People these days don’t seem to understand that hip-hop is much more diverse than the stoopid shit you see on MTV, when it’s showing music videos, that is. Its palette is deep and wide, and gets as experimental as any other genre when it is at its best. Speaking of its best, the new Dalek album is out at last. I review it for Metromix.
Dalek
Gutter Tactics
[Scott Thill, Metromix]
Dälek have scaled back the squealing walls of guitar that punctuated “Absence,” but haven’t erased them entirely. On “Gutter Tactics,” bangers like “Who Medgar Evers Was…” and “No Question” form dark, growling foundations for MC Dälek’s cultural criticism. The six-strings peek out loudly on the title track, and fuse with synths and noise on the entire album, which offers up tempos mostly foreboding and threatening. Things brighten up on the airy “We Lost Sight” or fracture weirdly on “A Collection of Miserable Thoughts Laced With Wit,” but one thing is clear: “Gutter Tactics” is not for the faint-hearted dumb-hop fan.
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