Listen to the glorious return of Seattle’s premiere avant-rappers, Shabazz Palaces, above. The track, “They Come In Gold,” is the first from Shabazz’s new LP Lese Majesty, due out July 29th. The tune is an ominous banger that slowly melts from a hardened swagger into the spacey, cerebral jazz that local hip-hop/art crew Black Constellation has all but trademarked. Lead MC Ishmael Butler has lost none of his esoteric charm:
“Sanity, a visage of my wealthLost but always found before the idols that I’ve kneltStrategy, the only way to cryKeep it do or die and always think in terms of IReverie, some legend futures pastRevelry, instead for it renders hella fastCapitol, a sound that’s on the riseIt’s slaking unrealized until essence has been razedSepulcher, a stage enlived by ghostsFloating off with bags of the blood encrusted dough.”
Any chance “Capitol” could refer to “Capitol Hill?” People have certainly been arguing that the neighborhood’s “essence has been razed” as of late.
Structurally, the album innovates on the typical pop record format. Lese Majesty is composed in seven “suites” that collectively comprise a total of 18 songs:
Suite 1: The Phasing Shift01 Dawn In Luxor02 Forerunner Foray03 They Come In GoldSuite 2: Touch & Agree04 Solemn Swears05 Harem Aria06 Noetic Noiromantics07 The Ballad of Lt. Major WinningsSuite 3: Palace War Council Meeting08 Soundview09 Ishmael10 Down 155th in the MCM SnorkelSuite 4: Pleasure Milieu11 Divine of Form12 #CakeSuite 5: Federal Bureau Boys13 Colluding Oligarchs14 Suspicion of a ShapeSuite 6: High Climb To The Gallows15 Mind Glitch Keytar Theme16 Motion SicknessSuite 7: Murkings On The Oxblood Starway17 New Black Wave18 Sonic Myth Map For the Trip Back
Between the excellent new track, the inventive structuring, and the fact that the group premiered the album in Pacific Science Center’s laser dome, color us stoked. Also, apparently the record will be embossed in shark skin. Well played, Shabazz Palaces. Check out the group’s statement on the album below:
Herein bumps and soars Lese Majesty, the new sonic action of Shabazz Palaces. Honed and primal, chromed and primo. A unique and glorified offering into our ever-uniforming musical soundscape. Lese Majesty is a beatific war cry, born of a spell, acknowledging that sophistication and the instinctual are not at odds; Indeed an undoing of the lie of their disparate natures.
Lese Majesty is not a launching pad for the group’s fan base increasing propaganda. It is a series of astral suites of recorded happenings, shared. A dare to dive deep into Shabazz Palaces sounds, vibrations unfettered. A dope-hex thrown from the compartments that have artificially contained us all and hindered our sublime collusion.
These reveries were sent to Palaceer Lazaro and Fly Guy ‘Dai in the year of gun beat battles in excess; In a succession of days, whilst walking in dreams and in varied transcendental states….(every minute of every day is filled with observation and composition. In action). Songs are committed and gathered by robots at Protect and Exalt Labs, a Black Space in Seattle, Washington.
The visual features of Lese Majesty are resultant of the gleanings of fellow Constellationaire, Nep Sidhu.
The Black Constellation squads up, protects and exalts the messages within, and colludes accordingly. We thank you.
