Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Blue Record EP

Written by: BV on 31/12/2013 17:11:08

After having had quite the successful year with the release of their second album, “II”, Unknown Mortal Orchestra seem to have wasted no time in further exploring the capabilities of their sound. With the release of this new EP, “The Blue Record”, frontman Ruban Nielson has deemed it a necessity to try some acoustic re-workings of some of “II”’s strongest cuts on for size – having never really dabbled with much acoustic work before, apparently.

Evidently, these re-workings prove to be quite interesting – albeit relatively obsolete when measured in comparison with their original, lush arrangements. Nonetheless, “Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark)” does sound terrific in this stripped down version exclusively carried by Nielson’s guitar, and two voices – all recorded in his basement, making this quite full acoustic sound all the more surprising.

Likewise, the re-workings of Beck’s “Puttin’ It Down” and Dirty Projectors’ “Swing Lo Magellan” make for quite peculiar, albeit slightly unorthodox listens that don’t really add anything to the originals – nor do they surpass them in any way. In spite of this, the cover version of “Swing Lo Magellan” is still one of the more bold areas of the EP – consequently making the otherwise quite superfluous EP worthy of more than just a few listens. I highly doubt that “Blue Record” will become a main-stay in my collection of music, but it is still quite an interesting view into a slightly simpler version of Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

Download: Swing Lo Magellan, Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark)
For the fans of: Beck, Foxygen, Mikal Cronin, Tame Impala
Listen: Facebook

Release date 29.10.2013
Jagjaguwar


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