Unknown Mortal Orchestra have released a second song off their forthcoming sophomore release, titled II and due out next month. I’m even more excited about this album now that I’ve heard this quite soulful and groove-filled second track.
Right off the bat it sounds like an instant classic. Something you’d come across playing on some out-of-the-way radio dial position during a late night car ride home. Maybe you’re kind of down – or just really buzzed – but the song pulls you out of that mood and head space for it’s three-minute playtime, just long enough to make you feel nostalgic for another time. It’s like this song is being beamed in from another world. A world much like ours – a mirrored version – only this is a carnival mirror. Things pulled and twisted in an unnatural way, yet there’s still that sense of recognizable warmth. I get that feeling when I listen to UMO. There’s something not quite right, yet if it were tweaked to something more normal then it would lose it’s woozy magic. I don’t think anyone else could create what Ruban Nielson creates. The cassette tape-muffled sound, the grainy tones, the sepia-colored vibe is exactly as it should be. Nieson paints with watered-down colors and warped, otherworldly canvases. Any sort of polishing would reveal vapors and nothingness. Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s music is like the mirage in the desert – keep your distance and there’s something magical about it, but get too close and it’s gone. Me? I’ll keep my distance and bask in the magic of Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
