Tuesday, 11 December 2007

DALEK – ABANDONED LANGUAGE (IPECAC)


DALEK – ABANDONED LANGUAGE (IPECAC)

To be menacing is the apparent way of operation for MC Dalek and Oktopus as they charge through another record in truly devastating fashion looking to scream home truths down the listeners throat while assaulting them aurally. Unsurprisingly dark and brooding as with previous releases, this is the fourth album (excluding the record with Faust) from the Newark duo that may as well be from another planet because they certainly don’t sound content with this one.

A Dalek record is about atmospherics and dense rhythms, now something of a trademark for them, coupled unapologetic revelations and verbal alarm bells. The beats are very reminiscent of DJ Muggs in his heyday while the rhymes flow as if holding a seminar of attrition, not a million miles away from Michael Franti’s finest moment (albeit with a New Jersey snap).

With an opening track that tips the ten minute mark, it is a courageous listener that will maintain full gusto for the entirety of the album, not least for when the track “Lynch” appears to take after its filmmaking namesake very closely.

Generally this is beyond hip hop, the vocal delivery is there mere icing on the cake for what is a concentrated effort to make the most paranoid and claustrophobic sounding record possible. By nature their sound benefits from hidden depths of funk that are smothered and well hidden but basically an element that makes the record easier to digest for the listener.

Ultimately though Dalek only succeed in dragging the listener down into the murky depths of their underground which is perhaps further than is necessary a level from which the observer may not be able to recover.

For a slow heavy ride into hell, this album delivers a pretty accurate feel for it.

Thesaurus moment: brooding.

Dalek
Ipecac Recordings

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