Album Of The Day

Jan 31 2022 Author

2

This is music your Nintendo Wii plays while it's loading the Weather Channel.

Nov 24 2021 Author

4

This is really nice chill out or background music… something you would expect to hear in a trendy bar or hotel. Very nice to hang out with - I found it quite pleasant for background music while I worked. I can think of many occasions where this is the sort of music I would really want to play. This isn't the kind of album that will reach out and grab you, but instead the music sidles up and puts its arm around you. I didn't spend a lot of time distinguishing between the songs. Instead I just grooved along and let it flow around me. The album coheres very well while still having some clear individuality between the songs. The (Digital Deluxe) edition I listened to adds 4 extra tracks at the end. All four were worth hearing and didn’t detract from the flow of the original in any way I noticed. Good stuff!

Dec 06 2023 Author

1

Like being on hold to the bank's customer service helpline for an hour and a quarter. 1.5

Nov 24 2021 Author

4

I dig the mood that this album evokes, but it not likely to be one that I would pick out on the regular. It is good background music for work or a hip cocktail party (at least I imagine it might be, as I don’t frequent hip cocktail parties). I will add this to my library in the hopes that someday I am hip enough to cocktail to these beats.

Mar 24 2024 Author

2

2.6 - I hate two things about this record. First and foremost, it's boring. At best, this record feels appropriate as background music for a hotel lobby. Second, this record is 100% mis-packaged. Looking at the artist name, the album name and all the reggae colors and stoner-y fonts on the record cover, you expect some crunk-y intersection of Cypress Hill and 311, perhaps as interpreted by dreadlocked Euro-wankers. Instead, you get this linear, color-by-numbers, 1983-Casio-keyboard drivel. And, no, throwing in a few bongo beats, and including an echo-y vocal sample of your black friend saying "man" doesn't do enough to unite Kingston and Kinshasa with fucking Sheffield.

Mar 11 2022 Author

2

On the plus side, Smokers Delight does have a nice chilled vibe that serves well as background music. But as an album to listen to attentively it is a bit boring and repetitive. Don't get me wrong, repetition can be used to good effect. Problem is there is no organic sounds; there is no real emotion. Like a lot of modern music it's loop based, sequenced, time stretched, processed etc (even the "solos"). There's no art to it - a computer could have been programmed to make it.

Dec 05 2024 Author

1

Makes me feel exactly how I feel every time I grossly overpay for a watery vodka soda from a Russian bartender wearing too much Hai Karate in a lightly peopled lounge in the meatpacking district in the late afternoon of a sunny late fall day with sticky floors and a slight Lysol smell that make me nervous about availing myself of the enormous black velvet chaise longue in 1997.

Jul 22 2021 Author

3

Smokers Delight is an inoffensive blend of reggae, hip hop, Latin, soul, and downtempo that glides through the neural pathways unimpeded by any novel or challenging sonic concepts. It's mellow restaurant or club music. That said, it's all very skillfully done. Every sample, the way it's mixed, the sequencing, etc, is all calculated to make you relax and just groove with the music in the background. I find it depressing though that this album is on the 1001 list. I have no reason to doubt that Smoker's Delight is influential...on other artists who make inconsequential aural wallpaper. It would seem more appropriate to review an album like this in an industry magazine, like Restaurants Today. How to rate? I'll give it three stars for the obvious skill with which was made, but to me this falls in the same basic category as nu-jazz. It's music for people who don't really like music, who just want something in the background while they study or vacuum or take a dump.

Jul 21 2021 Author

5

Wow, I didn't know that I needed this, but now it's a keeper.

Jan 21 2024 Author

1

Not my style. Tried to appreciate it, but I was extremely bored. This is background music for some place I don’t want to be at.

Jun 08 2021 Author

5

Yo, so this isn't NEARLY as Carboot Soul, but it's a great album. I am very mad it took so long for me to find Nightmares on Wax.

Dec 05 2024 Author

2

Innocuous ambient music to work by. Not sure why it's on this list but nothing awful. The title and the performer name are a little misleading for this work--I was expecting something a little more hiphop-y and dystopian. Instead it was like "music for cleaning out your email."

Oct 30 2024 Author

1

Made it 30 minutes through this and still didn’t get an appointment with my dentist

Nov 23 2023 Author

1

Utter rubbish. I pride myself on listening to every style and genre I can, and appreciating the talent of the artists within it, even if I don't like it. No talent displayed here! I cannot imagine why this is in a 'must listen' list.

Oct 12 2023 Author

1

Pure shite

Jun 22 2023 Author

1

Christ on a stick, this is dull… Looking through the other reviews, I’m really surprised at the amount of 4s and 5s. I guess some people are easily pleased

Jan 14 2022 Author

5

Carboot Soul was the first NoW album I listened to, so it will always hold a special place, but this one is fantastic top to bottom. I was so glad to be reminded of it and it fit perfectly with the heads down work I needed to do that day.

Jul 02 2021 Author

5

7/2 Holy fire. Standout Tracks: Pipes Honour, Groove St., Bless My Soul, Rise, Gambia via Vagator Beach

Jan 03 2024 Author

3

It’s rare that I listen to a 90’s electronic album from this list and it doesn’t sound dated. Maybe it’s because digital recording was still in its infancy then and more limited than it is today, and as a result, listeners’ expectations were tempered to not expect much variety, but that doesn’t account for a record like DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing, which doesn’t feel dated or overly repetitive and mechanical like this one does. With that said, this is not an awful album, but I think it could use some judicious editing. If you were to Guided by Voices this thing - no songs over three minutes, blend the tracks together like a seamless mix tape - it could be a pretty awesome record.

May 10 2022 Author

2

well, Nightmares on Wax don't like to be tarred with the "trip hop" brush. And I agree with them. This is chilled instrumental hip hop, which si all well and good, but does tend a little towards wallpaper. I am also surprised that this is not nearly as crunchy and lofi as the leading luminaries of trip hop preferred in their sound design (qv. Massive Attach, Tricky, Portishead). I can also hear the seismic influences of DJ Shadow and especially J.Dilla on the world of instrumental hip hop. it's hard to believe that instrumental hip was ever this clean and almost to the grid. The whole sense of sound and timing has changed so much since the late 90s, that this sounds almost quaint. Influential in its time, but not really relevant anymore. It's just kind of easy listening jazz-lite with hip hop-ish beats. Cursed by its own ubiquity.

Jul 30 2021 Author

2

Première très bonne surprise au lancement de cet album : il ne s'agit pas de musique reggae. On enchaîne les premières pistes avec enthousiasme, tout se passe à merveille, jusqu'au moment où l'on se rend compte environ une heure après avoir lancé l'écoute que la troisième piste vient à peine de commencer. Rapidement, on en a marre. On a envie que ça s'arrête. On tombe alors sur le morceau Cruise (Don't stop) qui nous explique au sein de ses parenthèses que l'on y est encore pour quelques heures. Le DJ responsable de cette mascarade est un certain Nightmares On Wax. Son style de musique chill-out aurait merité d'être appelé repetitive-out, ou même not-interesting-out, ou carrément tchoupits-out. On emmerde l'artiste ainsi que ses proches même s'ils n'ont rien demandé.

Oct 04 2023 Author

1

Awful and talentless. I just don’t understand who would buy this and for what occasion? I don’t see any talent in coming up with a 5 second long drum pattern and overlaying it with no more than 3 notes, then looping it endlessly until you lose the will to live. I always read the Wiki reviews on each album to get a deeper understanding of the artist & the album. Having read about this one, I’ve learnt nothing. I just wonder why this obscure artist and album made the 1,001 list. It wasn’t for commercial success (and neither should it just be about that), and it wasn’t for outstanding critical reviews. It doesn’t seem to have inspired other artists and doesn’t seem groundbreaking in any way. I guess the author of the list just likes it. Each to their own.

Dec 14 2022 Author

5

Absolutely golden. A brilliant album.

Nov 13 2022 Author

5

yyyyyeeeeaaaaaazzzzz 👍🏽👍🏽

Sep 11 2022 Author

5

Wow, that's a amazing record.

Feb 27 2022 Author

5

"Nights Introlude", the first song on this album, is one of the greatest trip hop master pieces of all time. Overall, Nightmares on Wax's beats are very smooth, but not in a smooth jazz way, and more on the smoothness feel on the layers of his production. The early hip hop references are very well put in songs like "Dreddoverboard", just like the spy movie soundtrack vibes of "Mission Venice" are perfectly fit. "Stars", for instance, is almost a early chillwave track. It's a very creative album from start to finish.

Feb 18 2022 Author

5

Home office sound track

Feb 04 2022 Author

5

Loved it, very relaxed

Dec 17 2021 Author

5

So smooth.

Dec 17 2021 Author

5

Grooving grooves.

Apr 14 2021 Author

5

Nicole likes this one too...

Apr 20 2021 Author

5

Perfect chilled beats

May 02 2024 Author

4

Great chill out album!

Apr 17 2022 Author

4

Great 'relaxing' music.

Sep 22 2021 Author

4

Pretty interesting jam album. Some songs drag on a bit. But mostly nice melodies. Some people might get bored but I can get into it.

Aug 24 2021 Author

4

The first song is great, jazzy, sophisticated sounding. Great first impression; expecting good things. Nest song a little funkier, more soulful...very nice. A couple more songs inn super smooth, organic...Trip Hop the way Trip Hop should be. Me likey. It does get a little long...a little samey for active listening , becomes more of a background listening experience but a really really good background listening experience. Put this on at a dinner party and I think you have the perfect backdrop. 4 stars

Aug 19 2021 Author

4

Gotta love some trip-hop. The beats and sounds on this thing are hazy and wacky, lots of cool noises that sound kind of underwater and industrial. Really creative, really interesting and really catchy

Jun 18 2021 Author

4

needed a spliff to listen to it, good sound tho

Aug 04 2025 Author

3

This album is from an artist that I had very high hopes for, since I already had - without really realising it - a few of their songs added to my playlists. Overall this album was very suitable as relaxing background music. However, I can't give it more than 3 stars since it was quite repetitive and I did feel the urge to skip some songs. I would rate it a 5/10 if I could. Fav songs: Nights Interlude, stars, bless my soul, rise.

Aug 04 2025 Author

2

This was pretty boring. This type of music is pretty popular now as background noise on playlists with names like 'Deep Focus' or 'Music to Study To'. Maybe this was interesting in 1995, and I will say it's a step above and more thoughtful than a lot of what you'll find on those playlists, but I still don't know if there is anything exceptional about it. unless these are the first people to ever make music to study to?

Aug 04 2025 Author

2

Mellifluous meandering, mostly monumentally mundane. Honestly, I remember loving Carboot Soul, so I was poised to be giving this four stars. But was sad to find it chronically boring. Other than track one, can barely remember any if it

Jul 31 2025 Author

2

Music for an anime girl to study endlessly to.

Jul 25 2025 Author

2

Never has a band name less matched the style of music. Lo-fi study beats to be put on in the background and ignored.

Oct 15 2024 Author

2

Expected more stoner music, got shitty hotel bar music

Mar 18 2024 Author

2

Background music.

May 02 2023 Author

1

Decent groove, but ultimately immemorable - this album has no business being on this list. Yet another mid-90's entry of dance-floor stuff, lost amid artists doing it way better (Massive attack, Trans Global Underground, Moodswings, etc.) The author's bias towards the 90's is beginning to wear.

Apr 28 2023 Author

1

It was extremely long and boring. It is at this point that we realize that the author of 1001 is a die-hard fan of downtempo... To a point where I can no longer follow.

