Hear Dälek’s Noise-Rap Return LP, ‘Asphalt For Eden’

Noise-rap pioneers Dälek have cut a singular path over 18 years and seven albums. Mixing the searing political rhetoric of Public Enemy, the suffocating shoegaze textures of My Bloody Valentine and the primal appeal of squealing industrial noise, they were perpetual underdogs, hopping around rock and metal labels and opening for bands like Tool and the Melvins before going on a quiet hiatus in 2011. However, last year, MC Dälek returned to a landscape where noisy rap music was thriving both online and off: Death Grips are a Coachella hot ticket, Odd Future built a small empire on opaque grime, Clipping is signed to Sub Pop and Kanye West dropped a full-on Rick Rubin-assisted industrial-rap opus, Yeezus, in 2013.

Asphalt for Eden is the group’s latest album, their first in six years and first for extreme metal label Profound Lore — you can hear the whole thing below before its April 22 release date. MC Dälek, DJ Rek and intrepid noisemonger Destructo Swarmbots create a tornado of gorgeous-yet-venomous Screwgaze squall where rhymes about the rash of police killings fight for space. Rolling Stone caught up with MC Dälek about the underground’s recent noise-rap Renaissance.

Are you finding that there’s a new audience for noisy rap music right now?
The nicest surprise is that we still have people that saw us back in ’99 or whatever coming out to shows but, understandably, a lot of those people aren’t really going to shows anymore. The cool thing is we’re getting a lot of new fans, man. I’ve gotten a lot of kids coming up to me afterwards being like, “Yo, I never thought I’d get to see you play live. I’ve been a fan for a long time.” Just hearing that and seeing the new faces and the new energy, that’s invigorating, man.

The crowd at your last New York show was especially amped. Was that surprising to you?
I mean somewhat. To be honest with you, I really had no idea what to expect from starting up Dälek shows again. I was hoping this would be the case. I think the climate of music is more geared towards us now. Music, top to bottom, seems to blend genre a lot more than it did when we started. Just like even the world of “noise rap,” quote unquote, there’s more bands doing what we did back in the day.

Do you feel like you’ve been telling people for years and now they’re finally listening?
You know, music is funny like that, man. I remember when we were working on the Dälek/Faust album, Joachim [Irmler] from Faust, we recorded at his house, at the studio in Germany. We were drinking bottles of red wine and just chilling and just working on shit til like four or five in the morning. I remember him telling me like, “You remind me of Faust. You will make great music, but you will never make any money.” [Laughs.] I was like laughing, and I was like, “That’s the best and worst thing anyone has ever said to me.”… We made those steps early on and there really wasn’t a scene for us. No one really knew where to categorize us. And I don’t think that’s really changed. I think, at least, there’s more of a conversation now. We make sense in a lot more places than we did in the past. It’s nice to see that time’s catching up with us, I guess.

And now you seem to be jumping around heavy metal labels, going from a Hydra Head record to Profound Lore.
It’s not like we’ve ever been on a hip-hop label, you know? [Laughs.] I mean honestly, I’m more concerned about the people that run the label and how they run their label and how they treat their artists. And Chris [Bruni] reached out to us, just interested on putting out something by Dälek. Initially we pitched him the idea of an EP and he was completely into it. So the fact that halfway through the process we were like, “Oh, by the way, it’s going to be an album now,” and he didn’t even blink — that’s the kind of label we want behind us. That’s willing to deal with our crazy asses and just willing to put up with our nonsense.

Speaking of not being able to fit anywhere, there’s always stories about the bands who end up opening for Tool and then have to deal with their audiences.
[Laughs.]