CD, Audiotrauma, 2008
www.myspace.com/lediktat
In all honesty the first I heard of this act was a collaboration album with Babylone Chaos and Lambwool. Le Diktat stood head and shoulders above the crowd on that release, an immediate talent I couldn’t ignore. Safe to say I really wanted to hear more straight away.
Lucky for me “Unabomber” dropped through my letterbox and it is quite simply one of the most ‘hip’ (for want of a better word) albums I have heard in, absolutely, ages. Fusing elements of dark trip-hop, industrial, electronica, breakcore and drum’n’bass, Le Diktat are fundamentally excellent from the start. There really are no half measures on this album at all, and this French duo are really hitting the nail exactly on the head from the word go. “Unabomber” is straight up 21st century, pure Modernism, and the perfect album to commit a riot to. There is a heavy urban feel to this CD; it’s on the streets, it’s completely grounded in the grass roots of the city at its grimiest. It rises above the seedy alleyways and post-Modernism with a vengeance, raising its clenched fists and calls for you to let go of the shackles of the drudgery that pollutes this scene.
The flow of this release is nothing short of perfection, a consummate genius of a journey through the underbelly of society at its darkest. Clever manipulations of classic sounds flow throughout the blistering distorted beats. Heavy guitars, and even sampling of Lisa Gerrard in her Dead Can Dance days are allowed to slide through the relevant slick bass lines and undeniable groove that hooks you in like a salmon lost in fresh waters.
Le Diktat are fresh, they are here and once heard it’s blatantly obvious that this is an injection this diseased riddled industry needs right now. I never give a ten out of ten, but this was so close it was sorely tempting. Utterly the most essential album I have heard in ages and cooler than an Eskimo’s nadsack.
[9.5/10]
— Tony Young