Seattle’s biggest buzz finally releases details about their debut album on the legendary Sub Pop label. According to the bio on the Sub Pop sight, Black Up (I know, we love it too) is recorded in “Lixx-alog by Blood.” So far, this has been a bit of a head scratcher out there in the blogosphere (do you hate that word too?). I can most definitely reveal that Blood is our very own pal Erik Blood who produced my own track toward the end of last year. And it’s VERY different from that song, and just about everything else Erik has touched in the last decade. Black Up will be released on May 31st, 2011. From the Sub Pop blog:
Black Up is the new sonic move from Shabazz Palaces. Like rich velvet hijabs or gold threaded abayas. Luxury as understood by the modest. Shabazz Palaces. If Bedouins herded beats instead of goats and settled in Seattle instead of the Atlas Mountains, this would be their album. Forward thinkers but nostalgic for a sparer time when ancient astronomers only recognized five planets. Hip hop. Black light uses electromagnetic radiation to eradicate microorganisms, but shabazz didn’t come to kill a sound, just to shine their own incandescent lamp on this. Hear. Hard and clear. Fifty thousand years in the making. Honorable.—palaceer pink gators. Produced by Knife Knights.plcrs at Gunbeat Serenade Studio in Outplace Palacelands. It was recorded and mixed in Lixx-alog by Blood.
Well, that’s a lot to digest, and so is the record. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of hearing this record in the production stages, as well as the final result. I can also reveal that it is a major game changer. Sub Pop is an obvious fit – they’re a local label with universal appeal. In Seattle, you can’t escape the (deserved) hype surrounding Shabazz Palaces. When I listen to it, I hear something more along the lines of WARP records. I’m not going to attempt to describe it; the bio kind of lays it down perfectly. It’s out of this world, and I truly believe Erik when he says it may very well rip a hole in the universe. I’ll give a track by track synopsis closer to the release date. But all I can say for the time being is – TRUST!
Download the exclusive album track “An Echo From the Hosts that Profess Infinitum” after the jump. Black Up will be released on May 31st, 2011. Erik Blood is in the final stages of recording his second album.
