The thirteen tracks making up Nu-Mark's latest musical endeavor, the "Broken Sunlight" LP, which after at least two years of waiting is finally here. The Jutassic 5 DJ's ímmense skill for hypnotic turntable grooves, knocking drums, and sample sources from all over the world is in full effect here. Rather than the traditional boom bap he often gives his crew, here he's blending severl very different genres into an hip-hop extravaganza that never sound the least forced. Furthermore, Nu-Mark's career as a DJ allows him the knowledge to put together an album much in the vein of a a complete suite. "Broken Sunlight" have a few standout moments, but as a whole it lacks a dull moment, and as a whole it is is diverse as it is original.
One of the few downsides of the album, is that 10 of the 13 songs has previously been released. Since late 2010, Nu-Mark has released exclusive 10" singles with full artwork on a regular basis, in promotion of the album. It's been a good idea but it's sllightly dissapointing that pretty much the entire album has and promoting the upcoming album with both A- and B-sides that nw appears on the LP. As a result the vast majority of the songs have been available for a good while; and though all ten previously available songs have all been strictly wonderful (and on constant rotation at that), the LP only featues three tracks; including the soulful outro "Tough Break", the Tiron-featured opener "Time is Now" and the instrumental outro "Don't Play Around"
But let's forget about the previously releaesd singles and their B-sides, and let's view "Broken Sunligt" as an album on its own merit; and as that, it's a damn solid release that deserves repeated listenings. It's a good mix of lesser known rappers, the hardest underground emcees, talented singers, powerful turntable work, well executed breakbeats, and ill sample breakdowns; together creating a wall of sound that could be enjoyed just as wel in your favorite headphones at home or in a club setting, The album is filled with highlights, tracks that might have you wonder if you're still listening to the same CD/LP. Large Professor pops up for one of the true stand-outs (one of the first singles, "When You Sleep") featuring a beat that sounds right up in Pro's alley with its chops, keys, cuts and vocal sample hook. "Never Be Wrong" features MC Haas, and is a majestic joint with blazing horns and a repetitive piano loop that sets the center stage for the rhyming.
Short but deadly is in the instrumental intermission, that in my opinion, should have been the intro to the record; "Venegance is Mine". As is often the case when the trumpet takes the center stage, the intermission is triumphant and coupled with Nu-Mark's excellent turntable work, steady rhythm and progressive keys, it really sets up what to come. Luckily what's to come is another of the album's finest joints - "Dumpinn 'Em All", performed by the angriest emcee alive. Mr. 'Fuckin' Bumpy Knuckles. Over sme synthesizer tricks and a pounding rhythm, Bumoy lets loose of quotable after quotable. If you ain't picking up the album, at least pick up this 10" which is B/W the Large Pro track.
While there's more hip-hop joints to be found on this great set, there's plenty of interesting stuff that doesn't fall in that categrory. Perhaps the finest being Nu-Mark's 2012 take on Earl Hines' classic "My Generation" (you know the song Pete & CL sampled for "Straighten it Out"). And while most producers might have choosed to sample a part of the record, our DJ goes all the way, keeping all the main elements of the original record and let it play through with a few minor tweaks, And it's sound fantastic! "Don't Play Around" is one of the few cuts that's exclusive to this realease, and is a slamming song to say the least; lots of things happening here. From the '70s vocal sample, the rock hard drums, and the beautiful voice of the underrated Aloe Blac (and Charles "who?" Brady)..
The closing of the album takes a left turn, going heavy with the latin rhythms, transfrming them into breakbeats that could work well for the B-boys. Quantic's "Tropicalifornia" is as brilliant as it is unexpected for a "hip-hop" release; it's crafted around latin-infused samples and has plenty of scratch work but the instrumental song is much more latin-tinged than anything else with its horns and samba rhythm,. The same goes for "Oya Indebure", which is not neither latin-tinged or hip-hop, but rooted somwehere in Africa in its sound and is heavy on the polyrhythm. Laudir de Oliveria provides vocals over the heavy-hitting rhythms and crazy polyrhythms. This is powerful stuff as long as you got an open mind. It's only the one minute long outro which brings things back slightly to basics, with a more traditional backbeat, broken saxophones and beats, although it does keeps much of the experimenntal flavas of the previous joints. You could say they meet each other better wayl´,,
So there you have it; if you liked the five installments in the "Broken Sunlight" 10" series you're gonna have a blast with this one; the same goes for all fans of Jurassic 5 and Cut Chemist, people with an open mind for more gennres than hip-hop, etc. Otherwise you might do best to stay cleer of this,. To me, it's an excellent album, that deserves to be in any serious collector's catalouge.
Source: The Lost Tapes
