UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA

V JAGJAGUWAR

JMN

Ruban Nielson’s New Zealand-formed prog-psych act shifts up a gear. “The definitive UMO record,” says Unknown Mortal Orchestra conductor-in-chief Ruban Nielson of his fifth album. Long operating as a kind of lo-fi Steely Dan with a nice sideline in off-kilter guitar hooks, Nielson made V between Palm Springs and Hawaii. Tapping the Hapa-haole (i.e. ‘half-white’) music that’s part of his part-Polynesian DNA, he’s made a sunny, un-typically tropical LP of prog jazz instrumentals, skewed yacht rock and playful, envelope-pushing pop. Nielson’s brother Kody shares drumming duties, while their father Chris Nielson plays fine sax and flute on a defiantly upbeat record concerned with not-always-happy childhood memories and the mortality of loved ones. Claims that V is the kind of mid-period breakthrough that 1999 was for Prince might sound highfalutin, but…

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Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 138

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