Surviving as they have, Hiatus Kaiyote sound livelier than before. It makes all the hardships worth it to finally have their best album to date out into the world. This is a band who have become a family over the years – Bender was there to greet Nai Palm after her procedure even – and the completion of Mood Valiant brought the band a lot of solace and closure. The simplicity of “Red Room” doesn’t make it dull though Paul Bender’s basslines hook us in and drag us to the end, and Perrin Moss’ single drum taps are underlined by Simon Mavin’s keys for a truly democratically assembled standout. “Red Room” shows off the band’s ability to dial it back to a downtempo sway, leaning heavily into their R&B influences like Erykah Badu and Prince. All this blending of styles and genres would normally produce a big mess, but Hiatus Kaiyote have been perfecting their approach for a decade now, and as a result it comes as second nature to them. There’s nary a millisecond lost on Mood Valiant that isn’t recouped by whirlwind guitar work or a kind of gypsy punk disguised as rockabilly. Vibrant horn sections, the rawest and funkiest tribal beats, and Nai Palm’s prevailing vocals all work cohesively. Mood Valiant is the culmination of a half-decade of setbacks, but you wouldn’t realize that from the sounds this collective has produced. Every hardship that life has tossed at Nai Palm she has survived, so when she belts about “a way to get sun when your heart’s not open” on the thrilling “Get Sun”, you can’t help but feel the words ring incredible true for her. The damage felt in her quivering voice can be attributed to her drastic upbringing that found her orphaned at age 13 when her father died in a house fire – only two years after her mother passed. With her naturally soulful voice, Nai Palm evokes the likes of Aaliyah and Janelle Monae, doing so with the same zeal as Alicia Keys.
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It’s this indelible force that is felt on Mood Valiant, a record so full of energy it could power all of Australia. The rollercoaster that is cancer is powerful enough to defeat even the most resilient, but Nai Palm hopped back to Australia and went under for a life-saving mastectomy. Recording for their third record Mood Valiant halted, naturally, as Nai Palm focused on recovering from the same disease that took her mother.
But, while on tour in 2018, lead singer Naomi ‘Nai Palm’ Saalfield was diagnosed with breast cancer. It’s been a tumultuous six years weren’t easy for the Melbourne band solo records were released by just about every band member, they’ve received Grammy nominations had their worked sampled copiously by big names like Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Beyonce and Jay-Z, and even Anderson. You can check out Tawk Tomahawk on Bandcamp.It’s taken Hiatus Kaiyote a good chunk of time to follow-up 2015’s Choose Your Weapon. They've already sold out 400+ shows in their home town, so surely their star will continue to rise. This is a seriously talented group, one that will hopefully keep producing fantastic music well into the future.
You can tell from listening that this is a band completely in control of their creativity and style, with the other members possessing some impressive resumes. It's a perfect balance between soulful relaxation and experimental confrontation, with singer/songwriter Nai Palm's drifting yet powerful vocals heavily exaggerated.
The track "Malika" immediately caught my attention. Their debut album, Tawk Tomahawk, came out in April, and has already started burning a hole in my headphones since I recently came across it. Since forming last year, they've performed at the Woodford Folk Festival and the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.
Melbourne's Hiatus Kaiyote make music from the future, but luckily we can listen to it right now! The four-piece have become experts at combining elements of neo-soul, hip hop and beats to create adventurous soundscapes that have received accolades within Australia and abroad.
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