We know it’s Monday but allow us to cast some more gloom over things, just to keep you on your toes. New Jersey experimental hip-hop act dälek have released a new track off their first album since 2009 – the murky, strung-out Guaranteed Struggle.
Mike Patton of Faith No More gave dälek their first underground break in 2002 on his Ipecac Recordings, and From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots was a real rap outlier – frazzled electronics, rusty metallic beats and shoegaze walls of sound put through the wringer.
After four albums, MC dälek and producer Oktopus split without fanfare in 2010, but dälek resurfaced at the end of last year with the track Masked Laughter (Nothing’s Left). Now a trio, MC dälek is joined by Mikey Manteca (Destructo Swarmbots) and DJ rEk. As an aside, we once saw Destructo Swarmbots supporting dälek in Glasgow in 2003 – with Manteca’s performance basically turning all the amp knobs up to 10 and battering his guitar until all the strings broke. Bring the noise.
Back to the present – Guaranteed Struggle, which premiered on Noisey, is a tension-filled taster of their upcoming album Asphalt For Eden, with a fuzzy two-note bassline that sticks in the gut, and fear-inducing dissonance under MC dälek’s insistent flow. As a bonus, the video of synchronised balaclava-clad clumsy dancers is strangely hypnotic.
Asphalt For Eden is out next month.
Moo Kid 