Choose Your Weapon

Limited 2LP : 3000 numbered copies on transparent pink vinyl

Wrapped in soul, blending poetry and polyrhythms, the music of Hiatus Kaiyote is in a lane all by itself. On this 2015 LP the band refines and broadens its attack. From track to track, one ingenious idea trails another. Vocal melodies and guitar wriggles sneak up and tickle the ears, burbling electronics mingle with spiny acoustic guitars, time signatures abruptly switch and stun. Considering five fragmentary interludes of varying consequence and so much nonlinear structuring within the proper songs, Choose Your Weapon isn't always easy to follow. The lyrics of athletic vocalist and guitarist Nai Palm, dizzying on their own, mix natural, supernatural, and technological subjects and are delivered in an array of styles. She gets more personal on late 2014 A-side "By Fire," a burial song inspired in part by her father's house-fire death. Its significance is easy to miss through the battle-theme opening, frenetic mass of swirling/zipping synthesizer action, and octopedal drumming. As out-there as the material gets, rich highlights such as "Laputa," "Borderline with My Atoms," and "Breathing Underwater" are thoroughly winsome, cast in warm light. Progressive-eclectic DJs like Gilles Peterson, Garth Trinidad, and Carlos Niño could not have dreamt them up. Within the context of a playlist, any one of a dozen songs here could bridge '50s bop to '60s MPB, or '70s art rock to '80s boogie, or '90s neo-soul to 2000s dubstep. Equally remarkable is that none of it seems devised. It's like these musicians simply radiate the stuff.

SIDE A
1. CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON
2. SHAOLIN MONK MOTHERFUNK
3. LAPUTA
4. CREATIONS PART ONE
5. BORDERLINE WITH MY ATOMS

SIDE B
1. BREATHING UNDERWATER
2. CICADA
3. SWAMP THING
4. FINGERPRINTS
5. JEKYLL

SIDE C
1. PRINCE MINIKID
2. ATARI
3. BY FIRE
4. CREATIONS PART TWO

SIDE D
1. THE LUNG
2. ONLY TIME ALL THE TIME: MAKING FRIENDS WITH STUDIO OWL
3. MOLASSES
4. BUILDING A LADDER

https://youtu.be/9ZVMViSx6Ek