Unknown Mortal Orchestra | II

Unknown Mortal Orchestra | II

Unknown Mortal Orchestra are a psych band based in Portland/Auckland. This is their second release titled II, how fitting. This time around, for the most part, instead of making super fast beat, almost punk songs, they’ve slowed down, a lot. Making sexy songs with deep bass grooves. Perfect example is So Good At Being In Trouble. I mean, look at the title. It sounds like it could be a sexy R&B song from the 70’s. They do, however, keep the same psych feel that was on their first album. Overall, this is a really good follow up to their first album. Definitely worth checking out
You can stream it on NPR right now, but albums on there usually don’t stay there for long. It comes out February 5th, by that time you should be able to hear it through Spotify. Or you can just buy it, because it’s really great.

Stream it here.

4.5/5

Fun Fact: I’m seeing them in March and Foxygen is opening up for them!

Between The Buried And Me: The Parallax II: Future Sequence

Between The Buried And Me: The Parallax II: Future Sequence

BTBAM is one of the few metal bands I listen to. I think one of the reasons is because they don’t always sound like a metal band at first. But once they get heavy, I fucking love it. Take the first and second track on one of their best albums Colors, for example. It doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a (fucking) heavy (fucking) metal song at all, at first. But once the second track starts, it’s so intense. Now, on this album, they open with a song that doesn’t sound metal, whatsoever, again. And it goes into a strange, arpeggiated metal song. The riff kind of reminds me of something off the F-Zero X soundtrack for N64. This is not a bad thing. Extremophile Elite, one the the album’s heaviest songs, has this really unexpected/awesome breakdown with xylophones, horns, and strings. It has a gypsy kind of feel. And the song picks up right where it left off after the breakdown. 

This album is very very good.