Hiatus Kaiyote | Choose Your Weapon

The second album by Melbourne's Hiatus Kaiyote is a beautiful, mystifying, playful, raging, sprawling delight. It is a ridiculously creative soul/jazz/funk extravaganza of immense proportions all wrapped up with the band's distinctive flair.

I'm serious. You'd all better hold on tight to your wigs before pressing play.

The album is deeply theatrical. I felt like I was at some kind of new audio-circus listening to the acrobatic arrangements, the crazy-mad scenes that are played out for us, zany jazz-fusion segues leading into the next bizarre little story; all done with exquisite taste. For those of you who usually don't, the lyrics are well worth paying attention to. Not your run-of-the-mill blah.

It was actually slightly overwhelming on the first listen, despite I was already familiar with a few of the pieces. It runs at eighteen tracks long – thirteen full-bodied songs and five curious little segues. And there are no cute little pop songs here; nothing easily digested.

If I were to offer some advice, I'd say put it on in the background while you do something else for the first listen... let the songs sink into your subconscious. Then later, when you have a good hour and a half free, lock the doors, turn off the phone, lay down on the sofa and play it loud, let it wash over you.

As lead singer, Nai-Palm, sings in the first track, Shaolin Monk Motherfunk, “Drop into this.”

That's the album. Then there's the live experience. I had the pleasure of checking them out a few months back at Woolly Mammoth in Brisbane.

Personally... for me... this band are the best thing sonically speaking to ever come out of Australia. It's a taste thing; please don't get mad at me. INXS were awesome and the Bee Gees and Sia, for sure there have been a whole bunch of top-notch artists. But this band, they just press all the right buttons for me.

I never had the pleasure of seeing them live before and I'll admit I felt a tiny bit of concern, wondering were they going to meet my expectations and honestly, they blew them out of the water.

High-octane is the phrase that jumps to mind for the set they performed. I have no idea how they managed to sustain such velocity for that long. The wave just kept on cresting 'til the very end. None of them came across as particularly wasted so I assume they did it without the aid of chemicals. I did notice a bottle of liqueur passing from hand to hand on the stage, but that doesn't really account for the fuel-injection.

They had my full and undivided attention from the first note to the last and that's no small feat. I can be very demanding.

The bass player, Paul Bender – whose birthday it was – was on fire; drummer, Perrin Moss kept everything right in the pocket; keyboardist Simon Marvin was exceptional; the three backing singers were lovely and Nai Palm, the lead singer, song-writer and guitarist was just electric. This woman is made of charisma and her vocal talents are pure and refined. She truly does not seem to have any self-consciousness and this attitude allows her to just let go and have fun up there on the stage and her sense of play was infectious. The audience loved them.

This is a band who truly need to be seen live. I love both of the albums but after hearing them live I realized the compression, the production on the studio albums snuffs out a little of the band's obvious spirit – live they just shine and they shine brightly.

Chances are they are heading your way. Do yourself a favour and check them out if you can find tickets. They are selling out fast worldwide.