Shabazz Palaces

Shabazz Palaces was excellent, see them now, great stage presence. Fly Guy Dai kills the mbira and drums and Ishmael Butler's raps are like butter on a hot skillet, effortlessly smooth and furthermore well miked so you can hear his vocals in perfect clarity. Murky vocals plague a lot of great rap acts but there are none to be found here. Their new material from the monozygotic twin Quazarz albums sounds great live. It's a shame they don't perform Effeminence live as thats one of my favorites. However they perform all their best work, adding a interesting beat tangent to their quintessential song Gunbeat Falls. GO SEE THEM NOW! COMPLETE SIDENOTE UNRELATED TO HOW AMAZING SHABAZZ PALACES ARE: My only complaint about the Wednesday 21st show at the Chapel was the wonky set-times. It was slated for 7:00, but doors opened at 7:15, the opener didn't start until around 8:10, Ghost and the City, which was an underwhelming R & B act that probably sounds better in studio because the mixing was off and the singers lovely voice was swallowed up by busy synths and distorted trumpet. The next act started at 9:20. It was interminable and boring, the Mission's own GENIE, who has perhaps the most pretentious artist write up ever, as if he was thumbing through a thesaurus to find the most hifalutin possible way of phrasing his gimmicky one-note performance. Just look him up and you'll cringe out of your skin at the way he fawns over his influential guitar-scratching technique. I'm sorry but what is guitar scratching? There was no scratching, just some semi clever use of loop pedals and underwhelming guitar tapping, there is no slide guitar playing as the guitar laid flat amidst his glittery drivel-making lab would suggest, just inane guitar ramblings that occasionally break out into tired covers. He even had the gall to use the beat to "Swerve... The reaping of all that is worthwhile (Noir not Withstanding)" with a good 30 minutes still in his painful setlist. Why would you besmirch a great beat that we don't even get to see performed live? And why do you think you're engaging enough to have an hour long set? Also what he does with vocals is simply distort them to hell, like with River by Ibeyi. Anyway, go see shabazz palaces. SHABAZZ PALACES ARE EXCELLENT!

Shabazz Palaces is the duo of Ishmael Butler and Tendai Maraire (although they describe themselves as a collective) from Seattle. I’d heard Shabazz Palaces before, without realising, on a mixtape that I obsessed with for a month or two a few years back. So it was a pleasant surprise when I belatedly picked up their 2011 album ‘Black Up’ and heard ‘Yeah You’ (which had been on the mixtape). I was even more pleased to find out they’d be playing at XOYO London. I heard someone once describe their music as ‘dystopian rap’, which sounds about right. It’s driving and brooding, and has drawn comparisons with Odd Future and Flying Lotus, which is perhaps the right ballpark but Shabazz Palaces has more of a dubstep starkness about it. Anway, given the production on ‘Black Up’ I was wondering how they’d recreate that live and how much of it would be already canned. Maraire was stood behind a set of congas and part of a drum kit, as well as a drum machine set up on a table, and switched between them as well as singing backing vocals. He also played the mbira, an african thumb piano which is featured on ‘Black Up’. Butler was electric, a seasoned frontman, who from behind his rig of laptop, drum machine and effects units delivered ‘Swerve…’, ‘free press and curl’, ‘Youology’, along with a few cuts from their earlier EPs. There was none of this “put your hands in the air” nonsense, it was just the pure dark energy of the music keeping everyone moving.

Seattle's own Shabazz Palaces are now acclaimed globally for their experimental approach to the genre of hip hop. Hip hop is known as a genre rooted in conventions and traditions so people really get behind the idea of changing and manipulating it in creative ways.

This is exactly what Ishmael Butler and Tendai Maraire have been doing since forming the group in 2009. Onstage the show is a melange of African percussion and various brass instruments along with the multi-tonal vocals of the two musicians. The setlist has to be well designed as their latest album 'Lese Majesty' has a suite structure to it that is not to be broken as the tracks support each other. These then find place for music from the first album which goes over well with the fans. Although it gets confusing at times, there is still a very assured confidence in the way Shabazz Palaces conduct the live show and this receives very deserved applause at the finale.

This show was incredible! This was my third time seeing them and I can say each show I've been to has been better than the next. They perform an incredibly long set - it was almost 2 hours - weaving in a mix of new and old music. Seeing them live is like having an out of body experience the drums dance in your soul and you can't help but sway to the beats that pulse through the room. Their choreographed dancing is such a sight to see. Not to mention the bits of wisdom you pick up about life and not selling out to make a quick buck. If you don't listen to their music go and do it now. It will open your mind to different worlds.

Great they are such an uplifting and groovy duo that make filthy beats and destroy all preconceived notions of time and its signatures. Every time I see them they are better than the last. A truly magical force in today's music scene.

Beautiful location (Military Park, Newark, NJ), great ambience, good opening acts (Rome Fortune and Peter Winston Jr), but sadly the sound system failed and Shabazz Palaces only got through half of one song.

These guys are truly at the height of their musical powers and the Jazz Cafe was the perfect venue to host their unique sound and performance. A truly memorable concert experience.