Dälek Gutter Tactics

• Words: Brigid Moore
• Label: Ipecac
• XLR8R Rating: 6/10

With its fluctuating sound, industrial-strength avant duo Dälek has often been hailed as an ambient group destined to change the face of hip-hop. Are they still the same genre-changing outfit? Their style has certainly changed once again, this time resembling angry shoegaze tinged with turntablism and experimental beats. Politically charged lyrics infuse the music with a certain energy, but many of them are lost in hard-to-ignore production tactics that leave certain verses all but inaudible underneath the album’s guttural beats—(“No Question” is a particularly difficult listen). Although digging beneath the layers of raw sound just might yield something solid, Gutter Tactics is nothing that will transform the future of hip-hop.