Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Ruban Nielson steers Unknown Mortal Orchestra through ceaseless sonic reinvention, letting the project’s identity reshape itself with each successive release. From the outset his home-recorded debut revealed an inclination toward psychedelic experimentation, merging fluid guitar lines with catchy melodies and atmospheric studio treatments. Whether working solo or alongside collaborators such as his brother Kody, Nielson guided the band across acoustic ballad territory, free-jazz excursions, hard-rock textures, and, on the 2015 breakthrough Multi-Love, nocturnal R&B laced with eccentric flourishes. That same spirit of restless inquiry positioned the group among the more distinctive acts to emerge from the neo-psych wave of the 2010s, carrying them from plush ’70s soft-rock influences into buoyant disco pulses on the expansive double album V, issued in 2023.

Once the Mint Chicks, the eccentric New Zealand punk-pop outfit he shared with Kody, dissolved, Nielson intended to abandon music for ordinary employment. As a private pastime he began cutting psychedelic sketches in his basement with sampled sounds. The material quickly revived his professional path, landing the playful experimental pop at Fat Possum Records, which issued the self-titled Unknown Mortal Orchestra debut in early summer 2011. Mounting interest prompted Nielson to assemble a touring lineup that featured Kody on drums and Jacob Portrait on bass; shortly afterward the project moved to Jagjaguwar for the follow-up album II. While on the road he accepted frequent invitations to perform live on radio, prompting him to explore a fresh acoustic direction that yielded the 2013 EP Blue Record. Captured on a single microphone in his basement, the set comprised three tracks from II plus renditions of songs by Dirty Projectors and Beck.

Throughout 2014 Nielson concentrated on Multi-Love. Although Jagjaguwar supplied funds for a conventional studio, he instead withdrew to his home setup and its collection of custom-built synthesizers and recording devices. With Kody contributing drums, Portrait handling occasional bass and production duties, and the Nielsons’ father Chris adding sporadic horn parts, the resulting music narrowed its focus from earlier panoramic psychedelia toward tighter soul and R&B contours while chronicling the romantic upheaval Nielson navigated during the sessions. Multi-Love appeared in May 2015.

The subsequent album, partly tracked across Vietnam, Mexico, Korea, New Zealand, and Portland with Kody, Chris, and Portrait all participating, broadened its lens to encompass global concerns amid rising political instability. Released in 2018, Sex & Food contained some of the band’s most guitar-driven material to date. That same year UMO issued IC-01 Hanoi, an electric-jazz statement modeled on Miles Davis’ On the Corner. Cut in Vietnam, the record featured the two Nielson brothers, their father on flügelhorn and sax, bassist Portrait, and Vietnamese musician Minh Nguyen playing Sáo Trúc, Đàn Môi, and traditional percussion.

Once the Sex & Food touring cycle concluded, Nielson settled in Palm Springs and kept active with remixes for Soccer Mommy’s “circle the drain” and Westerman’s “Drawbridge,” alongside collaborations spanning Aminé, Gorillaz, Free Nationals, and India Shawn. Amid these projects he continued shaping his own material. The smooth, disco-tinged “Weekend Run” and the hazy pop reconfiguration “That Life” surfaced as singles throughout 2021, followed in 2022 by “I Killed Captain Cook.” These tracks and additional songs formed the core of the ambitious double album V in 2023, where Nielson shifted between genres, often pivoting mid-track and deploying multiple instrumental beds to pursue his most extensive stylistic investigations.