Off the back of the release of their second album Choose Your Weapon, Melbourne neo-soul quartet Hiatus Kaiyote are killing it this year. After wrapping up a sold-out tour around Europe and the US, they’re back on home turf and setting off around the country for a string of live shows playing their ‘multi-dimensional, polyrhythmic gangster shit’ (their words, but good ones) for local fans.
The group’s 2012 debut Tawk Tomahawk earned them props from people like Prince and Pharrell, and a Grammy nod for their collab with Q-Tip ‘Nakamarra’ — a first for an Australian R&B act. Always interesting, their sound is blissful funk with broad appeal — not least for the heady vocals of majestic frontwoman Nai Palm. It’s the kind of music that has seen them on a festival bill alongside Grace Jones and Massive Attack one night, and the next playing a small gig in Paris with a 70-year-old Ethiopian jazz composer.
