Review: Unknown Mortal Orchestra – S/T
Unknown Mortal Orchestra – S/T (2011) [Fat Possum] // Grade: A-
The once-unknown mortal behind Unknown Mortal Orchestra may have been content to toil in the darkness—his Bandcamp earlier this year asked us not to expect him “to come out of the shadows anytime soon”—but sometimes, duty (read: a record label) calls. Enter Fat Possum and now we know all about UMO. About the work of one Ruban Nielson, ex-Mint Chicks, Portlander by way of New Zealand. About the brains behind this brilliantly haunted 60s psych. The shadows have officially receded.
But even if those shadows were part and parcel of UMO’s original charm, the mysterious thing that helped throw a simmering frenzy around makeshift single “Ffunny Friends”, this full-length doesn’t suffer a bit from the sudden sunshine. If anything, it makes good on all the promise Nielson laid out with his self-titled debut EP; internet trickery or no, UMO’s a great fucking band. Nielson’s a great fucking songwriter. These are great fucking songs. All that mystery, helpful though it may have been, never really mattered.
And like a reminder, Unknown Mortal Orchestra kicks off with “Ffunny Friends”—here, this is what you loved before—before launching into 30+ minutes of even better tracks—here, this is what you’ll love now. The ladder-step vocal melody of “Bicycle”; the baroque jaunt in “Jello and Juggernauts”; all that spare, undulating texture on “Little Blue House”; each bit of it psyched out, funked out, soulful and inarguably addictive. There’s a strangeness to both the production and Nielson’s writing, that sort of Os Mutantes thing where gristly sounds pop out of nowhere and careen into the ghostly warmth, where individual parts start to warp and go pear-shaped, and everything feels like a melted record, spinning. Even the catchiest moments on Unknown Mortal Orchestra aren’t all that straightforward, which makes it even more vital; you keep going back, listening for some faraway melody, some bit of 60s atmosphere, that might’ve hidden itself before. Known or unknown, shadows or sunshine, these songs have the ability to last well beyond the hype that preceded them. Welcome to the light, UMO.
