Watch Hiatus Kaiyote Rework Gorillaz For ‘Like A Version’

February 20, 2015

Grammy-nominated Melbourne outfit Hiatus Kaiyote took to the triple j studios this morning for Like A Version and delivered a silky smooth cover of Dare by Gorillaz as well as a bluesy rendition of their own track, Nakamarra.

The group flipped Dare from Gorillaz’s 2005 record Demon Days to make it sound like it was born in the depths of a smokey jazz bar with lead-singer Nai Palm’s vocals sounding enticingly delicious. It’s a topical cover too, with news surfacing earlier this month that Gorillaz would be returning soon and Albarn’s first love, Blur, announcing their welcome return this morning.

HK’s original track Nakamarra was nominated for a Grammy back in 2013 for Best RnB Performance and their live rendition of the track proved exactly why. Unlike Dare, they remained as close to the original as possible peppering Palm’s silky vocals with warm chords.

Hiatus Kaiyote are set to release a new album, Choose Your Weapon, at the end of March following the release of the By Fire EP which dropped at the tail-end of last year.

Speaking to Matt and Alex, the band revealed one of the feature artists on the album is a parrot. Palm said, “I had to do a lot of vocal tracking, so you know, he’ll be chirping away while I’m tracking.” She continued, “We recorded his wings flapping”. The parrot isn’t the only animal set to feature on the album, there’s also a “jam with an owl”. No gorillas though.