UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA Vinilo y CD

Review: Logic runs through the Unknown Mortal Orchestra back catalogue, even if that's just in terms of what the records are actually called. V, then, is album number five, a double-sized and long-awaited package that represents the first long form outing from Ruban Nielson and Co since 2018. In modern music, that's a hell of a long time. Rest assured, though, it seems like time was well spent honing crafts, polishing ideas, and coming out with 14 incredibly interesting and compelling songs.

In many ways V isn't a huge departure from IV, but - maybe because of that extended gap - you still can't shake the feeling this is you meeting the Orchestra for the first time. Packed full of surprises, running the gamut between blissed out, stargazing stuff, lo-fi funk steppers, and a kind of stoner pop-blues, it's love at first play. Again.

Review: New Zealand-born, Portland-based Ruban Nielson is well known for mixing up lo-fi, indie rock, psychedelic sounds and plenty of trippiness into unique and beguiling sound worlds. V is said to be the band's most definitive album yet and it was written between the dry freeways of Palm Springs in California and the much more lush coastlines of Hawai'i. As such it is drawn from a world of West Coast AOR, classic hits, weirdo pop and Hawaiian Hapa-haole music. This is the first double album in the artist's discography and it is well worth the extra playtime.

Review: New Zealand psychedelic rock band Unknown Mortal Orchestra received plenty of acclaim for their second album, II, originally released in February 2013. Fusing lo-fi, indie rock, psychedelic sounds and plenty of trippy ideas, it take sin funky as you like guitar jams, drawn out and sun worshipping odes to a higher presence and raw, psyched out soul tracks. Tunes are packed with great detail and manage to strike a balance between light and dark, beauty and hostility. The often inward lyrics add another alluring element to this album, which won Best Alternative Album in the 2013 New Zealand Music Awards.