Earlier this month, the pioneering Harlem indie-rap duo Cannibal Ox unexpectedly announced a Brooklyn comeback show following years of inactivity. Now, Billboard reports that the duo is working on a new record for 2013, as well as a full tour.

The new album, to be released next year via Iron Galaxy Records, will mark their first since 2001's landmark debut The Cold Vein, which was produced by El-P and released on his Definitive Jux label. (El-P is no longer working with Cannibal Ox.) The duo's Vast Aire told Billboard, "We just needed the timing to be right. Vordul and I make music all the time... We always wanted to make another full-length, but... we weren't gonna be peer-pressured into doing it."

They've got "a couple of songs now," Vast Aire said, "but we're gonna zone out when we get back from tour," which will take them to Boston and the West Coast in January, in addition to the December 9 date at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. "We're just making the rounds," Aire said, "letting everybody know we're still here, getting things busy." Vast Aire is also writing a book, The Asiatic Calendar, about "spirituality and the origins of man," according to Billboard.

With regards to Cannibal Ox's new music, Aire said it will continue "that raw, gritty, spiritual, intellectual, futuristic New York [sound]... it sounds progressive, but it sounds old at the same time." They're working with the producers Bill Cosmiq and Melodious Monk. "We're gonna challenge you to think about the inner city differently," Aire said. "We're gonna challenge you to think about the government, the country, religion, crime... all of these elements, we're gonna force you to think about differently."

Watch the video for "Painkillers" off The Cold Vein: