Dalek - Negro, Necro, Nekros EP
MusicMash Rating: not rated yet
Pitchfork Media Rating: 8
When bread and cookies go stale you get croutons and biscotti; when hip-hop music
goes stale you get a whole bunch of crappy hip-hop. Too bad stale hip-hop doesn't
make biscotti, too. I mean, new Starbucks Coffee locations sprout globally by the
hour-- I'm sure they could use barges of the almond-flavored coffee coral. Alas,
what we're left with is an endless stream of chest-beating, mizzspell'd,
booty-grabbin' one-hit wonders, and cousins of one-hit wonders. Glittering,
diamond-encrusted ghettologos splayed across poorly Photoshoped album covers
make the Billboard one-week plummets from #1 to #67 more spectacular. Invigorating,
fresh hip-hop, on the other hand, is a Christmas blessing.
Dälek busts rhymes not for pinky jewelry and Japanese sports utility vehicles.
Negro, Necro, Nekros, his debut, comes from the New Jersey micro-indie
Gern Blandsten, a label best known for releases by mod-poppers Chisel and a royal
flush of spectacular post-hardcore groups. Their logo is a pedestrial 'please do
not litter' logo, not a platinum tank or cartoon tommy gun 'n' blunt. But despite
these punk roots, Dälek could fit quite nicely on the Mo'Wax label. And anybody
that digs DJ Shadow should immediately log on to their preferred Internet CD shop
of choice and pick this up. Now. No need to convince you further.
Of course, Dälek is not merely a shadow of Shadow. Sitar, bells, piano, porch
guitar; obligatory, ancient, for-a-nickle jazz vinyl; film scores and distant
strings gurgle from scratches and loops. The atmosphere is rich and hazy, and
Dälek's husky mumblings crawl across the layers of beats like a¤low-lyi...
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