Paak to Robert Glasper was sending flowers for the bright Aussie upstarts, with 9th Wonder mining Kaiyote for samples for. Before long, everybody from Drake to Anderson. Immediately, they began to win ambassadors in high places, eventually being celebrated by tastemakers like The Roots ’s Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Erykah Badu, and legendary British radio DJ Giles Peterson.

Hiatus Kaiyote first broke internationally back in 2012 with debut LP Tawk Tomahawk, a delightful document discovered by Taylor McFerrin during a swing through the band’s neck of the woods. The same could be said for a return to international touring, beginning with the aforementioned pair of performances at Brooklyn Steel, Oakland’s one-night-only show, and a forthcoming engagement at Denver’s Ogden Theater on April 5th. So, however stoked fans were when a sparkly, new sack of songs arrived in 2021, we can only imagine that Mood Valiant was a tremendous relief to the band themselves, as well. These unprecedented winds of change compounded one another, and blew into town after Palm’s health issues had already sidelined the group for an extended stretch. There were dark, deadly things on the horizon for everybody, everywhere.Įighteen months later: the pandemic, and a paralyzed international music industry. The group, collectively fatigued, agreed to take a year off. In addition to the terrifying reality and uncertainty ahead for Palm-and by proxy, her band. She spoke of having premonitions of death during these trying times. The fearlessness and defiant resolve woven within her lyrics has often been juxtaposed with a stark-naked vulnerability, and here it was-for all to witness-not only in song, but now in her (very) real life. The back end of that brave statement has been crystal clear in her music from jumpstreet, and 2017’s solo LP Needle Paw only further stripped away the layers of this enigmatic artist a minimalist acoustic purge that revealed another side to the singer-songwriter-sorceress. I am a strong mother fucker but I feel everything deeply.” Palm announced this foreboding diagnosis on her Instagram, requesting space and privacy in no uncertain terms: “I say this to you hoping that you won’t expect so much of me all the time. Most notable-and frightening-was in October 2018, when came the shocking news that singer-guitarist Nai Palm was going through a bout with breast cancer, the very same disease that stole her mom when Nai was merely a child. Hiatus Kaiyote have certainly battled their share of internal challenges. Inevitably, life throws curveballs at even the most prolific and brilliant artists, be they of the personal, political, or pandemic variety. To those raised on instant gratification and conditioned by the immediacy of the smartphone/streaming era, a six-year pause between records might test the patience of even the most devoted of fans-at least, anyone this side of D’Angelo stans.

Though the genre-fluid Mood Valiant is their debut effort on the Brainfeeder/Ninja Tune label, home to kindred spirits in Flying Lotus and Thundercat, and the creme de la creme of experimental dance music artists over the past quarter-century. The third full-length record was their first offering since 2015’s critically-acclaimed Choose Your Weapon. The group delivered a mesmerizing, 100-minute set, the setlist split between classic cuts from the band’s canon and stirring, newer compositions found on 2021’s Mood Valiant, which is up a Grammy Award next month in the Best Progressive R&B Album category.

The idiosyncratic, mind-bending quartet swooped into Oakland’s majestic Fox Theater on March 17th for its first East Bay performance over three years. Australian buzz-band Hiatus Kaiyote made their long awaited return to stateside shores last week, barreling into Northern California on the heels of two Brooklyn shows a few days earlier.

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