| Dälek

Back in the day, Dälek (pronounced dialect) and the Oktopus met at William Patterson University. The O, learning that Dälek made beats at his home studio offered to help him engineer his nascent tracks at his growing studio, Sweetwood Sound. Since a creative mind is a terrible thing to waste, Dälek later dropped out of Patterson, cashing in his college loan checks to pick up his first MPC 3000 - turning what began as an experiment into one of the most inventive hiphop records the world will ever hear.

The duo's first album, 1998's Negro, Necro, Nekros (Gern Blandsten) caught the attention of critics around the world and established Dälek as risk takers and flag bearers for a new generation of hiphop. The five track full length (clocking in at under 39 minutes) debuted the group's eclectic musical force. Blending elements of Faust's over the top noise, the Velvet Underground's grit, shoegazer rock density, innovative arrangements, prophetically insightful lyrics and hard hitting drums, they came up with something truly rare in any musical genre: a sound that's hard, honest and unique. This record showcases a group dedecated to breaking conventions and totally unconcerned with conforming to them.

By Autumn of '98, the young group made yet another uncommon move in the hip hop world by committing themselves to a ceaseless, DIY touring ethic which they maintain to this day. It was on the road at a college show that the group met Still. He impressed them by jumping up during their sound check and improvising a 15 minute set on the turntables. While Dälek and the Oktopus are consistently pushing the limits and expectations of the sampler as a musical instrument, Still spends most of his time recreating how audiences hear turntables. Alternately pulling out old school cuts or making the turntable sound like a guitar, a violin, or a wall of white noise, Still aims to be equal parts Grandmaster Flash, Jimi Hendrix, and Merzbow rolled up in one hell of an afro.

Over the next few years, the group captivated audiences across the board opening for such varied groups as De La Soul, EC8OR, ISIS, Prince Paul, DJ Spooky, The Rye Coalition, Lovage, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Pharcyde, Techno Animal, Tomahawk, Funkstrong, and The Roots (to name a few). And that before we start on their studio and on-stage collaborations with Avant-Garde Jazzartists like William Hooker and Ravish Momin, to electronic artists like Kid606, Velma, and the legendary Krautrock super-group Faust.

By summer 2002 they were ready to release their second full length album, From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots, this time on Ipecac, the record company owned in part by Mike Patton. It was around this time that they also released their collaboration with Kid 606 on the Kid's tigerbeat6 label. They returned to Europe at the end of 2002 and continued to turn heads across the continent. Upon returning to the US, the group teamed up with The Melvins and Grandmaster Flash for an extensive tour, before finalising their landmark collaboration and release with Germany's krautrock legends Faust, then they hit the studio hard again! Fresh from all this excitement dälek are now back with their third and most sonically challenging full length to date, Absence. Expanding their sound and pulling from their influences, Absence recalls the best parts of Public Enemy and the Bomb Squad, the street poetry of KRS-1, the raw beats of Gang Starr and Mobb Deep, and the fearlessness of the avant garde, like Glenn Branca, My Bloody Valentine and Penderecki.