>1. Ishmael Butler and music partner Erik Blood have a new
>album out on Sub Pop that seems to have flown under the radar,
>at least in my world. None of my top three local record shops
>had it in stock and it's not because it sold out. They just
>never carried it. I just discovered it this week (face palm
>emoji) and I haven't listened to it yet.
>https://megamart.subpop.com/releases/knife_knights/1_time_mirage

The story behind this album is interesting. I find it odd that the tracks state "feat. Shabazz Palaces" since Ishmael is half of Knife Knights and half of Shabazz Palaces. Maybe it's a legal/publishing thing?

"...Butler wanted Shabazz Palaces to stand on its own strength, not his outsized reputation, so he adopted a nom de plume for himself. As the project’s network expanded, though, he needed new monikers for his partnerships. Knife Knights is the name he gave to his work with Seattle engineer, producer, songwriter, and film composer Erik Blood, a vital force in the Shabazz Palaces universe. Now, after more than a decade of collaboration and the development of a rich friendship, Butler and Blood have made a proper full-length record together as Knife Knights: 1 Time Mirage, an eleven-track odyssey that finds the pair and a cast of their friends weaving together a singular world of soul and shoegaze, hip-hop and lush noise, bass and bedlam."

A recent interview with Ish via Pitchfork: https://pitchfork.com/levels/from-digable-planets-to-knife-knights-the-many-faces-of-ishmael-butler/