Struny podzimu 2017
Seattle-based duo Shabazz Palaces have been credited with taking hip hop to places it had never previously been. Dense and highly sophisticated, their work has been described as 'thrilling music that seems totally without precedent' (The Guardian). Poetic, sometimes mystical lyrics mesh with nuanced electronica, African percussion, and jazz overtones to create a sound that unsettles even as it compels.
More performances within Struny podzimu 2017:
Shabazz is the brainchild of Ishamel Butler, a one-time member of early-'90s jazz-tinged hip-hop outfit Digable Planets, in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Tendai Maraire, whose father was the acclaimed mbira maestro and scholar Dumisani Maraire. With their debut album, 2011's Black Up (released on Sub Pop records, a label more closely associated with the likes of Nirvana and the grunge scene), Shabazz Palaces served notice that something interesting was happening in hip-hop: eschewing the bragadoccio and heavy-handed beats favoured by many of their contemporaries in the genre, it instead featured minimalistic, unpredictable soundscapes: other-worldly synths, tribal drums, and fragmented beats, the perfect backdrop for Butler's impeccable, easy-going flow and intelligent, provocative lyrics.
If Black Up saw Shabazz Palaces establish themselves on the 'audacious progrssive fringe' of hip-hop (New York Times), 2014's follow-up Lese Majesty pushed the envelope even further. Featuring eighteen songs grouped into seven suites, it finds Ishmael's vocals often serving as an additional instrument, distorted and reverb-drenched: the lyrics at times unintelligible, at others cutting through the murk with a stab of insight. With its sometimes jarring changes of time signature and single-minded inventiveness, Lese Majesty was a fearlessly uncommercial album, but it was roundly praised by critics, and Shabazz Palaces audience continues to grow. It is perhaps fitting that Radiohead, rock's great experimenters, invited Shabazz Palaces to support them on their 2016 US tour.
For those who want to experience the future of hip-hop, or even put aside any notions of what 'hip hop' even is, Shabazz Palace's Strings of Autumn concert is not to be missed.
http://www.shabazzpalaces.com/
Struny podzimu 2017: http://strunypodzimu.cz
