Last week, I got to hear a sneak preview of Shabazz Palaces’ just mastered full-length debut* for Sub Pop. The listening party circled Greenlake in Shabazz manager Jonathan Moore’s neatly appointed ride (after he had deemed the sound system at Officials Vintage in Fremont, where we’d met, not quite up to the task of showcasing the album’s impressive sonics). In a way, this seemed fitting–the first time I heard Shabazz’s EPs was rolling around the city at night in The Seattle Times music critic Andrew Matson’s car, and where those EPs felt mysterious, raw yet sophisticated, dark, sparkling with wordplay like downtown lights on wet streets, and with bass-heavy beats just made for a good car stereo, this new one is all that but with an added level of leather-seat plushness. Not “glossy” or overproduced, and not lacking for sinister bite or disorienting aural invention–just bigger and richer.It’s hard to adequately describe Shabazz Palaces’ music even with months of repeat listening and ruminating on your side, let alone with one spin of the album, feeling too immersed in it to even remember to take notes. Plus, the release is still months away. So while I won’t attempt to break it all down at this early stage, I will try to give some impression of what to expect from this week’s show–and beyond. What I remember from that car ride: Shabazz’s “usual” out-of-this-world bass, chanted anti-choruses, dislocated jazz, and hip-hop and poetry, one track whose sole percussion sounded like Tendai Maraire rattling a heavy chain, the serene singing and rapping voices of THEESatisfaction on at least one track, and even some brief ambient moments that could almost qualify as “chillwave” (no Rain in England). Shabazz has another mind-blower on its hands; this will almost certainly be the most exciting and left-field album Sub Pop puts out this year (although I would be happy for them to surprise me–a Head and the Heart/Wolf Eyes collab, maybe?), and it stands every chance of being the best record that will come out of Seattle this year full stop. Shabazz Palaces return to Neumos, the site of their legendary Seattle debut, this Thursday with THEESatisfaction, and it’s a safe bet they’ll be debuting some of the new material. Do. Not. Miss. This.*Although, in my mind, I always link 2009’s two EPs, Shabazz Palaces and Of Light, into one awesome full-length album.