have been upload, will take me 10 minutes at the most. Back next week with more Flac from this fine band.

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Jeff Daniels

Days Like These

(2014)

320

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Your comment will be very welcome!

17 July 2025

Jackie Leven (With David Thomas) - Creatures Of The Light And Darkness (2001) @320

Two great artists on the same album, sadly neither are still with us, Jackie passed in 2011 and David passing in April this year. Should dig out more Jackie Leven and his earlier band Doll by Doll stuff over the next few weeks.

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Destination Lonely – Nervous Breakdown (2020) @320

Here is the last of my Destination Lonely shares, I have a copy of the 2025 album, Eat LSD, Pray to Satan, Love no One, but is too new to share here (am sure you all understand why), maybe in a couple of years. If anybody happens to have a copy of their 2012 mini album "Kiss Or Kicks", I would love a copy either in 320 or flac, but if it's lower bitrate then I am fine with that, thanks in advance!! You can either drop a link in the comments or email me a link using the site email address you can find it on the about post on the right.

Enjoy, Reb 😎 Link 👇

Of Montreal

Aldhils Arboretum

(2002)

320

If you like what you see, look for the link in the comments.

Your comment will be very welcome!

16 July 2025

Reggae: 3926 - 3950 @320

Second post today in the Reggae Mix created by Rob and Jnr. More next Wednesday.

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Reggae: 3901 - 3925 @320

Ok guys the first of two posts today in Rob n Jnr's Reggae Mix. Will be sharing two every Wednesday and the last post in this series will be shared on Vibes on Wednesday September 24th. Rob's mix will will remain active for all to access here on Vibes, while Vibes is open, we have no plans to close!! Don't forget if you discover an inactive link in this series or any other Vibes post, then just ask for a re-up via the comments section.

Enjoy, Reb 😎 Link 👇

Matthew Sweet

100% Fun

(1995)

320

If you like what you see, look for the link in the comments.

Your comment will be very welcome!

15 July 2025

CosmasMix187 - New Indie tracks from mid May to mid June 2025

53 new tracks here for you to check out:

Featuring tracks from: Chameleons, Eades, Wavves, Alien Boy, Sharp Pins, Brideshead, Marryanne, The Laughing Chimes, Castlebeat, Deceits, The True Faith, Hibou, Deary, Shower Curtain, SPC ECO, No Joy, Ganser, Three Quarter Skies, chaoticpoprecs, The Flight Of Maltanese, Dummy, Fazerdaze, Shower Curtain, Tales of Moon, The Discussion, The Wedding Present, Pete Shelley, Pale Saints, Half Man Half Biscuit, The Dandy Warhols, Salem 66, Ivy, Nouvelle Vague, Green Day, Sweat, 7seconds, Napalm Death / Thurston Moore, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Talking Heads, The Moodists, Various Artists, Follytechnic Music Library, Orbital, Black Sand, Black Market Karma, Commenorate, Tramhaus, Low Harness, Subsonic Eye, M(h)aol, Savak, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, and War

VA - Don Letts – LateNightTales - Version Excursion (2001) @320

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VA - Don Letts ‎- Dread Meets Punk Rockers Uptown (Social Classics Volume 2) 2001 @320

"The soundtrack to London's legendary Roxy club December '76 to April '77."

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Ian Dury & The Blockheads - 1977 - New Boots & Panties (40th Anniversary Edition) (2017)

Ian Dury & The Blockheads - 1977 - New Boots & Panties (40th Anniversary Edition) (2017) @320

If Carlsberg did 40th anniversary boxsets…

Actually no, bollocks to Carlsberg, for I’m pretty sure they couldn’t even BEGIN to come up with something as beautifully put together as this four CD, one vinyl set; it really is as close to perfection as you can feasibly get. And a majestically packaged boxset is no less than this absolute classic of an album deserves.

