Choose Your Weapon - Hiatus Kaiyote (2015)

Ideated from: clearing out the oldest items in my inbox

A lot of what I read about this record called it R&B, which it is, but I heard it as a funk album because of the fantastic and clever drumming. The way the beat stays so steady that you could set a metronome to it, but then skips and dances around that beat with stutters and dotted notes and lags. The jazz-influenced vocals and some electronics give it a more sophisticated feel than a lot of funk records, but it still feels tense and joyous and funky under the surface.

I enjoyed this, but I have to say it was not a slam dunk for me. It’s 70 minutes long, without a ton of variation in the attack. While I like all the elements of the record, they play many of the tracks a bit longer than the ideas in them can support. They also tend to play with the spigot turned on all the way, all the time, which made it a bit exhausting to listen to end-to-end.

It was a funky good time, though.

Tracks I liked

Swamp Thing - the clearest and funkiest number I think

Molasses - equally good, a full statement of what they’re going for.