Apr 14 2023 Author

1

This music is just not my thing. It's not bad at all, I just find it boring personally. I feel like I've heard it or something that sounds very similar in 1,000 coffee shops over the years. My rating isn't a knock on the musicianship or even the music itself, just not music for me. Standout Tracks: N/A

Mar 08 2023 Author

1

This music is brought to you by purgatory. Give me something to get my teeth stuck into man

Nov 17 2025 Author

5

Delightful vibes

Nov 06 2025 Author

5

This one brings back fond memories

Nov 06 2025 Author

5

Hip hit to focus... Or to trip.

Aug 26 2025 Author

5

Currently listening to this album on my best headphones sat outside enjoying the late August sunshine, and I already feel more relaxed. This is music for lazy days and cool evenings, effortlessly mixing classic beats and trip hop rhythms with aplomb. Unreserved five stars for this one.

Aug 14 2025 Author

5

fantastic jams

Aug 14 2025 Author

5

Love the vibes, easy to listen to

Jul 08 2025 Author

5

Chill

Jun 18 2025 Author

5

i like the beat

Jun 09 2025 Author

5

I like this album a lot. For a run time of 74 minutes, it feels like it flies by. The beats are crafted and mixed incredibly well. I love how lush the synths are and how the reverb/delay on the drums adds lots of depth and space. The beats are repetitive but you end up hypnotised by them rather then getting bored. Would make a great soundtrack to a 90s documentary about sea life (particularly dolphins) Fav tracks: - All

May 28 2025 Author

5

supremely chill

May 07 2025 Author

5

Summer is here, kings

Apr 10 2025 Author

5

I had never heard that album before. That was absolutely phenomenal! It's going to be in permanent rotation on my phone and at home.

Mar 24 2025 Author

5

Cool

Mar 07 2025 Author

5

Happy day's sweat clouds of pure...........LOL

Feb 24 2025 Author

5

Ohhhhh, this is great. I'm all about this.

Jan 17 2025 Author

5

Genuinely shocked by how good that was.

Jan 15 2025 Author

5

Smoking weed mood

Jan 13 2025 Author

5

Once upon a time I thought all the music of the future would sound this cool! It doesn’t, but that which does owes a lot to this way-ahead-of-its-time sound.

Jan 03 2025 Author

5

Chill stuff

Dec 19 2024 Author

5

Back to playing catch-up in the Electronica genre, this is the music I love to have playing in the background while I'm work. Its upbeat but not in your face distracting.

Dec 04 2024 Author

5

Nice, a band I didn't know nothing but the name about! I actually thought this would be a reggae/dub/elektro -mashup, after reading up on it I think this is something that my mates in the 90's tried to push on to me. Only things that stuck were Children Of The Bong and some Metalheadz/Goldie things, I suppose. I really enjoyed this one. This is chillout music at it's best and I gotta look into this stuff some more.

Nov 25 2024 Author

5

very groovy. i listened to this while fried out my mind. felt that shit honestly.

Nov 14 2024 Author

5

Nightmares on Wax are on permanent rotation for me. 6/5

Nov 08 2024 Author

5

Smokers Delight is like a warm blanket on a cold night - a comforting, laid-back listen. It's got this cool, vintage vibe with a mix of jazzy, soulful samples and smooth beats. It's the kind of album you can put on and just zone out to. While it might not be the most groundbreaking or experimental, it's definitely got a timeless quality. If you're into chillwave, trip-hop, or just good old-fashioned chill music, this one's a must-listen.

Oct 31 2024 Author

5

love this

Sep 25 2024 Author

5

Man, it’s been ages since I last heard this. This album is jazzy, groovy, and incredibly laid-back, with hypnotic trip hop beats and ambient atmospheres. It’s the kind of middle of the road album that fits just about any situation. Whether you’re at a house party where people are getting into the groove, or casually driving with your grandparents after picking them up from the nursing home for lunch, this album just works. It’s smooth, inoffensive, and effortlessly cool.

