Shabazz Palaces is Ishmael Butler (Digible Planets) and Tendai Maraire, and their Lese Majesty was easily the most spun record on the Third Man office turntable in 2014. Our admiration reached new heights when we had the honor of hosting the Seattle-based duo for a live performance and direct-to-acetate recording in our Nashville Blue Room last year. In Third Man consigliere Ben Swank's own words, "Shabazz Palaces' obstinately original oeuvre emanates from a fully formed higher conscious, they plant their flag in the outermost realms of the hip hop global soundscape where vibrations throb into beat-heavy explorations, chrome covered constellations of higher reveries each offering its own sonic boom."
Ishmael and Tendai announced recently that they will be supporting Radiohead on their upcoming LA dates, and the group released a new video featuring footage from the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA's Johnson Space Center, and the Hubble and Cassini space missions for their track "Dawn In Luxor" just last week. We agree... you'd better go ahead and watch...
We've all waited too long to relive this superlative performance, so it is sincerely our pleasure to announce that this live LP will be available to spin on your turntable (and on ours) next Friday, June 3rd. Pre-order your copy now.
Listen to "Youlogy" below...
Just to say—I love this album/show. It’s not quite like any other.
im hiding over here for now…chat is just a ball of ‘not today thanks’ and it made me think of what i wanted to share here…. i am so glad TMR had this show and so glad Shabazz Palaces is working hard to dig us out of this 7 generations of mayflower indentured servitude music that is flooding the airwaves…. im not interested at being at war with anyone no matter how badly they want to offer me that option… this stuff is a breath of fresh air amidst the self congratulatory world of pop goes the teen idol…. bring it on in the most intricate of ways TMR … nothing better to be doing here… sadly
they’re cool like that…
At last!!!
I’d love them even if they weren’t called Ishmael and Tendai.