Shabazz Palaces - Most important musical group/moment in Seattle since Nirvana at OK Hotel?

#latepass

otmfm

Also I relistened to Black Up recently and two years later it completely did my mind in

both great records that I love but rarely am in the mood to listen to.

Black Up is my favorite album of the decade so far.

^this is why I spun it again. It's prob top 3 for me now. It sounds really radical to me

yeah, this album is truly great imo

black up is 10 times better than lese. which is good but just a bit too meditative. this group need to be careful they dont become a new kind of pm dawn (not in sound, as i actually liked pm dawn, but in perception). but it is interesting how shabazz seem to get more love in non rap than in rap circles.

It's the record label

I need to listen to LM a little more before I can offer any more opinions w conviction but it kind of is like the Tree House to Black Up's Dark York, where both Le1f and SP are sort of evoking cloud rap as a way to transmute their tendencies towards abstraction into something more luxuriant and luminous, aesthetically speaking

good analogy

it is interesting how shabazz seem to get more love in non rap than in rap circles.

― StillAdvance, Wednesday, January 14, 2015 3:13 AM Bookmark

I get why, but a lot of my love for SP has to do with how artfully they capture the hyperspecific context of being a black Seattlite. Moreso on Black Up than LM, even if it doesn't have anything as geographically specific as the line about the fence at Ezell's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYeTod70_GE

this is what the beats on LM remind me of.

this album owns

― example (crüt), Monday, January 12, 2015 1:09 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

#latepass

― example (crüt), Monday, January 12, 2015 1:09 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

also wtf @ this thread title?

haha yes it is... unfortunate

it came from a twitter post mentioned in The Stranger: http://lineout.thestranger.com/lineout/archives/2010/01/11/shabazz-palaces-bigger-than-jimi

A few days ago I was on a date and we randomly walked past Ish chilling on a park bench eating from a takeout container by himself. My date didn't know who he was. Cool story.

would read again

does anyone really think lese is better than black up?

thee satisfaction are a tad on the corny side as vocalists/writers btw. musically theyre much more interesting.

i don't particularly care that much if black up is better, they're both good

xp

does anyone really think lese is better than black up?

*this guy*

yea they have very different vibes imo and sometimes i like the spacier more out there ambient vibe of lese, sometimes i prefer black up

i mean i still think black up is a masterpiece too!

clear some space out so we can space out

does anyone really think lese is better than black up?

― StillAdvance, Tuesday, August 4, 2015 10:53 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i actually do!

also the opening two tracks on lese are so inviting that i just think of those opening vibes and immediately feel compelled to put the record on

Ha, that's how I feel about Black Up.

ha black up is also inviting for sure.

also i have really been digging theesatisfaction's EarthEE, tried a while back and it didn't really stick but i am really enjoying it right now

EarthEE is fantastic

"lavishments of light-looking" track from WOKE, new group w/ fly lo + thundercat + shabazz - https://soundcloud.com/adultswimsingles/woke, this tune has george clinton on it too

more info

http://pitchfork.com/news/61398-flying-lotus-talks-woke-his-new-project-with-shabazz-palaces-and-thundercat/

http://www.thefader.com/2015/09/28/flying-lotus-shabazz-palaces-thundercat

in a spa or

sometimes ppl need spas

new song: https://shabazzpalaces.bandcamp.com/album/quazarz-born-on-a-gangster-star

Quazarz is out there now. kookoo good

This is a group that feels like they should be way more massive than they are. Reminds me a little bit of Animal Collective pre MWP in terms of it being a mass kept secret.

two new albums

http://www.npr.org/2017/07/06/535282090/first-listen-shabazz-palaces-quazarz-born-on-a-gangster-star

http://www.npr.org/2017/06/25/534316470/first-listen-shabazz-palaces-quazarz-vs-the-jealous-machines

think the first one's got a little oboe solo on it

or an english horn or somethin

im more into what his son's doing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzwIX4GwN8U&t=2s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzwIX4GwN8U

Keep thought leading!

The new albums are great. I feel like I'll be spending the rest of the summer unravelling them.

i like the albums but ive a feeling nothing will be as good as blackup from these guys. obv these two albums are going to take a long time to figure out, but these two sound much looser than the last two. kind of relaxed, like its just two albums from a group not really striving to do anything in particular, and releasing the results (i know theres some sort of narrative at work, but im not sure it was that sustained).

The problem with these two albums to me is that it's basically just a sketched out version of a story that was also there on Lese Majesty. But, some of the details are great. I'm not the worlds biggest hip-hop expert, has there been much talk of 'Quasars' before? It's brilliant as a concept, not a star (which were negative on Lese Majesty, too corporate, too gilded pharaoh) but a quasar, QUAsi-StellAR, star-like but in fact powered by a black hole at the center. That's kinda afro-futurism at it's finest, imo.

cuz there's no theesatisfaction thread - classic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2powgJ-7t_Y

Yes. Their second album, especially.

Is it just me or did these guys peak already? Def some interesting stuff on what they've done since but they seem to (despite the big concepts that they seem to adore) have become much more low key, like they just keep making music and putting it out, without any great game plan...

They peaked with Black Up. That is one of the top 10 best hip hop albums of the 2010s for me, nothing they’ve done after feels as concise and visionary.

Yeah, I feel the same. Also just weird that they went from black up to almost totally avoiding anything that sounded as tough. Maybe black up was an anomaly, and they approached it diff as it was their sub pop debut and after that they just went back to what's their comfort zone, kinda trippy, ethereal, stoner ish, less concrete material.

The first two EPs were pretty tough, and are still my favorite even if the production sounds kinda thin/DIY (though it works in their favor imo). Black Up sounds like the full realization of those EPs, and from there it seems like they kept getting more and more into ornate synth-psych production. I haven't kept up with the last couple tbh.