Sep 13 2024 Author

5

Super catchy, easy to listen to at all times beats. Would definitely listen to while driving, reading, cleaning, etc. loved it.

Aug 29 2024 Author

5

I violently came listening to this album

Jun 28 2024 Author

5

great chill music. Really enjoyed it.

Jun 12 2024 Author

5

Great relaxing electronic music!

Apr 25 2024 Author

5

niiiiice

Mar 04 2024 Author

5

Vibes on top of vibes Jazzy chill hip hop techno Windows down night drive

Feb 25 2024 Author

5

what a great album. I'm putting this in the Zero7/Tame Impala section of the library

Feb 02 2024 Author

5

Never heard of the group. Liked this.

Jan 12 2024 Author

5

groves end to end

Jan 04 2024 Author

5

This album attaches itself to the mid-1990s like a limpet to a rock. That isn't a bad thing, by any stretch, because to go into a bar playing Nightmares on Wax during the 90s was about the coolest thing one could do. Sure, it isn't as good an album as Carboot Soul, but it is still really very good. If you imagine yourself chatting to a girl in a hip (probably underground) bar in Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol or London - you'd be talking to her about Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, or maybe about how tiresome Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Tamara Beckwith were - and this is the soundtrack to that chat-up. You'd buy her a hilariously expensive cocktail and have a g&t for yourself, and you'd feel like you owned the world. Nightmares on Wax are the soundtrack for swish bars, funky hotels and relaxed ambiance. If your chat-up worked, though, when you got her back to yours and picked a CD to put into your B&O BeoSystem, it'd be Kruder & Dorfmeister that you put on while you went down on her. Sorry Nightmares, but you're cool music, not sexytime music.

Jan 02 2024 Author

5

Loved this one. Great chill beats and found a few favorites

Dec 22 2023 Author

5

This album was amazing and not at all what i expected. Moving to the top of playlist

Dec 03 2023 Author

5

Bears, BEATS, Battle Star Galactica

Nov 23 2023 Author

5

nice

Nov 02 2023 Author

5

super sweet

Sep 27 2023 Author

5

Best one yet

Sep 21 2023 Author

5

This is a great record that I have no problem spinning again, and again, and again. It's complex enough that one can listen to it intently without getting bored, but given it's rhythmic and audibly balanced nature, it can also meld comfortably into the background and still shine. As a fan of music without words, this album has been a staple for many years.

Sep 03 2023 Author

5

Aptly titled I reckon.

Jul 28 2023 Author

5

this is really cool. I would love to own this.

Jun 23 2023 Author

5

Some chill downtempo electronica. Nothing fast-paced or frantic, just an hour and fourteen minutes of smooth-as-butter trip-hop perfection. Beautiful music to just chill to on this hot summer's day. It's background music for sure but I'm totally okay with that. Maybe there would be some days where I wouldn't be so into something so slow and mellowed out, but this just works too perfectly today. Favourite: Dreddoverboard

Jun 22 2023 Author

5

I love Nightmares On Wax

Mar 22 2023 Author

5

I didn't get all the way through this on my first round of listening but was very much enjoying the music as such that when I was making dinner I put Nightmares On Wax on and very much enjoyed some of their other tracks. Faves on this release would be Groove St., and Rise. Looking forward to spending more time with these guys.

Mar 15 2023 Author

5

Loved it. Very diverse sounds across the whole album, feels ahead of it's time. I'd love to hear modern remixes/sampling with most of the songs. I added 3 or 4 while listening and will definitely be back soon. I'd be interested to hear the live set from Freestyle '18 as well. Overall a great early entry in the field of downtempo. 8.5/10

Mar 03 2023 Author

5

Cracking album, super chilled, laid-back trip-hop. I know it's not to everyone's taste, but I just wanted to lay back, roll up a fat one, and get stoned

Feb 15 2023 Author

5

Fun! Really good instrumental album.

Smokers Delight

Nightmares On Wax

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