dalek: Absence
dalek
Absence
Ipecac
More than the Anti-Con axis, DJ Spooky or the output of the Def Jux label, dalek seem to confound the stereotypes which might characterise a rap act. Ironically their Avant-Garde Heavy Metal Hip-Hop fusion was nearly once a generic mainstay in the musical cosmos in the form of groups like The Disposable Heroes of Hiphopracy or The Beatnigs. Reaching back one might assign Public Enemys raw-edged fusions as their ur-text. In this sense dalek are somewhat like the Dodo of modern Rap, anomalyous owing to the extinction of their fellow creatures. Even so, as the MCs who collaborated with Faust, they must have set some new benchmark for the improbable.
dalek are quick to write off "mainstream" Hip-Hop as using "cookie-cutter beats" and as such their backing rhythms demand attention. Certainly on tracks like "Distorted Prose" and "In the midst of Struggle" the lyrics are hard to disinter, as though they were limbs poking out of the rubble. Poetic impressions are therefore fleeting and almost subliminal, revealing themes such as distrust of organised religion and of anger at urban oppression. Their "beats" have frequently drawn comparison with the music of My Bloody Valentine, albeit with a sepulchral twist. While MBVs feedback served to elate, engulf in a rhapsodic blizzard and depict amorphous utopias, daleks is definitely in the order of a pollutant reflective of the urban environment.
The group profess to relish intensely negative reactions to their music, and indeed there's precious little in the way of light entertainment about "Absence", the nearest thing to a hook is the (blink and you miss it) rising and falling scratched tone at the end of "Eyes to form Shadows", the only rests from the testosterone maelstrom in the "eye" of "Koner" (presumably a tribute to the eponymous Thomas) and "Absence", drone interludes of steely intensity. Their incredibly masculine music attempts to enculture a physical reaction somewhere between a the archetypal Hip-Hop "head nod" and head-banging, though actually stunned discomfort might be their more typical reception.