Dälek - Brilliance of a Falling Moon (2026)

More Dälek can't be bad. I love their old-school, smart, heavy, dark and combative hip-hop. But I'm still being a bit disappointed by Brilliance of a Falling Moon. It's a good album, but won't be remembered as among their most inspired ones, sounding a bit too much more of the same. I feel they played it safe on this one. Their recent collab with Charles Hayward was more interesting and better. I hope they will challenge themselves more for their next one. That being said, a less memorable Dälek album is still better by far than almost any other hip-hop album.

 

The BC page. 

 

HAYWARDxDÄLEK (2025)

This album is a collaboration between English drummer/composer (here also playing keyboards) Charles Hayward (This Heat, Camberwell Now) and American MC/producer Will Brooks aka dälek. Overall this is amongst the most minimalist/atmospheric works from dälek, and also amongst my favourites. The dreamy atmospheres are great, and the drumming brings more variations than usual beats. I love the overall feel of the album, and I think its more instrumental nature makes the vocals more impactful, making it sound always very deliberate, controlled and to the point. This combination will make some of the tracks classics amongst dälek already full of masterpieces discography. Between the word and the drum, Breath slow, As children chant, are totally awesome. A great collaboration, a great album, highly recommended! 

 

The BC page. 

 

Dälek - Precipice (2022)

Five years after the last album Endangered Philosophies and three after the last EP Respect to the Authors, alt/noise/gaze rap duo Dälek are back with Precipice (and back with Ipecac records). Long time collaborator and guitarist Mike Mare/Manteca replaced Oktopus since Asphalt for Eden, and Precipice is maybe where his shoegazing guitars are the most prominent, bringing a strong melancholic feel to the album. But everything that made up the Dälek sound is present, old school and smart rapping, boom-bap beats, subtle sampling and production, heaviness. Precipice is a worthy addition to their extraordinary discography. Recommended! 

The Bandcamp page.

 

Dälek - Respect to the Authors EP (2019)

Respect to the Authors is the new Dälek release (on Exile on Mainstream records), a six tracks EP. It provides a nice sample of their trademark sound, old school MCing and beats over some shoegaze / indus / noise atmospheres, with some moments more strong on the groove and rhythm (especially the really good title track) and some others more on the nostalgic atmopsheric side. Nothing surprising if you know them, but really good stuff as usual.

Dalek's Deaverse website page.

Anguish - Anguish (2018)

Wow! Anguish is an awesome collaboration for an awesome result. You have the Will brooks, aka MC Dälek, Mike Mare, guitarits/keyboardist in Dälek, Mats Gustafsson on sax (who recently collaborated with Chaos Echoes, read my review HERE)with his drummer form the Fire! orchestra Andreas Werliin, and Hans Joachim Irmler on synth from the legendary krautrock band Faust (who already collaborated with Dälek). This is a very promising association and the album does not disappoint. It does sound like what you could expect from a Dälek/Gustafsson/Faust collaboration and that's a good thing, no real surprise, but a great result with the heaviness and groove from Dälek the weird trippiness from Faust and the free/noise both raw and trippy from Gustaffson. If you like at least one of the artist featured you probably will like this album. And if you know none of them that will be a good discovery. This album will enters easily in my list of favourite album's for 2018 that I will soon post on this Blasting Days. Mandatory listen.

The Bandcamp page.

DÄLEK - Asphalt for Eden (2016)

Seven years after its previous album, Gutter tactics, Dalek is back with this Asphalt for Eden surprisingly released by Profound lore (and why not!). DJ Octopus is not in the band anymore but the classical Dalek sound is still there, maybe it's just closer to the more classical boom-bap sound of the other MC Dalek project Iconaclass. But it's still boom-bap with heavy beats and a big dose of dark and melancholic noise / shoegaze atmosphere and classy samples (even tough I miss the free jazz ones from their old releases...). So it's maybe a more traditionnal hip-hop album but since the production is still really good and keeps the specific Dalek sound, and since MC Dalek is doing great on the mic (good flow and good lyrics) I won't complain. Not my favourite Dalek album but still far better than most hip-hop release and an album than I really enjoy listening to. 

The BC page.