Here's the long-awaited first track to be unveiled from Shabazz Palaces' lush, dizzyingly brilliant new full-length, Lese Majesty. Not necessarily the most representative track on the new record, "They Come in Gold" kicks off with the kind of diamond-hard beat and ominous flow that made Black Up the best album of 2011, but the comparison with the last record ends there. When taken out of the context of the new album, only the song's brighter, prismatic second half begins to hint at the impossibly deep, singular astral landscape the group has created on Lese Majesty:

It's tough to remain objective when Shabazz Palaces visionary/Palaceer Ishmael Butler has been my favorite rapper since like '93, but it's pretty thrilling to hear him making some of the most vital sounds we've ever heard in any genre more than 20 years later. After countless hours spent driving around bumping the new record, we'd agree with those that heard it for the first time dodging lasers that Lese Majesty is the future of hip-hop, if we thought that anyone else was capable of doing something this revelatory. Lese Majesty is out July 29 on Sub Pop, but you can cop "They Come In Gold" now on iTunes. UPDATE: pre-order the limited 2xLP "Loser Edition" of the album on purple vinyl here.

SHABAZZ PALACES :: LESE MAJESTY

Suite 1: The Phasing Shift
01 Dawn In Luxor
02 Forerunner Foray
03 They Come In Gold

Suite 2: Touch & Agree
04 Solemn Swears
05 Harem Aria
06 Noetic Noiromantics

07 The Ballad of Lt. Major Winnings

Suite 3: Palace War Council Meeting
08 Soundview
09 Ishmael
10 Down 155th in the MCM Snorkel

Suite 4: Pleasure Milieu
11 Divine of Form
12 #Cake

Suite 5: Federal Bureau Boys
13 Colluding Oligarchs
14 Suspicion of a Shape

Suite 6: High Climb To The Gallows
15 Mind Glitch Keytar Theme
16 Motion Sickness

Suite 7: Murkings On The Oxblood Starway
17 New Black Wave
18 Sonic Myth Map For the Trip Back