REVIEW: SHABAZZ PALACES – BLACK UP

Shabazz Palaces
Black Up
Sub Pop

Shabazz Palaces‘ début album Black Up forms something of an unusual release for the label Sub Pop. Famous for their early support of grunge acts such as Nirvana, the label’s latest signing is an enigmatic hip-hop collective fronted by Palaceer Lazaro, formerly known as Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler, a member of 90′s hip-hop group Digible Planets. As Sub Pop’s opening shot into the world of hip-hop it is a hell of statement, a bold and wonderfully eccentric release that looks set to become an esoteric hip-hop classic.

Drawing on influences that extend far beyond their contemporaries, Shabazz Palaces have crafted an eclectic style that recalls elements of Sun Ra, Kool Keith and Company Flow. They are progressive to the point that the term afro-futurist seems to have been invented for them, sampling clattering jazz and placing it against the wobble of dubstep bass. There is a strong whiff of the psychedelic about the album, from the watery phased vocals on Yeah You to the eccentric song titles: I’m no expert, but calling a track ‘A treatise dedicated to The Avian Airess from North East Nubis (1000 questions, 1 answer)’ may indicate some form of drug use.

The most striking thing about Black Up is how it manages to be simultaneously dense and minimalist at the same time. This may sound like a fallacy, but the song structures are harmonically sparse affairs – abstract to the extreme – and yet placed against this is the kind of bass designed to flatten buildings. In Youlogy, the album’s mid-point, the low-end is so gloriously extreme that it manages to swallow the first half of the song. Fragments of jazz, lazer-synths, and the aforementioned Jericho-levelling bass; the formula is fairly similar throughout, though not to the album’s detriment. Against the by-numbers beat-making that seems to preoccupy hip-hop albums at the moment, it’s refreshing to have something this hyper-kinetic to play with.

Shabazz Palaces seem to divide their vocal duties between a male MC – presumably Palaceer Lazaro, though the album credit’s are sparse – and a female singer. Both put in some pretty strong performances, the MC’s delivery recalls Philadelphia-based Spank Rock in tone and timbre, whilst the singer soars over the musical chaos beneath her. There’s a pleasing use of time-stretched vocals in Recollections Of The Wraith; it’s as if the song surface is being pulled taut to reveal the workings underneath.

Shabazz Palaces have a solid début in Black Up, something that delivers on the multi-form promise of their preceding EPs. They are not the first rap group to apply their model of eclectic psychedelia, in many ways they follow a penchant for the weird in hip-hop set out by innovators such as the late, great Rammellzee, or the Ultramagnetic MCs. However, Shabazz Palaces are charismatic and innovative enough in their approach to render Black Up a compelling listen. Placing the likelihood of commercial success aside, this will stand as one of the best hip-hop releases of the year.

Words: Andrew Spragg

Filed under: Electronic, Hip-hop, Reviews by D.K.