“Reality is an Illusion……”
In a seemingly abstract world, Nomar Slevik enters the stage with his latest release titled, “Purple Lights and April Foolishness“. The residential New Englander (Portland, Maine) brings it with an out-of-the-ordinary mixture of thick drummed, dark atmospheric beats with de-energized rhymes.
Known to some through previous releases and to others with his self-understandable pieces of writings such as, “A Language You Can See”, Slevik attempts to bomb the market with a mix of eccentric, but insightful tracks where Purple Lights are the norm and April Foolishness apparently prevails. Mr. Slevik brings a few cards to the table with the assistance of a number of guest appearances like; the Mole, Jonathan Balzano-Brooks, Anticon affiliate JD Walker, Dreadnots and Beth Lahr. The basis of what this album seems to be is Nomar is missing from his inner circle of associates and throughout “Purple Lights…” are telephone voice mail recording (in the form of skits) of different people leaving messages looking for Nomar, asking where’s he’s been as if he’s disappeared for a while. The production is done throughout the whole LP by Slevik with the exception of “existing/missing” and “Vadig and the Witness”, which was done by Mole and Tyconichi. All and all, Nomar keeps the production effort minimal and throws together different samples, instruments and beats with no thought-out or put-together pattern. Towards the middle of the album, a phone message (skit) indicates that Nomar was in a mental hospital with the idea that “a guy lives in his sink” and that “he’s (Slevik) being infected by other peoples concepts of reality. The reality is, the only stand-out track on “Purple Lights…” would probably only be “Hate (Lucky Pop)”. This track has the assistant vocals of the Mole, where the basis of the track is about the current state of society and the view of the world through the interpretation of Slevik and the Mole, likewise.
Experimentation is what “Purple Lights and April Foolishness” defines, from the beat conception to the lyrical deliverance. Hopefully this experimentation will spawn into a form and technique that would be more acceptable to Rap music Purists’ or just fans’ ears. .
Reviewed By P The Uptownkid for HipHopHotSpot.Com
