Review: Dälek - Gutter Tactics

Artist: Dälek
Album: Gutter Tactics
Rating: 4 out of 5
In a nutshell: Not your typical, polished hip-hop record

I'm a person who doesn't listen to much hip hop. No, I don't dismiss it out of my roots being a metalhead. My music taste has grown much more eclectic, yet typical hip hop has not got in into that varied mix of genres. Though there are exceptions. I admire Eminem's genius for lyricism and realism and Kanye West's gift for beats. But nothing has captivated me more than your not-so-typical rap outfit, Dälek.

Dälek - No Question




Listen to the above track, and you suddenly realise that this is a group that is not afraid to experiment outside the comfort zone of gangsta rap. Here they employ a gritty lyricism that evokes anger and narrates stories of social injustice and violence, in contrast with a genre that seems to almost willingly promote sexism, materialism and violence.

In a sense, this is hip hop at its purest. This is taking elements from different sounds and then mixing it into a melting pot, experimenting with different ideas and sonic influences.

More often than not, the grit and the poetry here are one and the same. Its anger is its beauty, its political dissatisfaction a vehicle that moves along its sonic, dream-like journey. Dälek's verses are inventive and intelligent, and in The Oktopus's (the producer) musical vision of trauma and doom, it becomes an epic commentary of American hypocrisy.

Gutter tactics indeed.

Signing out

Over and out

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Now playing: Dälek - 2012 (The Pillage)
via FoxyTunes