Disc one and the clear/white vinyl both comprise the original 1977 long player and showcase just what a poetic genius Ian Dury was. In times like these, where we look back on many periods with horror, especially in light of the number of shocking revelations made by a devastatingly high number of women during the powerful #metoo campaign, it is reassuring to realise, when listening carefully to the lyrics of, say, opening track ‘Wake Up And Make Love With Me‘, that Dury was already way ahead of his time. Where some songs/bands from the era have aged poorly and have quite rightly been contemptuously consigned to the wastebin of misogyny, the former Kilburn And The High Roads man was, instead, in a song that could potentially have fallen into the same trap, treating his partner with the greatest of respect – despite feeling frisky himself, he sings “I don’t want to make you / I’ll let the fancy take you.”

For an album that is held up as a beacon of the punk movement, it is perhaps somewhat surprising that the content within New Boots And Panties!! has little in common with the genre, at least musically. The Blockheads – not actually fully formed at this point, though they would soon take their name from one of the rowdiest (and best) tracks here – were highly skilled musicians who fuelled Dury’s brilliant witty prose with a funked up, soulful jazz groove. Elsewhere, we hit upon old time rock and roll with the vibrant and vital ‘Sweet Gene Vincent‘, the romantic pub rock of ‘I’m Partial To Your Abracadabra‘ and a wonderful introduction to all manner of dubious seedy characters like ‘Clever Trevor‘ or ‘Billericay Ricky‘ (“I bought a lot of brandy when I was dating Sandy / Took eight to make her randy / and all I had was shandy“), often leading us to both laugh and pity these protagonists at the same time. The only time you could really level the standard “punk” label at Dury here is on the album’s two closing tracks, ‘Plaistow Patricia‘, complte with its naughty, sweary introduction, and, especially, the urgent two minute wonder that is ‘Blackmail Man‘.

But you probably already knew all that, so what of the bonus material? Well, disc two is largely made up of B-sides, cuts from NME cassettes, and an almighty John Peel Session from December that year (check out the splendid version of ‘Clever Trevor‘ here, with the almost gospel like female backing vocals). It’s a delectable candy shop of goodies, with variety at the top of its agenda. So it is that you get songs about nicking porn mags (‘Razzle In My Pocket‘) in which the thrill is in the lift, not in the grubby handed thumbing of said glossy book, or the convincing reggae of ‘You’re More Than Fair‘ which, despite its overtly sexual prose, comes across more like a saucy seaside postcard kind of humour, like a Carry On film if it had starred Jimmy Cliff or something, and some quite enchanting between song banter, the like we’ve rarely seen since.

On CD three, we get seventeen demo versions of many of the album’s final cuts, sometimes in instrumental form, as well as a plethora of lesser known, hidden gems. Chief amongst these is probably ‘I Made Mary Cry‘, in which we discover that Dury has a hitherto neglected singing voice that could well have seen him carve a successful career in country music, let alone punk, funk-jazz or whatever else you want to call him!

The crowning glory though is the previously unreleased ‘Live At The Paris Theatre, London 01/07/1978‘ that makes up the entirety of disc four. It’s rare to find a live album that so accurately conveys the thrill of a band at the peak of its powers. The multi-talented Chas Jankell, of course, is the perfect musical foil to Dury’s intriguing, perhaps even sometimes slightly menacing, on stage persona. It’s exciting stuff, at the same time being gut wrenchingly funny and utterly charming.

With some superb, misty eyed sleeve notes penned by long time Stiff Records afficionado – Phill Jupitus, in which he describes himself as an awkward, introverted teenager bereft of cash and possessing a crushing shyness that meant he spent hours just staring at girls he liked the look of at nightclubs, with no idea how to talk to them (you weren’t the only one, Phill!). Ian Dury and The Blockheads were one of those bands who ‘saved’ him, along with The Clash, The Sex Pistols and, later, Madness. Truth is, we all know how much of a lift – or even a reprieve – great music can give us, and New Boots And Panties!! is the perfect example of how, within seconds, you’re in another world, Dury’s world, marvelling at its many colourful inhabitants, laughing with (or at) them, delighting in their many unusual predicaments, until you finally come back to earth where, whatever trials and tribulations you’re facing, somehow, none of it seems so bad anymore.

A quite staggering box set, that is, quite frankly, flawless.

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