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Sound DNA

• Soul & Funk
• Neo-Soul

• shimmering
• euphoric
• groovy

About

Hiatus Kaiyote’s fourth album finds the Melbourne quartet in a playful mood. “BMO Is Beautiful” is a 41-second appreciation of the <i>Adventure Time</i> character BMO, featuring its voice actor Niki Yang on vocals. “Longcat” is a woozy tribute to “the longest cat in the world.” It’s fitting, then, that the band’s trademark jazz/R&B/future soul excursions are unshackled from traditional song structure in favor of a looser, more improvised form that emerged from late-night jam sessions, steering the album from cacophonous freak-outs like closer “White Rabbit” to the celestial opener “Dreamboat” and elastic jazz of “Make Friends.” Vocalist Nai Palm draws her lyrical inspiration from a diverse well. The Brazilian and sambalike rhythms of “Telescope” lay the foundation for a journey into space, the song inspired by photographs from the Hubble telescope on each band member’s birthday. “Cinnamon Temple,” a schizophrenic, head-bending mélange of noise, funk, and jazz that’s been in the band’s live set since 2015, takes its title from the mud-brick mosques in Mali, which look like they have cinnamon stuck in them, while “Make Friends” riffs on deep platonic love, with its one verse repeated three times, each from a different gender perspective. Acclaimed Brazilian producer Mario Caldato Jr. (Beastie Boys, Björk, Beck) proves himself a willing accomplice, harnessing the band’s devil-may-care, genre-bending approach to arrive at a record that is equal parts engrossing, befuddling, and intoxicating, but never, ever dull.

via Apple Music

Tracklist

Credits