Dalek : "Brilliance of a Falling Moon"

This is the 10th album from the New Jersey-based hip-hoppers. Once again, they bring old school rap stylings that are in your face into collision with a haze of electronic atmosphere that almsot has more in common with trip-hop than what you typically think of hip-hop being. One thing I have always appreciated about this project is how dark and depressing what they do is. It offers a different perspective on the bleak urban landscape hip-hop is born in, with none of the ghetto fabulous excess. Surreal in its soni but more real in the overall picture it paints. 

The first song that finds a mix closer to conventional hip-hop is" Expressions of Love". That seems to be more focused on the fact that" the only answer/ is to rip out the cancer." There is a similar vibe carried over into "Substance," which is more about drug use. Whenever I hear surreal music, I normally assume they are pro-drugs, but I guess here it is contingent on what drugs are and how they affect society, when it is fair enough for me. There is a double meaning in how substance also refers to how they are rapping, so it flips onto a double meaning from the opening verses. 

"I AM A MAN' is the first song that feels like filler to me, and really the only song on this album that falls along these lines, though things are a little less straightforward for "For the People"; it does finds things finds a formulaic, droning pulse. The last song is "By the Time I get to El Salvador." Which lyrically is the most political, but it still works as it is the catchiest song as well, perhaps even the album's best track. I will give this album a 9.5; it works off of what made hip-hop great in the 90s but with more sonic depth and lyrical integrity.