DALEK - Gutter Tactics (CD)

For Gutter Tactics Dalek 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, 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 melees 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.