With Black Up, legendary rock label Sub-Pop have not only lost their hip hop virginity, metaphorically-speaking, they've gone tantric, releasing one of the most innovative rap offerings so far this year. It’s all the work of Shabazz Palaces, a Seattle-based trio fronted by Ishmael “Butter” Butler, previously of Cherrywine and the Grammy-winning jazz-rap outfit Digable Planets. There are nods to Butter’s musical past in tracks like the Flying Lotus-esque ‘Yeah You’ – which splices jazz percussion and brass with glitch-laden R&B – but mostly the outfit favour beds of murky electronics, brutal bass lines and claustrophobic, distorted lyrical flows. Highly impressive.