Album Review: Shabazz Palaces - Lese Majesty

Psychedelic rap was never meant to be MCs spitting about Martians and talking sneakers. It was meant to be Shabazz Palaces.

A woozy, disorienting, slightly sinister sonic adventure, Lese Majesty is the 2014 equivalent of Sandy Bull’s 1963 alt-classic, Fantasias For Guitar And Banjo. The Palaces’ first full-length, Black Out, was similarly hallucinogenic. This second record might have been a little tighter. The opposite is true. Via the buzzy Noetic Noiromantics, the somewhat accessible #CAKE and the aptly-named Motion Sickness, it’s a journey deep into our subconscious and back. Turn on, plug in and drop out.