SHABAZZ PALACES

Exotic Birds Of Prey (Sub Pop)

Ismael Butler, who was in Digable Planets many moons ago, continues to beam in hip-hop from distant galaxies with Shabazz Palaces. This mini-LP is a companion piece to Robed In Rareness, which dropped barely six months ago, and you can expect more of the same from these seven tracks – squelchy P-funky synths, slowed trap beats, reverbed or vocodered mantra-like vocals, ghostly keyboards – plus an array of distinctly leftfield guests.

Exotic Birds Of Prey, with Purple Tape Nate, stealthily creeps under your skin, and Myths Of The Occult, featuring Japreme Magnetic, is over in under two minutes. I can envisage the atmospheric and largely instrumental Goat Me soundtracking a mystical scene in True Detective, something contrasted by the hyperkinetics of the guitar squall and frantic beats on Well Known Nobody.

The closing six minutes of Take Me To Your Leader is a portentous vision of 80s electro from another realm, where Ismael throws a heap of studio effects at Lavarr The Starr. If you’re looking for evidence that aliens are here, start with Shabazz Palaces.

words CHRIS SEAL