At 5pm daily, I get home from work and commence the journey to my evening denouement. Prior to putting my feet up and relaxing for the night is the dreadfully cumbersome, yet mandatory suppertime with the family. Let me explain more clearly. I have five children under the age of eight, making any meal period an extremely intense, boisterous affair. Noise fills our tiny kitchen, drowning any memorable event of the day's work. This din continues until the children hit the pillow with their heads, rendering my wife and I to breathe a much-deserved sigh of relief. And this happens daily. DAILY!
Dälek's Absence, released by Ipecac, is a perfect soundtrack to the story depicted in the first paragraph. Filled with a constant and elaborate noise, Absence is a grinding, pounding attack to the cerebral. Yet, Dälek's noise is amicably pleasurable, rendering the listener with an overblown outlook at its powerful hip-hop agilities. Following in the footsteps of its critically-acclaimed From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots, Absence pulverizes the listener, completely enveloping them with lyrical assault and musical prowess. As the phenomenon of 'Noise' continues to grow, Dälek's hip-hop style finds it in a special and deserving niche, complementing its musical approach with a fresh and unique sound while adapting it to the core roots of hip-hop. Dälek's style can be justly compared to Public Enemy's musical trickery or KRS-One's aggressive wordplay, while mutating to industrial or spacious noise. This style is best portrayed on "A Beast Caged," the standout track on Absence, but is evident on the complete album, assaulting the listener with each passing track. And as the final minutes dissipate on "Opiate The Masses," Absence's final track, all you can do is sit in awe at its grandeur.
Dälek's Absence is Armageddon, an onslaught of vivid lyrical imagery and musical supremacy. Much like my daily supper routine, noise has become an essential and mandatory part of the lives of many people. The noise I am subjected to at suppertime only reminds me of how lucky I am that I am a father of five beautiful children. Yes, Armageddon is the perfect descriptive word for my house, but again, there is splendor in its derivatives, much like Dälek's Absence, among the strongest and finest album releases of 2005 thus far.
1. Distorted Prose
2. Asylum (Permanent Underclass)
3. Culture for Dollars
4. Absence
5. A Beast Caged
6. Koner
7. In Midst of Struggle
8. Eyes to Form Shadows
9. Ever Somber
10. Opiate the Masses
More about: Dälek
