Album Review: Hiatus Kaiyote - By Fire

Hiatus Kaiyote describe their music as multi-dimensional, poly-rhythmic gangster shit, which is pretty accurate. The Melbourne band specialise in the kind of sophisticated neo-soul that’s usually associated with six-string bass guitars and other modified instruments made for mind-bending and groove-mending. This new EP continues to explore the group’s trademark complex and nuanced orchestrations, splicing them with a more focused approach to songwriting and repetition. By Fire holds both power and subtlety within itself, while Molasses spins with singer Nai Palm’s hypnotic phrasings. “It might not get any better,” she sings, but that doesn’t stop us from looking forward to their second album, dropping sometime next year.