Shabazz Palaces – “Take Me To Your Leader” (Feat. Lavarr The Starr)

Stephan Gray

Shabazz Palaces – “Take Me To Your Leader” (Feat. Lavarr The Starr)

Stephan Gray

Last year, Shabazz Palaces, the Seattle art-rap institution led by Digable Planets veteran Ishmael Butler, released Robed In Rareness, a short album that included a lot of collaborations. This month, they’ll follow that record with Exotic Birds Of Prey, a new effort that fits into the same category. We’ve already posted the early tracks “Angela,” with Stas THEE Boss and Dust Moth’s Irene Barber, and “Myths Of The Occult,” with Japreme Magnetic. Today, we get another new Shabazz Palaces track.

The new song “Take Me To Your Leader” is a psychedelic six-minute synth-funk meditation. This kind of spaced-out electro inevitably recalls Kraftwerk, Egyptian Lover, and the primordial Detroit-radio soup that eventually led to the birth of techno. The track is billed as a collaboration with Lavarr The Starr, a mysterious artist who released an album on Ishmael Butler’s Glass Cane label last year. According to a press release, though, Lavarr The Starr is actually a Butler alter-ego, which makes sense. Listen to “Take Me To Your Leader” below.

Exotic Birds Of Prey is out 3/29 on Sub Pop.

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