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a r t i s t: Shabazz Palaces
t i t l e: Lese Majesty
d a t e: 2014-00-00
l a b e l: Sub Pop
g e n r e: Hip-Hop
s o u r c e: CD
b i t r a t e: 841 kbps avg
e n c o d e r: FLAC 1.2.1 -8 -V
t r a c k s: 18
p l a y t i m e: 44:53
s i z e: 276.1MB
tracklist
1 Dawn In Luxor 3:56
2 Forerunner Foray 3:48
3 They Come In Gold 3:22
4 Solemn Swears 1:32
5 Harem Aria 1:58
6 Noetic Noiromantics 1:35
7 The Ballad Of Lt. Maj. Winnings 1:42
8 Soundview 0:40
9 Ishmael 4:35
10 ...Down 155th In The MCM Snorkel 2:12
11 Divine Of Form 0:39
12 #Cake 4:02
13 Colluding Oligarchs 2:09
14 Suspicion Of A Shape 1:41
15 Mindglitch Keytar TM Theme 1:22
16 Motion Sickness 3:49
17 New Black Wave 3:43
18 Sonic Mythmap For The Trip Back 2:08
releasenotes
Shabazz Palaces Sub Pop debut Black Up breathed indelible soul into the
Seattle duo s formidable style, an assemblage of chaotic grooves that spun
out, pivoted on a crafty turn, and hightailed it home along the back roads
The 2011 album cut former Digable Planets member Ishmael Butler s opaque
mysticism loose on a palette of intricate, dreamy soundscapes provided by
resident producer Tendai Maraire, sacrificing traditional songwriting
conventions like verses and choruses to sojourn to rap s frayed edges. Ish s
musings on love resonated in their leveraging of heady imagery with wizened
world-weariness; his songs triumphed in their arrangement of familiar ideas
into peculiar shapes
Rather than mining Black Up s fertile retrofuturist boom-bap further, the
group have since decamped to parts unknown. The duo s latest album Lese
Majesty boasts 18 songs grouped into seven suites, with a subtle science
fiction theme. If that sounds a bit Close to the Edge, get used to it. Lese
Majesty aims to free the group s songwriting apparatus from its trademark
purposefulness, to chart a course that zags where earlier work zoomed. While
the opening suite The Phasing Shift leads with three straight cuts in the
spirit and form of Black Up, the record doesn't stay in one place for long
From the moment They Come in Gold fades into the undulating drone of Solemn
Swears , it's clear that, for the duo, space is the place
The Touch & Agree suite is a good primer for what to expect from Lese
Majesty. Solemn Swears builds on a bed of synth pulses and a playful riff
from Ish before collapsing into Harem Aria , a disorienting romp whose upbeat
never hits where it s supposed to. Harem becomes Noetic Noiromantics
which peels a few layers back to tease a hook out of the maelstrom only to
dissipate as quickly as it congealed. Lese s individual tracks aren t so much
songs as ramshackle ideas subject to crumble or explode into something
unfamiliar at a moment s notice. The passage through these movements feels
like an itinerant drift, a conscious rejection of the methodical drive of its
predecessor
Lese s moves aren t always subtle, though; the album gets shiftier as it
progresses, dispensing with the comfort of thematic unity. The run from
#CAKE to Mind Glitch Keytar Theme flies through tribal drum vamps, Miami
bass, horror soundtrack synths, and a frayed 190 BPM house workout in just a
few minutes, ramping up the intensity before easing off it with the album
closing chillout suite Murkings on the Oxblood Starway . This is a producer s
album, constructed to showcase a versatile sound architecture the same way
Black Up highlighted Ish s way with words
Sometimes that means Ish's vocals are a tool in the production arsenal
distorted and distended rhythmic elements instead of guiding points. In Lese s
more erratic passages, Ish is content to toy around with an intriguing turn of
phrase instead of unfurling the impressionistic poetry that electrified Black
Up, but that doesn t mean this is just an assortment of chants and sketches;
Ishmael s showcases are a grounding force for a body of songs fixated on the
cosmos
L se-majest is a capital crime in stricter monarchic societies that loosely
translates to "the offending of royalty." It's an appropriate title for the
network of verses Ishmael presents here, which glibly taunt the kings of the
modern rap mainstream for slacking on the job. Questioned about Shabazz
Palaces' overarching purpose in a recent NPR interview, Ish retorted, "Make no
mistake, this is an attack," and cuts like "Suspicion of a Shape" ("All you
guys are quantized" and ...down 155th in the MCM Snorkel" ( The type of MC
you d be back then is sucka ) are rife with bile for feted lesser talents
Similar to recent albums by the Roots and Common, Lese Majesty is an
Armageddon-esque suicide mission to crash into rap's consciousness in hopes of
tipping it away from a dangerous path. While its peers have set about their
objectives this year with a staunch, unblinking seriousness of purpose, Ish is
more forgiving. The Rucker reminiscence "...down 155th in the MCM Snorkel"
recalls the days of doorknocker earrings, Dapper Dan suits, and fair ones
without pining for a time machine or hawking staid old school invective. These
aren t condescending Real Hip-Hop platitudes: this is a call to arms for
hip-hop s creative fringe to snatch the reins from a power structure more
interested in self-preservation than the advancement of the culture. The soul
of Shabazz Palaces is pairing next-gen sounds with classic brass-tacks
show-and-prove emceeing, and Lese Majesty tugs those extremes as far as
they've ever been pulled; that it never shows signs of wear speaks to the
strength of the bond
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