Unknown Mortal Orchestra throw brilliant development curveball with "Can't Keep Checking My Phone"
Wow. This wasn't what we were expecting of Unknown Mortal Orchestra's latest track. Or was it?
The Cali by way of NZ trio did warn us of some movement away from "late sixties psych towards Berlin trilogy Bowie and Can [...] even getting a little yachty" when they spoke to us last year ahead of their End of the Road Festival performance.
But this is something quite different indeed. Buoyant cowbells, house synth wobs, Spanish brass? It's all in there, packed neatly into a meaty, twisted disco-like ditty. What remains constant, however, is leading man Ruben Nielson's effortless, soulful husk that swoops and dips amongst the complex and colourful interchanges of sound.
By the sounds of this and February's "Multi-Love", Unknown Mortal Orchestra's next album is going to be their most ambitious yet.
Multi-Love is released via Jagjaguwar on 26 May (pre-order). Check out UK tour dates below (full list here).
May
20 - Bristol, England - Thekla
21 - London, England - Islington Assembly Hall
22 - Coventry, England - Warwick University
23 - Liverpool, England - Liverpool Sound C
July
16-19 - Southwold, England - Latitude Festival
September
22 - Brighton, England - Concorde 2
23 - London, England - O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire
24 - Birmingham, England - The Library at the Institute
25 - Manchester, England - The Ritz
26 - Dublin, Ireland - Whelan's
28 - Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms
29 - Leeds, England - Brudenell Social Club
30 - Glasgow, Scotland - QMU
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