On Thursday the 7th of July, two-time Grammy nominees Hiatus Kaiyote gave a highly polished performance at the enduringly beautiful Somerset House, as a part of the venues’ annual Summer Series.

The genre-bending Australian fourtet started the show with the title track from their new album ‘Choose Your Weapon’. Lead singer Nai Palm - who can only be described as tiny, electric, and utterly devastating from the word go - injected potent life into the often mellow and trippy electro jazz-funk that she and her band mates doled out with impressive finesse.

The enthusiasm and the energy that Nai brought to the performance spread quickly into the crowd as she correctly stated from the stage, with a smile on her face, that “This is gunna be fun!” Meanwhile the rest of the band, made up of bassist Paul Bender, percussionist Perrin Moss and keyboardist Simon Mavin, seemed too cool even for fun as they worked their instrumental magic with apparent ease.

As the sun set over Somerset House, multi coloured lights rose up from below, illuminating the courtyard walls from the ground up and going that much further towards transporting the crowd into what was very clearly their chilled-out happy place. The band bounced from jazz-funk to soul, to pounding electronic and back again, and to all the places in-between as though it was nothing. The songs ‘Nakamarra’, ‘Atari’ and ‘Swamp Thing’ were particular highlights. Nai’s voice was all purr and soulful husk as the crowd swayed as one and the band made their way through the set without a single bum note.

Hiatus Kaiyote is a group that is clearly brimming with talent, and are still just as potent as they were 4 years ago when they made their debut. The band are clearly very comfortable in their own skin, taking proud ownership of the six or seven genres in which their music has a claim to stake. It’s clear that, if they carry on like this, their stratospheric rise can only continue.

Check out Haitus Kaiyote´s ´Nakamarra´ below!

Written by Aidan Milan