Out Now: "Live at Sasquatch, 2010" digital album

(photo by Dave Lichterman)

Thanks to SP facebook page for this: Just released on itunes, the entire performance from Shabazz Palaces' set at Sasquatch, 2010. The 'cover' looks like it was done by Dumb Eyes... it's sharp, so check it out here along with a sample track.
Tracklisting is this:

1 Waking Sasquatch
2 32 Leaves Dipped In Blackness
3 Gunbeat Falls
4 4 Shadows
5 Kill White T A Parable
6 Hottabatch
7 Find Out
8 100 Sph
9 W'Shappenin'
10 Chuch
11 Blastit
12 A Mess

Much has been written in praise of Shabazz live, but unless you're lucky enough to have seen them, the only clue you'd have had was the KEXP appearance, and a few youtube clips of variable quality. Now mysterious forces have brought us this stellar performance from last spring in a fertile green canyon deep within Washington state. Unsurprisingly, I'm going to recommend this purchase (it costs 8 pounds here in the UK) loudly. Not only is there a new track "W'Shappenin?" but the album songs are all presented in crystalline clarity, with cavernous bass and crunchy sparkles from the MPC all played live, varying from the album versions to the attentive listener. Avid fans will experience somewhat shallow breath and goose bumps as they hear the passionate, almost demonic energy of Palaceer Lazaro on "Find Out". Throughout, he just rips it up. The feel of the show is strange though: you really feel like these guys just beamed down from space. They don't acknowledge the crowd, much less interact with them. They opened up the festival, and what a wake up call for those thousands of kids rolling up expecting a gentle, fun intro to their weekend. Nope. Shabazz just sonically sliced them up before pulverising them with an ancient wall of sound which crashes down from start to finish. It has now become one of my life ambitions to witness "100 sph" live at a music festival, and to join/begin a riot therein. Also let me ask who you think sings at the end of "4 Shadows"... it's either Tendai, Dougie, or a sample... what a rich voice. The famous final verse of "Chuch" is enunciated to a different, modest beat, while they wisely close with the miminalistic masterpiece, "A Mess". The bass on this song is nuts. Yes, even more nuts than the studio version. The whole rig at Sasquatch must have been something to behold: birds must've been dropping out the sky. In an email to me later on that day, Ish described the sound as "crispy and solid", and noted that Tendai brought 6 drums. This decent addition to the SP catalogue draws our attentions to what's happening next spring: A new album... on Sub Pop Records. [Long sigh]