Hiatus Kaiyote – ‘Tawk Tomahawk’ [Review]
During this album’s opening track, Mobius Streak, I noticed my heart beating in time to the groove. I’ve spent countless hours immersed in music, and this has never happened before. Taking it as a sign of something special, I ploughed onwards.
At 30 minutes’ full running time, calling Tawk Tomahawk an album seemed like a stretch. Noting that five of its eleven tracks run under two minutes aroused my inner cynic; these stats generally indicate laziness, a band chucking a few extra half-finished bits and pieces in as filler, their focus on the handful of tracks that their listeners are expected to cherry-pick from the automatically unbundled package. Happily, however, Hiatus Kaiyote know better than that – and from Mobius Streak‘s opening bars, I could tell instantly. I was relieved.
Another common lazy-band tactic is to open an album with all the good tracks, and chuck the bad ones somewhere in the back – the assumption here being that even if someone buys the whole album, they’re only going to listen to it for ten or fifteen minutes (maybe while getting dressed or doing the ironing) and then turn it off. Again, not Hiatus Kaiyote. The World It Softly Lulls gives us languid and luxurious bass lying comfortably in its pocket like salamanders in the sun, while Leap Frog (the first sub-two-minute piece) is simply indispensable, in the same way that this sentence strange with a word missing. This isn’t music made for casual listening (although it works perfectly in that role); it’s deliberately designed to suck you in and leave you mesmerised.
Malika demonstrates Hiatus Kaiyote’s willingness to play rests as well as notes in the name of a tasteful, busyness-free groove, and is full of the kind of syncopation that loosens the muscles and releases the consciousness from its worldly cares – making this track a personal highlight. Ocelot and Boom Child form a perfect pair of pounding jams before Lace Skull introduces multiple degrees of instrumental turbulence returning to consonance and hitting a full-steam-ahead groove, falling over irregular-paving-stone trips and dropping into a long, gentle, and sparse outro. Rainbow Rhodes and Sphinx Gate are slim-cut and pleasantly uneven slices of musicianship, and leave us close to the end. Nakamarra sets up a low-key Jamiroquai-esque intro, Jay Kay anticipation broken by Nai Palm’s vocal, slow-pulsing neo-soul vibes, a strong marching beat and intriguingly extended chordal structures. Hiatus Kaiyote’s major strength is the ability to mutate and evolve grooves without leaving the listener behind; instead, we’re carried along like the readers of a surreal but masterfully crafted novel, the only disappointment arising when it all ends.
Overall, it’s simply not surprising that Hiatus Kaiyote have been nominated for a Grammy, to be decided this Sunday. The final Tawk Tomahawk track, a version of Nakamarra featuring infamous New York MC/producer Q-Tip, is the tune that got them there – and if there’s any justice, it’ll be a well-deserved win. Hiatus Kaiyote might be underdogs on the American music industry’s biggest stage, but Tawk Tomahawk proves their worth over and over again. A blissful and awe-inspiring experience.
Links
Hiatus Kaiyote on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hiatuskaiyote
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