Palaceer Lazaro (aka Ishmael Butler of '90s hip-hop crew Digable Planets) and multi-instrumentalist Tendai 'Baba' Marai are a formidable musical force. Working together as Shabazz Palaces they push themselves to be daring and inventive, and invite listeners to follow. Their debut album Black Up was bold, painting with a broad palette of abstracted electronic beats, instruments and obscured soul samples. The space and echo of their earlier work is amplified in Lese Majesty, taking the record into deeper orbits of astral jazz and hip hop. There's a great power and intrigue in the lyrics also. On the track Ishmael, Palaceer states "All of our stories told in codes". Some songs here are clear and direct, others have a meaning to be understood slowly through careful contemplation.