Unknown Mortal Orchestra
II
Jagjaguwar – February 5th 2013
By Joshua Khan (@blaremag)
Find it at: iTunes | Insound | HMV Digital
8.1
After tuning their gear to become the biggest musical tease since Led Zeppelin II, Unknown Mortal Orchestra have smoothed things over on their own second effort that shows how guitars can turn themselves inside out. II, in fact, is the psych rock adventure you’d get from your favourite indie soul if they didn’t feel the need to calibrate a few speed demons through garage stomps. Every recording Ruban Nielsen, Jake Portrait and Riley Geare present finds it necessary to exploit how warm atmospherics can be if they’re filtered through playful and intelligently written rhythms. “From The Sun” is a lazy morning jaunt, “One At A Time” and “So Good At Being In Trouble” take Motown for a stroll, and when the trio do get that bass throbbing on “No Need For A Leader”, they provoke a concentrated freakout to show some unforeseen Grateful Dead colours. II would undoubtedly get mentioned in the same breath as Tame Impala’s Lonerism but Nielsen’s lock on production and sound makes their style almost unclassifiable. Unknown Mortal Orchestra don’t do dizzying solos – they warp strings towards the end of songs (“Monki”, “Faded In The Morning”) which will impress the hell out of you and keep certain tracks on a loop. Sure ear candy is worth devouring but as most kids will tell you, an everlasting flavour can break your jaw and keep you helplessly content.
Listen: “Faded In The Morning”, “Secret Xtians” || Watch: “So Good At Being In Trouble”