Mega Dälek & related groups (iconⒶclass, Deadverse Massive) post for New Year

This morning I was looking in Discogs for Arvo Part's early 1960s USSR recordings, since I have got some good unexpected money. Unfortunately the prices were too high for me to afford, but I laughed because Discogs lists 666 Arvo Part releases. And think that Arvo is the closest I get to Christianitty during Christmas and Easter, since I usually play chants of his to my students.

At my dear friend Samuel's request, here's a - hopefully - comprehensive discography of one the greatest hip hop groups of all time, Dälek, plus some related projects involving MC Dälek - Will Brooks. I have already expressed my love for the dense industrial and experimental rap innovations Dälek have offered, so I won't really go into great  detail, and without further ado, here we go.

1998 - Negro Necro Nekros (Gern Bladsten)




2000 - Techno Animal/Dalek -  Megaton/ Classical Homicide (Matador)



2002 - Dalek vs Dalek 7" (Music Is My Heroin)



2002 - Kid606 vs Dalek - Ruin It EP (Tigerbeat 6)



2002 - From Filthy Tongue Of Gods And Griots (Ipecac)




2003 - Dalek vs Velma 12" (M:Narsitik)



2003 - Faust & Dalek - Nummer 3 (Bomb Mitte)



2004 - Faust vs Dalek - Derbe Respect, Alder (Staubgold, Klangbad)



2005 - Dalek / Oddateee split 7" (Delboy Records)



2005 - Absence (Ipecac)



2005 - Dalek vs Zu 7" (Psychotica Records, Wallace Records)



2006 - Streets All Amped 12" (Ad Noiseam)



2007 - My Education vs Dalek spit 12" (Thirty Ghosts Records)



2007 - Abandoned Language (Ipecac) - their absolute masterpiece and one of the five best hip hop albums of all time



2007 - Dälek / Destructo Swarmbots / Oddateee ‎– Deadverse Massive (Public Guilt)



2007 - Deadverse Massive Vol. 1: Dälek Rarities 1999-2006 (Hydrahead)



2008 - Dälek vs. Ifwhen ‎– Hear Less / No Good Trying (Claire's Echo)



2009 - DJ Baku vs. Dälek ‎– DJ Baku vs. Dälek (Daymare)



2009 - Gutter Tactics (Ipecac)



2010 - Untitled (Latitudes)



2010 - The Young Gods And Dälek ‎– Griots & Gods - Les Eurockéennes Festival de Belfort (Two Gentlemen Records)



2016 - Molten (track)



2016 - Asphalt For Eden (Profound Lore)



2017 - Endangered Philosophies (Ipecac) - here's my original post



2019 - Respect To The Authors 12" (Exile On Maistream) - here's my original post



iconⒶclass

The solo project of Will Brooks after the breakup of Dalek. Not as experimental and challenging but highly enjoyable and dark too

2011 - For The Ones (Deadverse Recordings, Drugfront Records)




2011 - I Got It EP (Deadverse Recordings)



2015 - Changing Culture With Revolvers (Deadverse Recordings)




Deadverse Massive - Takeover (2010, Deadverse Recordings) - project featuring several Dalek associates, mainly Oddateee, DLEMMA, Skala and Gym Brown, which was written and produced by MC Dalek

Dälek ‎– Respect To The Authors 12"

One year and a half after hip hop giants Dälek's true return to form with Endangered Philosophies, they return with a new 12" that showcases some of their more relaxed material. There's an increased dub atmosphere in the beats and the sounds here, and a very ambient feel, pretty similar to their greatest masterpiece Abandoned Language, but with a denser, darker and more industrial-urban approach. It's a great new recording by one of my favorite groups of all time, regardless of any genre. 2019 12" on Exile On Mainstream Records.

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Dälek - Endangered Philosophies cd (2017, Ipecac)

 

The demise of experimental hip hop pioneers Dälek after Gutter Tactics was surely grievable but it made sense since that album sounded a very mediocre follow-up to the masterpiece that 2007's Abandoned Languages was. I was thrilled that MC Dalek decided (after some cool shit, slightly more conventional rap stuff he did with IconAclass) to revive the group in 2016, albeit without DJ Oktopus, who was important in the group's signature noise/ambient-inflected hip hop, but with Mike Manteca of Destructo Swarmboots and DJ Rek. However, the returning album Asphalt For Eden still didn't quite manage to hit the spot, something that Dälek had managed to do successively with each album up to Abandoned Languages. So, when I read that they were due to release another one this year, I didn't become instinctively aroused. Mistaken was I. When I heard a couple of tracks on the group's bandcamp, it became evident that Dälek has now got back to form. The beats are both hard-hittingly slow and head-movingly rhythmic, the electronics have finally achieved the psychedelically beautiful ambient atmospheres of Abandoned Languages while also retaining the more industrial and noise greyness of earlier albums like Absence. On "Battlecries" there are some supreme horn sections and other noises sounding like a train derailment that provide the sense of a noir bar next to a train station. Definitely one of the highest points for one of the most important hip hop groups of all time. 2017 cd on Ipecac.

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