It's a shame that such a vanguard effort is weakened by a few clever and jokey interludes that don't warrant a return, but that just leaves Shabazz Palaces room for a proper masterpiece as the brilliant Lese Majesty is so very close.
The production is closer to a Nicolas Jaar or James Blake than anything hip-hop is toying with at the moment. It’s innovative, it’s slippery, and it’s bound to piss off a lot of purists.
Lese Majesty is Butler’s most extreme refusal of the hip-hop status quo, boasting erratic instrumentals and subtle shit-talk toward haters subverting the canon.
It’s really quite beautiful. Comprised of seven “astral suites”, Lese Majesty feels closer to an electronic symphony movement than a conventional album. It’s also what makes it a “grower”.
Lese Majesty feels more now, than then. In mirroring and transcending the schizoid, rootless form of digital society, it's an attempt to help people cope with the culture.
The phrase Lese Majesty is exactly what you can expect: an album that is a facetious laugh at, an immersive soundscape of, and a beatific spit-in-the-face toward, traditions.
The production and the layering — from the future tribal drums to the misty bass plucks and the pulsing guest vocals of THEESatisfaction’s Catherine Harris-White — is what people are going to connect with right away.
For their encore full-length, Shabazz Palaces let a little fresh air and whimsy slip into their dense mélange of whispered rhymes and slack-jawed space beats.
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.
Lese Majesty has a real 'feel' to it, each song is perfectly placed to the next. It is a record to indulge in, one melting synth note at a time.
Lese Majesty has no hits to speak of, nothing you could easily extract and stick in a radio slot, which is kind of the essence of this album. It's a piece, an installation of sound and thought.
Shabazz Palaces deserve credit where it’s due for building their sound outward; if Black Up established their status as hip-hop outliers, then Lese Majesty solidifies their place in the pantheon of rap’s oddball geniuses. Long may they reign.
I haven't heard anything like Shabazz Palaces before, in hip-hop or in any other genre. They're taking hip-hop in an odd, scary, innovative and exciting direction, and I like it.
‘Lese Majesty’ is not a difficult record. It’s just one with the confidence to reject tired old models and build its own future logic, and the result is mysterious, spiritual, and funky as shit.
Shabazz Palaces are certainly strange, and their willingness to strike out for new territory – even when it means abandoning things that worked for them in the past – is admirably ambitious.
His dazzling feel for 21st-century psychedelia pushes this well past nostalgia tripping – and while the verbal abstraction gets thick, there's serious pleasure in plumbing it.
The celestial vocals of Palaceer Lazaro layered over exquisitely non-traditional production from Tendai Maraire make Lese Majesty one of the most unique projects of 2014.
At points, over-ambition causes them to lose focus, but at a sprawling 18 tracks, even the less invigorating moments drift by pleasantly.
This is a record that can pendulum swing from an ether-effect (‘Harem Aria’) to a romantic lull (‘Noetic Noiromantics’). There are no rules. That’s the point.
Shabazz Palaces’ sophomore release, is an album i always wished i would’ve loved. It’s a complete departure of the jazzy yet glitchy sound, that most associated with them. The instrumentals have a electronic sound going for them, that I actually really enjoyed. They’re bold and erratic in all the best ways. But a lot of the time Ishmael’s delivery and tone wouldn’t pair well with them. I also found the subject matter and song concepts, so much harder to ... read more
I consider Black Up to be one of my favourite albums of all time, but unfortunately Shabazz Palaces haven't made anything that has made me justify them as being consistent and worthwhile artists, and Lese Majesty unfortunately isn't an exception to this case. The weirdness and abstract nature is most certainly here, but great portions of the album are either boring or unlistenable. But I have to give it to them, this is unbelievably weird and I have no clue what they're ever on about with their ... read more
It’s cool from a production perspective, actually some of the better experimental hip hop ideas I’ve heard there. The rapping is nonsensical in an annoying way to me, it like stained the listen for me. Maybe this will grow on me in the future but for now it’s like cool beats and uncool rapping
Palaceer Lazaro is our vocal guide to crevices of the universe untouched, in a way mirrors of a world familiar and in others a construct all Shabazz Palaces' own.
Quelques bons sons mais globalement ça reste de l'xp sans saveur. On a "Motion Sickness" ou "Solmen Swears" qui viennent remettre l'église musicale au milieu du village de la branlette du rap intello mais c'est vraiment pas assez.
1 | Dawn in Luxor 3:56 | 90 |
2 | Forerunner Foray 3:48 | 100 |
3 | They Come in Gold 3:22 | 95 |
4 | Solemn Swears 1:32 | 80 |
5 | Harem Aria 1:58 | 100 |
6 | Noetic Noiromantics 1:35 | 93 |
7 | The Ballad of Lt. Maj. Winnings 1:42 | 65 |
8 | Soundview 0:40 | 63 |
9 | Ishmael 4:35 | 75 |
10 | ...Down 155th in the MCM Snorkel 2:12 | 60 |
11 | Divine of Form 0:39 | 65 |
12 | #CAKE 4:02 | 82 |
13 | Colluding Oligarchs 2:09 | 80 |
14 | Suspicion of a Shape 1:41 | 70 |
15 | MindGlitch Keytar TM Theme 1:22 | 75 |
16 | Motion Sickness 3:49 | 85 |
17 | New Black Wave 3:43 | 65 |
18 | Sonic MythMap for the Trip Back 2:08 | 80 |
#1 | / | Gorilla vs. Bear |
#7 | / | The Wire |
#14 | / | Passion of the Weiss |
#16 | / | Slant Magazine |
#18 | / | Pretty Much Amazing |
#26 | / | Flavorwire |
#28 | / | Sputnikmusic |
#32 | / | FACT Magazine |
#32 | / | The Guardian |
#35 | / | Pitchfork |