Description

2LP Vinyl – MOVLP2048

Needle Paw is a minimalist’s dream. The raw, stripped-down performances are antithetical to Hiatus Kaiyote’s lush, swollen sound. The album breaks down the complex mechanisms driving the average Hiatus record in a catabolic process that isolates the ingredient most essential to Nai Palm: the human voice. Her byzantine harmonies are less important to the final mix than the primal timbre of the voice, whether isolated or in concert with others. There are no concessions to trend or enormous features. Needle Paw is a reliquary for Saalfield’s travels and influences, from Bulgarian choral music and the songs of Saharan nomads to rock and 1990s R&B. There is even a nod to a shape-shifting character from Cartoon Network’s “Adventure Time” series on “Mobius,” where she sings of the “ancient psychic tandem war elephant,” whose power is a healing telepathy.