The twice Grammy-nominated band share a new single “Canopic Jar” including a hypnotizing 32 second introduction titled “Journey To The Crystal Tomb”. “Canopic Jar” is a haunting, cyclical track exploring the descent into the darker corners of the mind. A 12″ vinyl release of the single package will be available on October 29th here. ‘Canopic Jar’ is their first new music since the acclaimed release of the album “Mood Valiant” in June.
Singer Nai Palm is a long-time lover of Halloween inspired music, as she explains in the song’s meaning…
“A canopic jar is an ancient artifact from Egypt. When they preserved the body through mummification for the afterlife, the organs were contained in a canopic jar. I used this image of preserving something in this lifetime to be accessed in another as a metaphor for an unobtainable relationship, to re-appear throughout the ages because circumstances won’t allow it this time around.
I am obsessed with Halloween playlists, and keeping in the vein of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s “Feast of the Mau Mau“, and our own “Swamp Thing”, we wanted to explore the spooky thematics in how we produced the song. There are real wolves that I recorded after visiting a wolf sanctuary in Upstate New York. Bender added harrowing cello recorded in an empty water tank, Simon went full Phantom of the Opera organ-style, and Perrin’s drum tones sound like a werewolf-gorilla hybrid smashing through a cityscape. We basically like to create tiny sonic movies with each song we make.
Ironically, the person the song was written about is now my partner, and he added the Vincent Price villain laugh at the end of the song under the pseudonym Eddy Knife Hands, which kinda wraps the witchy sonic spell up nicely, haha.”
Hiatus Kaiyote is Naomi “Nai Palm” Saalfield (guitar, vocals), Paul Bender (bass), Simon Mavin (keys), and Perrin Moss (drums). Today’s announcement follows the band’s recently released album, “Mood Valiant” which received praise from Pitchfork, Dazed, Guardian, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and NPR, and placements in Albums Of The Year so far lists at Rough Trade and Mixmag. “Mood Valiant” came together over the course of six years during which the band spent time touring, writing and recording, culminating in a 2019 trip to Rio de Janeiro that led them to work with legendary Brazilian arranger Arthur Verocai. The band recently performed a NPR Tiny Desk Home Concert to rapturous acclaim, seeing it receive nearly 500k views in less than two months. Hiatus Kaiyote have been sampled on songs by The Carters (Beyonce & Jay-Z), Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak, Chance The Rapper, and Drake—with whom Nai Palm also collaborated with on his Scorpion album. They’ve been praised by legends from Erykah Badu to Questlove to Prince, and other more recent supporters include Little Simz, Virgil Abloh, Doja Cat, Willow Smith, Nubya Garcia, Loyle Carner, Kehlani, Tom Misch, Lianne La Havas and Bradley Zero. UK support includes Annie Mac, Clara Amfo, Gilles Peterson and Benji B on BBC Radio 1 and BBC 6 music, where Iggy Pop has also supported, Jamz Supernova on 1Xtra, making the A list on BBC 6 Music, and being featured in and on the cover of the Guardian Guide. In Europe, they have previously sold out Somerset House, Kentish Town Forum and the Shepherds Bush Empire in London, the Paradiso in Amsterdam, Sala Apolo in Barcelona, and played numerous festivals including Glastonbury, Dour and Dimensions.
