Mega Dälek & related groups (iconⒶclass, Deadverse Massive) post for New Year

This morning I was looking in Discogs for Arvo Part's early 1960s USSR recordings, since I have got some good unexpected money. Unfortunately the prices were too high for me to afford, but I laughed because Discogs lists 666 Arvo Part releases. And think that Arvo is the closest I get to Christianitty during Christmas and Easter, since I usually play chants of his to my students.

At my dear friend Samuel's request, here's a - hopefully - comprehensive discography of one the greatest hip hop groups of all time, Dälek, plus some related projects involving MC Dälek - Will Brooks. I have already expressed my love for the dense industrial and experimental rap innovations Dälek have offered, so I won't really go into great  detail, and without further ado, here we go.

1998 - Negro Necro Nekros (Gern Bladsten)




2000 - Techno Animal/Dalek -  Megaton/ Classical Homicide (Matador)



2002 - Dalek vs Dalek 7" (Music Is My Heroin)



2002 - Kid606 vs Dalek - Ruin It EP (Tigerbeat 6)



2002 - From Filthy Tongue Of Gods And Griots (Ipecac)




2003 - Dalek vs Velma 12" (M:Narsitik)



2003 - Faust & Dalek - Nummer 3 (Bomb Mitte)



2004 - Faust vs Dalek - Derbe Respect, Alder (Staubgold, Klangbad)



2005 - Dalek / Oddateee split 7" (Delboy Records)



2005 - Absence (Ipecac)



2005 - Dalek vs Zu 7" (Psychotica Records, Wallace Records)



2006 - Streets All Amped 12" (Ad Noiseam)



2007 - My Education vs Dalek spit 12" (Thirty Ghosts Records)



2007 - Abandoned Language (Ipecac) - their absolute masterpiece and one of the five best hip hop albums of all time



2007 - Dälek / Destructo Swarmbots / Oddateee ‎– Deadverse Massive (Public Guilt)



2007 - Deadverse Massive Vol. 1: Dälek Rarities 1999-2006 (Hydrahead)



2008 - Dälek vs. Ifwhen ‎– Hear Less / No Good Trying (Claire's Echo)



2009 - DJ Baku vs. Dälek ‎– DJ Baku vs. Dälek (Daymare)



2009 - Gutter Tactics (Ipecac)



2010 - Untitled (Latitudes)



2010 - The Young Gods And Dälek ‎– Griots & Gods - Les Eurockéennes Festival de Belfort (Two Gentlemen Records)



2016 - Molten (track)



2016 - Asphalt For Eden (Profound Lore)



2017 - Endangered Philosophies (Ipecac) - here's my original post



2019 - Respect To The Authors 12" (Exile On Maistream) - here's my original post



iconⒶclass

The solo project of Will Brooks after the breakup of Dalek. Not as experimental and challenging but highly enjoyable and dark too

2011 - For The Ones (Deadverse Recordings, Drugfront Records)




2011 - I Got It EP (Deadverse Recordings)



2015 - Changing Culture With Revolvers (Deadverse Recordings)




Deadverse Massive - Takeover (2010, Deadverse Recordings) - project featuring several Dalek associates, mainly Oddateee, DLEMMA, Skala and Gym Brown, which was written and produced by MC Dalek

Danish String Quartet - Prism II: Beethoven / Schnittke / Bach

On this second installation they start with Bach's "Fugue In B Minor BWV 869," continue with Alfred Schnittke's unsettling "String Quartet No. 3" and finish with Beethoven's lengthy "
String Quartet No. 13 In B-flat Major." Excellent again. 2019 cd on ECM.

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Danish String Quartet - Prism I: Beethoven / Shostakovich / Bach

Some music for the Xmas dinner. I find the concept of Danish String Quartet's Prism albums very interesting, as they start and finish them with tracks by Beethoven and Bach which envelope another, more modern composer. In this first installation, they set off with Bach's "Fugue in E-Flat Major" from The Well-Tempered Clavier and continue with Shostakovich's "String Quarter No.15 in E-Flat Minor," which is super-dark and droney (written juts a year before his death), with the violins occassionally sounding as if they had been played with an e-bow. They round the recording off on a much more optimistic tone with Beethoven's "String Quartet No. 12 In E-flat Major." DSQ is a talented group with great dialogue between the instruments and I think they are one of the most forward-looking classical music groups at the moment. 2018 cd on ECM.

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Avishai Cohen / Yonathan Avishai ‎– Playing The Room

Avishai Cohen's previous album on  ECM Cross My Palm With Silver was excellent and in this new collaboration with pianist Yonathan Avishai he continues offering beautiful nightly jazz. I love his trumpet tone, he is very close both in accent and feeling to Chet Baker, and I dig that there are no Euro-jazz elements, the ones that ECM keeps releasing and I keep avoiding,but there are huge blues undertones, reminding of Keith Jarret's best moments. Excellent album, highly recommended. 2019 cd on ECM

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Stefan Jaworzyn ‎– Eaten Away By Shadows

Impressive early experiments by master guitar torturer Stefan Jaworzyn dating from 1982-1983. Guitar noise, bleak industrial with the awesome murk of early Throbbing Gristle and the metal banging of early SPK. Must hear insight into the starting world of one of the innovators of noise music. 2013 on Shock.

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Matt Lajoie - The Accidental Eye

Mind-blowing ambient folk guitar experiments by Matt Lajoie. 2017 tape on Early Music.

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Xqui - Elemental

Xqui always manages to end the year with a superb release. In this third full-length, which is dedicated to the chemical elements, he seems to have foregone of most "musical" features (beats, guitars, voices) present in his previous - and stellar - Capitulate, and focusing instead on the most elemental aspects of his work. In other words, this cd is dominated by creepy subdued ambient sounds with a very lo-fi quality (be reminded that Xqui works mainly with mobile phone apps), which accentuate what I have called his urban Lovecraftian atmospheres. Everything sounds as if it has been extracted from basements, underground tunnels, manholes, and there are also several howling voices, offering a ritualistic and menacing feeling. Only the last track, "Vanadium," has a more musical approach, sounding like a noise string orchestra. Xqui never disappoints, so go now to his bandcamp, and get the last remaining copy of this excellent year finisher. 2019 cdr on Wormhole World.

Xqui's bandcamp
Wormhole World's bandcamp

Serfs- Moon Mellowed River

Serfs was the guitar duo of blog-loved artists Jon Collin and Tom Settle, playing a more playful version of Jon Collin's deep psychedelic ambient folk, with a more electric and jammy feel to it. 2012 tape on Golden Lab Records.

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Sarah Hughes, Jon Collin ‎– Washington DC, 11 April 2019

Wailing, mourning psychedelic ambient jazz folk by Jon Collin - the true successor of early-Pink-Floyd David Gilmour - and alto saxophonist Sarah Hughes. Highly recommended. 2019 cdr on Early Music.

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Jordan Perry, Jon Collin ‎– Charlottesville, 10 April 2019 cdr

The expected beauty created by Jon Collin's ambient folk guitar coupled here with Jordan Perry and recorded live. 2019 ddr on Early Music.

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The Dogmatics - Chop Off The Tops

Second  excellent album of macabre atonal jazz exploring the limits of music space and clarinet potential by The Necks' Chris Abrahams and Kai Fagaschinski. 2018 self-released LP.

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