Kevin Bronson on October 28th, 2013

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Just when you think soul revivalists have squeezed all the juice out of that orange – or turned it to water by simply adding effects – you run across somebody like Hiatus Kaiyote. They have a quirky name, a singer with an even quirkier one (Nai Palm, yeah we get it) and pages that describe their music as “multi-dimensional polyrhythmic gangster sh*t,” which is as good as any of the usual hyphenates. Palm and the rest of the core quartet (Perrin Moss, Paul Bender and Simon Mavin) hail from Melbourne, Australia, and have earned endorsements from the likes of Prince, ?uestlove, Flying Lotus and Erykah Badu. Hiatus Kaiyote’s debut “Tama Tomahawk” is theater without the visuals, a shape-shifting melangé that touches on smooth jazz, hip-hop, Afro-beat and twitchy IDM. Palm, who used to be a fire dancer, sells it all with her warm, mellifluous delivery (those who witnessed the band’s show at the Bootleg in July are still buzzing about it). Here’s where new- and old-school meet, and there’s definitely no napping in class.

||| Stream: “Malika” and “Ocelot”

||| Live: Hiatus Kaiyote returns to L.A. on Wednesday for a special show at the Skirball Cultural Center’s Ahmanson Ballroom. Moses Sumney, Oscar Key Sung, Wiseacre and Jeremy Sole support.