Nightmares On Wax — Bang Bien (ft. Yasiin Bey)

JUL 01 2025 · 12:00

Nightmares On Wax — Bang Bien (ft. Yasiin Bey) (2025) Director: Andy Baker Era: Post-Digital Downtempo Revival (2025) - UK electronic music's third-wave nostalgia era, merging analogue sound-system heritage with contemporary animated visual storytelling on legacy labels like Warp Records. High curatorial value as a document of UK electronic music's self-reflexive maturity: a Warp Records flagship artist using fully animated, hand-crafted visuals to archive and mythologise subcultural origins. The confirmed production provenance (Andy Baker Studio), high-profile collaboration (Yasiin Bey), and culturally specific Leeds sound system narrative make this a rich primary source for scholars of UK music history, animation studies, and cross-cultural hip-hop/electronic intersections. Context: Released in November 2025 as the lead single from Nightmares On Wax's Echo45 Sound System — a 13-track Warp Records project rooted in the 1980s Leeds sound system scene that shaped founder George Evelyn's musical identity. The video functions as a personal origin myth, tracing how a £5 second-hand speaker box set Evelyn on a lifelong journey through soul, roots, hip-hop, dub, and electronic music. The collaboration with Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) bridges UK underground electronic heritage with New York hip-hop's most philosophically articulate voice, situating the track at the intersection of two distinct but complementary Black music diasporas. The animated format draws on the cut-and-paste mixtape aesthetic to visually encode the layered, genre-fluid nature of sound system culture itself. Director notes: Directed under Andy Baker Studio for Warp Records. The video is a fully animated 2D production loosely narrating Nightmares On Wax founder George Evelyn's formative years growing up in Leeds sound system culture. Features Leeds landmarks, the breakdancing crew Soul City Rockers, and hidden Nightmares On Wax Easter eggs. Visually structured as a collage inspired by the cut-and-paste nature of mixtapes. Full confirmed crew: Creative Director / Executive Producer – Lucia Davies; Character & Type Design – Ferry Gouw; Background Design – Andy Baker; Animation – Salla Lehmus, Peter Chownsmith, Andy Baker, Jamie Hobbs; Compositing – Andy Baker. Released as the lead single from the Echo45 Mixtape / Echo45 Sound System album (Warp Records, 14 November 2025).