Shabazz Palaces – Exotic Birds of Prey (2024) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Shabazz Palaces – Exotic Birds of Prey (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 23:01 minutes | 474 MB | Genre: Hip-Hop, Rap
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sub Pop Records

Shabazz Palaces release two new mini-albums, Robed in Rareness and Exotic Birds of Prey. Shabazz Palaces is masterminded by Ishmael Butler (Digable Planets), whose relentless drive to reimagine hip-hop – even as he enjoys his fifth decade on Earth – remains undiminished. Exotic Birds of Prey furthers the modus operandi of Robed in Rareness: a respectful eye on the past, an embrace of an ever-evolving present, with its feet firmly planted in the future. Where Robed warped sounds like shoegaze and ambient music into the Shabazz Palaces multiverse, Exotic cross-pollinates these elements with twisted electro and funk vibes.

Mystifying and disorienting in all the best ways, the seven-track release Exotic Birds of Prey serves as a companion piece, continuation, or addendum for Shabazz Palaces’ 2023 EP Robed in Rareness. Like its predecessor, Exotic Birds of Prey is a collision of futuristic hip-hop, sci-fi synth tones, freaky computer funk, and waves of shoegaze noise, all congealing in wobbly beats. Officiated as always by Shabazz Palaces mastermind Ishmael Butler, these tracks manage to employ a bevy of different styles as they quickly rush by. The material can be as straightforward as the alien rap track “Myths of the Occult” featuring Japreme Magnetic or the throwback electro flavor of danceable closing track “Take Me to Your Leader” (a song that’s part Kraftwerk, part Drexciya, part P-Funk), but it can also be as incoherent as the barely form-keeping bass bumble of “Angela.” “Well Known Nobody” turns up the tempo to drum’n’bass levels, with a raging beat and delay-covered vocals that blast at full force but disappear in just over a minute. As with most of Butler’s Shabazz Palaces outings, Exotic Birds of Prey sounds like it’s broadcasting live from an unknown galaxy, giving us an idea of what music will sound like on other planets in the future while nodding knowingly to some of Earth’s most exciting sounds of the past. – Fred Thomas

Tracklist:
1-1. Shabazz Palaces – Exotic BOP (feat. Purple Tape Nate) (04:08)
1-2. Shabazz Palaces – Angela (feat. Stas THEE Boss & Irene Barber) (03:01)
1-3. Shabazz Palaces – Myths Of The Occult (feat. Japreme Magnetic) (01:52)
1-4. Shabazz Palaces – Goat Me (feat. Cobra Coil) (04:36)
1-5. Shabazz Palaces – Well Known Nobody (feat. OCnotes) (01:03)
1-6. Shabazz Palaces – Synth Dirt (02:07)
1-7. Shabazz Palaces – Take Me To Your Leader (feat. Lavarr the Starr) (06:12)

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