SINGAPORE — Amping up the excitement for the latest album, Twice Grammy-nominated group Hiatus Kaiyote has unveiled their third single, “Chivalry Is Not Dead” from Mood Valiant’, out June 25th via Brainfeeder Records / Ninja Tune. The song talks about the bizarre mating rituals of leopard slugs (they turn fluorescent) and seahorses (they lock tails and dance).
Singer Nai Palm elaborates on the song, “After we did Choose Your Weapon, we had to make radio edits of our songs, and all of our shit is like 6 or 7 minutes long! So ‘Chivalry’ was me fucking with the ‘hit record’ formula. I’m gonna write a song that’s 3:40 long, and it’s about sex, but I’m gonna make it fucking weird. Examples from the natural world that are fucking with the status quo.”
“Chivalry Is Not Dead” follows previously-released singles “Red Room” and “Get Sun” featuring legendary Brazilian arranger Arthur Verocai. Their previous single “Red Room”, was added to the coveted Spotify New Music Friday playlists across Asia – Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Philippines – and has amassed more than 2 million streams on Spotify alone.
Of the upcoming album ‘Mood Valiant’, Bender shares, “The title of the album really encapsulates the whole spectrum of the journey. Everyone’s been through some big challenges. I feel like we charged through the mud to get this thing done. And there’s just this valiant, victorious feeling, coming out of storm into calm waters. The sun is shining, we see the shore. We did that! I feel proud of the way this sounds, the emotional depth of it. And I hope that it brings people some sort of comfort in this hard time.”
The new album is the follow up to their 2015 album ‘Choose Your Weapon’, which Rolling Stone described as “a stunning step up.” The new project comes after being sampled on songs by The Carters (Beyonce & Jay-Z), Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .Paak, Chance The Rapper, and Drake—with whom Nai Palm collaborated on his ‘Scorpion’ album. The result is an album that relaxes into a groove: sunlit, sublime, masterful. Behind everything is Hiatus’ familiar sense of musical adventure, their knack for making the complex sound simple.
Watch the music video for “Chivalry Is Not Dead” below: