Nomar Slevik

Portland, ME rapper/producer Nomar Slevik is one of those avant-garde rappers that flips his vocal style back and forth between simple, straightforward rapping and layered singing. His lyrics use a simple one-two rhyme pattern over often short verses, and each song is usually only one or two of those. Slevik produces just one track ("The Reason”) and assists on one other ("Practice Hard”), but he selects some great slamming beats from a bunch of nearly unknown underground producers. The exception is Anticon’s DJ Mayonnaise, whose aggressive remix of piano-heavy opening number "Ammonia,” produced by RPM, appears as a bonus track. Sandwiched in between are eight short songs about subjects ranging from aliens/alienation ("Observation”) and killer ghosts ("Bunnyman”) to politics ("The Reason”) and being unemployed ("Electrical Storm”). Oh, and Sasquatch enters the picture on the perverted "Practice Hard,” thanks to guest MC Mole, who co-produces. Although "The Day I Passed Away” is a tedious techno track that doesn’t suit the rest of the album, Sasquatch: The Great Dying is still short, sweet and mostly successful.