DALEK – GUTTER TACTICS
(IPECAC RECORDINGS)
It is unlikely there
will be a more intense album opener this year than the orchestrated rant of Pastor Jeremiah Wright
on “Blessed Are They Who Bash Your Children’s Head Against A Rock”. The track is only eighty four seconds long
but it manages to pack in more punch than most things heard either side of
explosions orchestrated or otherwise.
This is not a track designed to welcome the listener to any easier life,
its intention is to inform and unnerve, to slap some sense into humanity. Essentially this record constitutes the
ultimate soundtrack to a breakdown both social and mental and as its grinding
drone drills into souls.
This is a futuristic
sounding album as the atonal collision of slow heavy beats, industrial sounds and
Krautrock motions exists on the verge of collapse or snapping through the sheer
intensity of the barely audible accompanying MC. The backing is not so much beats, its
tremors. As ever it could have been a
horrible mess were it not for the brute determination held within, as it looks
to stagger the listener and unease with observation and oral/aural snaps.
Without missing a beat
“No Question” chews up the scenery as MC Dalek finally arrives on the scene and
opens with mouth with rasping instruction.
Like a well oiled machine it rolls out punches with a pulsing beat. Even though it sounds like Armageddon you can
still dance along.
As ever it is business
as usual as keeping people happy is far from on the agenda. In execution it is a unique and majestic
thing with lyrical content based on urban decay. The result is something genuinely hypnotic in
the way that public transport is mesmerising.
Motion maintains as
“Armed With Krylon” drifts in like a hovering drone sounding like the future
erupting above. There is no sanctuary
here. Then almost as a gesture of
realising such threat “Who Medgar Evers Was” looms for eight moments
methodically and mechanically dropping bombs.
“A Collection Of
Miserable Thoughts Laced With Wit” feels an appropriate title for a song
conjured up in this environment. One of
the calmer, slower offerings it serves a moment of reflection.
The record never
relents as it grinds away to the climax of “2012 (The Pillage)” and “Atypical
Stereotype” refusing to break character and change face.
I’m really not sure
where such an act or album sits in the hip-hop landscape. This is expansive and far reaching stuff not
necessarily accessible or conducive to party.
Imagine the sound of Gil Scott-Heron and Mike Tyson behind the wheel of a tank.
Devastating.
Thesaurus moment:
stoic.
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