Wiki
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Release Date
5 May 2002
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Length
11 tracks
progreviews.com:
Rap trio Dälek (pronounced dialect) is something different, and you don't have to look far to see why. Just twelve seconds into From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots (after a brief piano intro), "Spiritual Healing" erupts with an explosion of noise, from which emerges a beat that has more in common with Krautockers like Can than other rap groups. Indeed, their overall sound is a bastard mix of Faust, Nurse With Wound, and My Bloody Valentine, pulling from all three to create a sound that's uniquely Dälek. Add to this Molotov cocktail politically charged lyrics half-rapped, half-spoken and you're left with one of the most innovative and distinct groups currently making music.
So how does Dälek make this all fit together? They mix the abstract with the concrete, the abrasive with the smooth. Still looking just at "Spiritual Healing," all of this comes into play. The aforementioned noise pummels the brain during the chorus, but the beat allows for a reference point, and dälek (the rapper, who is distinguished from the group by a lowercase d) raps with a flow that is smooth. In the verses, low drones and a reprise of the piano intro come into play, providing a backdrop for dälek's politically aware lyrics.
From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots never gets quite so ugly (if brilliant) again. "Speak Volumes" does create a wall of noise, but it's subtle and even beautiful. The rest of the CD is fairly similar, with varying degrees of accessibility, until it arrives at "Black Smoke Rises." There are the little gems that stand out before that, such as the haunting instrumental (though it has vocal samples) "Antichristo" and the part-beautiful, part-abrasive "Hold Tight," but largely all the songs are of even quality, neither standout (like "Spiritual Healing") nor dud. That changes when From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots reaches its clear centerpiece, "Black Smoke Rises." Except for the vocals, this song can hardly be called rap (and even the vocals drift away from what one would expect from rap). "Black Smoke Rises" is a bleak industrial soundscape that is almost formless, held together not by a stabilizing beat but by the uneasy tension created both by the white noise and dälek's simultaneously spoken and rapped vocals, particularly his repetition of the phrase, "black smoke rises to a heaven I do not know/slowly gaze to take in our sorrow/why question a life only borrowed," which I would guess laments the death and violence permeating the black community. Not easy listening at all, but a triumph of musical experimentation.
After a song that intense, the rest of the CD is bound to seem less engaging and important, but while this is true, Dälek minimizes the effect by adding touches of world music on "Trampled Brethren" and the achingly tragic "Forever Close My Eyes," another highlight of the CD. Dälek's music may not be for all, especially within the progressive rock community, but if there is one rap band that belongs within the prog umbrella, it is Dälek. From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots is a tremendous debut full-length (after their debut EP, Negro Necro Nekros), and highly recommended to all with exploratory musical tastes.
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