There's no band on earth quite like Hiatus Kaiyote.
Since forming in 2011, the three-time Grammy nominated Melbourne/Naarm four-piece have taken neo-soul, R&B and proggy jazz to their most futuristic and adventurous extremes.
Finding inspiration in everything from the films of Hayao Miyazaki to the mating rituals of leopard slugs, they often pack more unique ideas into five minutes than most artists manage across an entire album.
Take 'Telescope' for example, an early highlight from the band's fourth album Love Heart Cheat Code. It's heady dose of cosmic funk that quotes both Motown classic 'My Girl' and 'Space Is The Place', the mantra of 1970s Afrofuturist Sun Ra.
If that wasn't enough for you, the song's four verses were written around the intergalactic details provided by each band member plugging their info into the NASA website 'What Did Hubble See On Your Birthday?'
Speaking of stars, Hiatus Kaiyote's expansive, eccentric grooves are a source of inspiration to some of music's biggest names: sampled by Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, and making admirers out of SZA, Willow Smith, and the late, great Prince.
Last spring, Hottest 100 topper Doja Cat covered their track 'Red Room' for Live Lounge (aka BBC's Like A Version) and continued performing it across her tour.
There's plenty more for celebrities and fans alike to appreciate on Love Heart Cheat Code, which presents these fearsomely skilled musicians at their most cheery and relaxed.
A natural evolution to 2021's Mood Valiant, the album further reins in the band's love for devilishly tricky time signatures and mind-melting sonics into more forgiving lengths and familiar song structures.
Lead singles 'Everything's Beautiful' and 'Make Friends' are joyful and easy-going without forfeiting what makes the group so intoxicatingly unpredictable. Between the two is a playful interlude featuring BMO, the cartoon gaming device from Adventure Time (voiced by Niki Yang).
Love Heart Cheat Code is also the band's second album for Flying Lotus' taste-making Brainfeeder record label. And much like label-mate Thundercat, Hiatus Kaiyote are comfortable to let the deeply philosophical and charmingly un-serious co-mingle.
The bubbly 'Longcat', a goofy tribute to the internet-meme-feline, sits side by side with 'How To Meet Yourself', a spiritual, string-laden meditation on emerging triumphant out of adversity.
'To milk a stone and keep from harm' sings Nai Palm, her soothing voice layered in multi-tracked harmonies and counter melodies.
The way her elegant, gravity-defying melodies and malleable guitar dovetail with her band mates – keys maestro Simon Mavin, genius rhythm section Perrin Moss and Paul Bender – remains stunning.
Although Nai's still given to penning some confounding lyrics (anyone care to unpack 'We are all the amputees of our divination'?) her peculiar style is more often memorable than maddening.
Witness the surreal imagery of the lysergic, laid-back title track, which morphs from lava to lightning, Road Runner to swimwear, and the recurring refrain of 'keep it handsome' (inspired by a barbershop slogan).
Mixed by Mario Caldato Jr — the US producer best-known fro working with Beastie Boys (immortalised in the line 'Mario C likes to keep it clean' from 1998 hit 'Intergalactic'), Love Heart Cheat Code is the band's shortest album, running at 36 minutes.
As such, they could've afforded to indulge in at least one labyrinthine odyssey or let their kaleidoscopic grooves expand a little (something they'll no doubt do on tour). Regardless, it's another dazzling effort from the foursome, who bring the record to a strong finish that unleashes their freak.
Driven by an athletic, Metallica-worthy bass riff, 'Cinnamon Temple' is a fan favourite that's remained unreleased for close to a decade. The long-awaited studio version does not disappoint; a career-best beast that instructs us to 'f**k it up, buttercup'.
The album concludes with a noisy, surprising cover of Jefferson Airplane's 'White Rabbit', giving the '60s psychedelic rock classic a mutant makeover. It's the kind of endearingly weird and audacious choice that makes Hiatus Kaiyote so special.
They're a rule-breaking law unto themselves, and Love Heart Cheat Code is the sound of a group further colonising a musical cosmos that's entirely their own.