Reviews

Shabazz Palaces

I never really examined how I listen to music. It should be pretty straightforward, right? Press play. Listen. Like/dislike. Every now and then discus/argue merits/failings with like-minded enlightened individuals/deluded philistines. Alternative hip-hop group Shabazz Palaces seem fairly set on doing away with such a simplistic attitude. You know, Shabazz Palaces. Oh you don’t? Well you’re not alone, and it appears that’s the way they like it. Digable Planets member Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler, aka Palaceer Lazaro has returned to Seattle with unknown collaborators for ‘Black Up’, and that’s pretty much all the information they’re prepared to relinquish. Like an exhibition with no captions by the artwork, one suspects Shabazz Palaces want you to have an uninformed and raw response to their art.

My first reaction on listening to ‘Black Up’ was fairly cynical. I think the word ‘pretentious’ might have popped into my head (judgemental? Moi?). And yet as soon as it had finished playing I immediately played it through again. I couldn’t put my finger on why, but there was something nagging at me to listen again. And as I listened again (or maybe for the first time) I started to understand. Shabazz Palaces have served up a gourmet taster menu for the ears so densely crammed with aural delicacies that it’s impossible to partake of without indulging oneself. Tracks shift unnervingly between themes, beats and samples, and at times there is a slight sense of disappointment that we’re not allowed more time to savour them. Rather than a criticism, it seems a very conscious decision by the artists to never let the listener settle, to constantly hold their attention. And therein lies the nature of ‘Black Up’. It’s the tie that’s not quite straight, the only book upside down in the bookcase or the kid in the school photo looking the wrong way. It appears designed to keep you off-balance. There is a sense of deconstruction, and a refusal to conform to repetitive nature of strophic form song structure.

‘Free Press and Curl’, the album’s opener creeps and slips along on a jarring, reverberating high end beat over which is draped a wailing sample, which then transitions into what could quite easily be another track. The hauntingly distorted vocal samples are a feature Shabazz Palaces utilise several times throughout ‘Black Up’, and this evokes a ritualistic and ceremonial ambience, such as on the echoing production of ‘Recollections of the Wraith’. They also demonstrate a diverse range of influences. The smoky underground jazz club conjured up by the smouldering ‘Endeavours for Never…’ drapes a languid arm quite easily around the Dilla-esque ‘Are You… Can you… Were you? (Felt)’ a lush, soulful track, its short piano loops sitting on a bed of distorted strings.

This is not an album that one can readily define, and as much as I’ve tried, words don’t really do it justice. If you like music to challenge and engage you, music that will make you listen as opposed to just hear, then listen to this.

Words: Leo Bennett

‘Black Up’ is out now on Sub Pop.