Dälek has today dropped their new single titled ‘The Essence’ via Ipecac Recordings. Hip-hop is a genre that begs experimentation along with interpretation. A lot of the contemporary artists forget this slight but important fact. Dälek delves into it head first and emerges signature and sound with feet on the ground and fists in the air, demanding a listen.

‘The Essence’ chugs along, anthemically, throughout, with no chance to gasp for air. Hard core to the core with each lyric feeling like a call to arms as much as anything poetic. History is not as happenstance, but as ourstory.

About ‘The Essence’

The experimental hip-hop pioneers are currently in the studio working on their follow-up to Precipice and have given fans a taste of what’s to come in this new single.

Dälek: “’ The Essence’ is a window to where Mike and I are at right now. We quite literally took it back to the essence on this joint. Straight up me on the MPC 3000 and Mike on processed guitar, playing off of each other as we created the track. Lyrics and flow are central to the joint and dictate the direction of the production and how we sculpt the arrangement.”

“As always, there are layers to the meaning, but I also wanted to be crystal clear on what I was spitting. There are minimal to no overdubs. We somehow kept the heavy ‘wall of sound’ feel but stripped away superfluous layers to just the parts and pieces that were needed to complete this as a ‘dälek’ song. This is just a taste of what is coming.”

The lyrics of “The Essence” are full of defiance and energy, something that the band will no doubt bring to their live shows: “We had civilizations interconnected throughout history/Our art and architecture composed with sacred symmetry/I’m seeing these past lives vividly/Refuse to let them kill our joy wit bigotry.”

About Dälek

Forged in the fires of the East Coast underground music scene of the late ‘90s, experimental hip-hop pioneers dälek have spent the past two decades carving out a unique niche fusing hardcore hip-hop, noise, and a radical approach to sound. Their brutal sonic temperament pushes rap music’s capacity for noise and protest to exhilarating conclusion. Following in the footsteps of Public Enemy, while drawing influences from My Bloody Valentine and Faust, dälek have succeeded in adding completely new textural and structural dimensions to rap music.

Since forming in 1997, Union City, N.J., the two-piece outfit has released seven studio albums and a collection of rarities/singles. Rolling Stone dubbed their music “ground-breaking,” Pitchfork said the pair have “fulfilled hip-hop’s potential to exist in an alt/underground/experimental universe while staying true to its roots,” Decibel called their work “immediate and visceral,” and Magnet noted how they “continue to blur genre lines.”

Dälek live 2025

  • May 20th – Berlin, DE – Neue Zukunft
  • May 21st – Vilnius, LT – Kirtimai Cultural Center
  • May 22nd – Tallinn, EE – Paavli Kultuurivabrik
  • May 23rd – Helsinki, FI – Sonic Rites Festival
  • May 24th – Budapest, HU – Instant-Fogas
  • May 26th – Prague, CZ – Palac Akropolis
  • May 27th – Brno, CZ – Kabinet Muz
  • May 28th – Vienna, AT – Flucc

LINKS:
https://dalek.lnk.to/essence
https://dalek.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/daleknwk
https://www.facebook.com/dalekmusic
https://deadverse.com/