Quote:
I think we’re moving forward further and further into the
back of our minds,†reflects producer okt0pus, one half of
hip-hop duo dälek (pronounced dial-ekt). With the group’s
fifth album, Gutter Tactics, dälek has closely packed
intensity with consistency, rallying banks of saturated grit
over the fractured insistence of New Jersey’s boom-bap bricks.
“Our debut EP Negro Necro Nekros and From Filthy Tongue of
Gods and Griots were about us starting out, sometimes getting
sounds more than songs,†says okt0pus. “Absence was the book
on how extreme you could go. Abandoned Language had more
ambient moments, and was the end of that chapter of writing it
all either heavy or mellow. Gutter Tactics is more us
continually doing some early hip-hop ~love~ but with the
attitude of the Melvins or Black Sabbath.â€
Not that dälek has ever been anything but hip-hop, even as the
group claims contemporaries from Techno Animal to Mobb Deep,
Kevin Martin’s the Bug to Isis. A group whose intense lyrics
would clear the air even as its sonic density threatened to
clear the room, dälek has spent a decade-plus voraciously
consuming leftfield influences and spitting out sonic
altercations that have seen the group garner tremendous
European support even as dälek stays true to its members’ East
Coast origins.
“I’ve always just said that it’s hip-hop, because that’s my
culture - everything I do is hip-hop,†says dälek, the group’s
namesake MC. “And more than that it’s a philosophy on how
music is made, it’s the philosophy of diggin’ through crates
to find sounds you make your own regardless of genre. Afrika
Bambaataa sampled Kraftwerk, while we draw on the essence of
Faust, or My Bloody Valentine...â€
For Gutter Tactics, however, dälek drew from more than just a
cultural, spiritual and philosophical home. Having spent the
last two years building a commercial studio by hand, the group
similarly constructed Gutter Tactics from the ground up on
newly minted home turf, surrounded by patch bays of analog and
digital means located just outside the Lincoln Tunnel in Union
City.
“Since I started my ‘studio’ was always my bedroom, and now I
live nine blocks away from the space,†says dälek. “There is
no rolling out of bed and working on ~love~ right there, but I
like the fact that I need to motivate. I was always making
beats constantly, but it’s nice to have that provision - 1000
square feet of playground that inspires me to work even
harder.â€
Once the beats were collected, okt0pus invited members of the
group’s Deadverse massive into the studio, laying down sample
banks of ghosting tones from musicians such as Destructo
Swarmbots, recorded while tweaking effects live to erase any
human performance element. Absence could be equated to a Glenn
Branca aggregation of harmonic mêlées and atonality pushed so
far it verges on pop, and Abandoned Language approached a
British-style hypnotism of encompassing more than overly
aggravated passages. The 11 tracks of Gutter Tactics, however,
work off the immediate grid, lyrics and loops informed by
arena-ready dynamics and electronic addling. The sound marches
forward even as it pays tribute to a time when Gang Starr fans
wore Bad Brains t-shirts and the Bomb Squad could make Slayer
seem childish.
Old school compression tricks were then used to slam the ~love~
out of signals, driving things into the red, getting sludge to
keep it from being empty, soulless, overly focused. “I’d
rather have that David Lynch lighting - shadowy,
claustrophobic, but shoved with detail,†says okt0pus.
“This album isn’t pummeling you, though,†observes okt0pus.
“It’s got that heavy, but it takes a few listens to realize
just how substantial it is. We were guilty in the beginning of
having everything so focused and compressed, and this record
shows you can still be loud and retain the room dimensions
that make records really great to hear.â€
Lyrically, the socio-politically minded Gutter Tactics is
equally measured and insurgent. “I don’t make records for
shock value ... this is a collection of who I am at this point
and what I see around me, so it’s a dark album, full of anger,
maybe some fear, and also hope. It’s the state of the world
where I, where we are at right now. I just think in America
it’s not always as safe to speak truth anymore. So, while our
music may be abstract, I want the thought process to be more
straightforward.
“Except maybe this album’s title,†concludes dälek. “Instead
of having an absolute meaning the title ‘Gutter Tactics’ is
about the overall feel. It’s an album that’s raw, heavy, but
full of clarity
Gutter Tactics (2009)
http://rapidshare.com/files/174499850/DA-GT.rar
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