Shabazz Palaces – An Echo From The Hosts Profess Infinitum
Just released this week is this gem of an abstract Hip-Hop album from Shabazz Palaces. Aside from the music, the band is noteworthy for a couple of reasons, they are the first Hip-Hop group signed to venerable indie-rock label Sub Pop and they feature Ishmael Butler better known as Butterfly from the seminal Hip-Hop crew Digable Planets. Butterfly is now known as Palaceer Lazaro fronting this outfit, which in live performances appears to mainly be Butler at a laptop, sampler and mic with a percussionist/hype man behind him and guests. Aside from the overly long and just slightly pretentious titles of all the songs, the tracks on this album, of which “Echo” is probably my favorite, are really quite fantastic. From the inventive and surprising beats to the depth in lyricism on display. They also remind me quite a bit of the late 1990s, especially this classic from Company Flow/Indelible MCs. Expect a pairing of the two in a future radio broadcast. Definitely one of the more intriguing releases of 2011.