State of Emergency: Dizzcock’s AL

Published September, 2014
by Easterndaze

Whereas in his other project, Lightning Glove, the sense of urgency and pervasive feeling of impending omen, was created largely via the lyrics of his brother, the editor of one of the few proudly modern left-wing Czech magazines A2larm Jan, Ondřej makes a statement on his new solo record via the sonic. Apart from the anodyne “This is an emergency” sample in the second track, though the rolling bass professes this with heightened sense of paranoia. 

Though my favourite are probably the atmospheric and languid two versions of The Call. Slow with a gradual build up, an anticipation of a digital storm.

His debut solo album AL was inspired by the 90ties computer game System Shock, which offers a pessimist version of the future, where technologies enslave humans. 

The release comes out on the label he co-founded, called Red For Color Blind, and apart from original tracks, also encompasses remixes by Czech and international artists, including Gnod’s Dwellings, the grime producer Filter Dread as well as Czech projects Střed Světa and Space Love, who strip the source material off its inherent darkness and replace it with their own idiosyncratic quirky touches – in case of Střed Světa, resulting in a manic lysergic voyage which he commands like the Wizard of Oz. 

“The message is in the nature of how the theme was processed. It has a certain narrative, it is tribal, bass-driven and futuristic, at times grime-like,” says Ondřej Bělíček aka Dizzcock. “In grime music, futurism looks into the future, which thanks to technology, escapes the doom and gloom. On my album, it is the other way, it is a futurism, which is dystopian. Technology enslaves you,”