Nightmares on Wax on Vinyl: A Guide to the Leeds Downtempo Pioneer

George Evelyn has been making records as Nightmares on Wax since 1988, which makes him the longest serving artist on the Warp roster. He started in Leeds with John Halnon, then Kevin Harper, cutting bleep and bass singles like "Dextrous" in 1989 and "Aftermath #1" in 1990, while Warp was still a Sheffield shop with a label attached. Harper left after the 1991 debut, A Word of Science, and Evelyn carried the name on alone as DJ E.A.S.E.

What happened next is why this catalog matters. Instead of chasing the dancefloor, Evelyn slowed everything down and built a sound from dusty soul breaks, dub bass and long patient loops. Smokers Delight in 1995 is where that lands, one of the records that defined what people started calling trip-hop, made four hours up the M1 from Bristol and sounding nothing like anyone else doing it. From there it keeps opening outward: live orchestration on Carboot Soul, a looser Ibiza warmth on In A Space Outta Sound, a full cast of singers on the last two albums.

Evelyn runs his own Wax On label, started in 2005, and works out of Ibiza. The recent run has been busy: a new album at the end of 2025, and an April 2026 anniversary treatment of In A Space Outta Sound that handed the tapes to Adrian Sherwood. GTR carries five albums across seven pressings. Here is the shelf.

Nightmares on Wax - Smokers Delight (1995)

The one to start with, and the one everything else is measured against. Smokers Delight arrived September 25, 1995 on Warp in the UK and Wax Trax in the US, recorded across three Yorkshire studios: Fon in Sheffield, T.T.B. in Wakefield and Touchwood in Leeds. "Nights Introlude" opens at walking pace and the record never speeds up, which is the whole trick. "Dreddoverboard" and "Stars" are the other two most people come back for. A late-night album in the most literal sense.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• The album that put Leeds on the map of this music, and the best entry point
• "Nights Introlude," "Dreddoverboard" and "Stars" in sequence
• Thirty years on it has not dated, having never chased a tempo

Nightmares on Wax - Carboot Soul (1999)

Released April 12, 1999 on Warp, Carboot Soul is where Evelyn stopped working only from other people's records. "Les Nuits," the opener and first single, revisits his own "Nights Interlude" by way of a full live orchestral session, built around the Quincy Jones reading of "Summer in the City" and mixed down by hand. "Finer" followed. Early 1999 copies shipped with Rizla papers printed in the album art, which tells you what room this was made for.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• The pivot from pure sampling to live orchestral recording, audible on "Les Nuits"
• Warmer and more melodic than Smokers Delight without losing the weight
• A third album that moved the project forward rather than repeating it

Nightmares on Wax - In A Space Outta Sound (2006)

The fifth album, out March 7, 2006 on Warp, and the most generous sounding thing in the catalog. In A Space Outta Sound was made after Evelyn settled into Ibiza, and it shows: "Flip Ya Lid," "The Sweetest" and "African Pirates" all went out as singles that year, and the record moves with an unhurried sunshine the earlier albums kept behind the curtains. The standard double LP, and the obvious second purchase.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• "Flip Ya Lid" and "The Sweetest," two of his best known tracks, on the original double LP
• The warmest and most immediately likeable album he has made
• The record the whole 2026 anniversary project is built around

Nightmares on Wax - In A Space Outta Sound (20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) (2026)

Warp marked the album's twentieth year on April 3, 2026 with a limited 3LP box: the original double album plus a bonus disc carrying Adrian Sherwood's dub version. The packaging is the part people talk about, a cut-out sleeve built to look like a speaker cabinet with glow in the dark detailing, artwork by Ruff Mercy. Coming to the album new, this edition is the one to own.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Original double album and the complete Sherwood dub disc across three LPs
• Ruff Mercy artwork in a speaker cabinet cut-out sleeve with glow in the dark details
• A limited anniversary pressing, and the collector's copy of the two

Nightmares on Wax vs Adrian Sherwood - In A Space Outta Dub (2026)

The same Sherwood session on its own. Evelyn handed the multitracks to the On-U Sound founder, who took eight tracks apart and rebuilt them the proper way: vocals ducked to ghosts, delay thrown across the room, bass promoted to lead. Cyrus Richards and Doug Wimbish add overdubs in places. In A Space Outta Dub came out April 3, 2026 on Warp, and holds up as its own listen. Play it straight after the 2006 album.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Adrian Sherwood dubbing a record that was already half dub to begin with
• Eight versions, with Doug Wimbish and Cyrus Richards overdubs
• Pressed separately, so the box is not the only way to get it

Nightmares on Wax - Shout Out! To Freedom... (2021)

Out October 29, 2021 on Warp, and the most collaborative record Evelyn had made to that point. He gave every guest the same brief, to make something inspired by what freedom meant to them, then built the album around what came back: Shabaka Hutchings, Greentea Peng, Haile Supreme, Pip Millett, Mara TK, OSHUN, Wolfgang Haffner and the writer Sabrina Mahfouz. This pressing is blue colored vinyl.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Shabaka Hutchings and Greentea Peng on a Nightmares on Wax record
• Blue colored vinyl pressing
• The bridge between his 1990s catalog and the current London jazz and soul scene

Nightmares on Wax - Echo45 Sound System (2025)

The newest album, digital on November 14 and vinyl on December 5, 2025, on Warp. Echo45 Sound System takes its name from a beaten up speaker box Evelyn bought in Leeds for five pounds, and it runs like a mixtape built on that thing: soul, roots, hip-hop, dub and electronics threaded through sound system and pirate radio habits, with Evelyn as curator more than frontman. Yasiin Bey turns up on "Bang Bien," alongside Greentea Peng, Sadie Walker, Liam Bailey, Oscar Jerome, Louis VI, Haile Supreme, LSK, Ladi6 and Yarah Bravo.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Yasiin Bey, Greentea Peng and Liam Bailey on one Nightmares on Wax record
• 2LP gold colored vinyl, each copy pressed slightly differently
• Thirty-seven years in, still building rooms rather than tracks

Two footnotes for anyone filling gaps. Mind Elevation, Thought So, Feelin' Good and Shape the Future are not on the shelf here, and neither is the 1991 debut. GTR does carry his entry in the Late Night Tales mix series, the 2024 reissue, filed on site under the wrong lead name but very much his: a 2003 DJ mix that doubles as a tour of the records he was raised on.

If You Like Nightmares on Wax

• Massive Attack: the Bristol end of the same decade, heavier and more cinematic.
• DJ Shadow: the American parallel, the same crate habits turned into something more architectural.
• Boards of Canada: the same patience and analogue haze, dub traded for unease.
• Bonobo: the next generation of UK downtempo, warmer and more band-like.
• Lee Scratch Perry: the source code for the dub half of all of this.

For the wider scene, the Essential Trip-Hop starter guide maps the Bristol side Leeds was answering, and the Downtempo and Electronic shelves cover the ground either side. For every Nightmares on Wax pressing and format in one place, browse the full Nightmares on Wax collection.

It's all in GOOD TASTE.