14 March 2023 - 0 Comments

Unknown Mortal Orchestra shares Meshuggah, the final offering from the band's forthcoming double album V ahead of its release this Friday, March 17th 2023 via Jagjaguwar. Apple Music includes the single as part of its New Music Daily feature. The release follows the recent singles of Layla and Nadja, both of which arrived accompanied by Vira-Lata-directed videos that showcase the lives of two young women across the two films. Upon its release, The New York Times praised Layla as "full of warmth, with a soulful vocal melody" and bandleader Ruban Nielson's "nimble guitar playing.” Clash praised Layla for its “interlocking guitar lines”, citing the band’s "always on point UMO groove". Last October, the band also shared I Killed Captain Cook, which foreshadowed the album's themes when it arrived with a video starring Nielson's mother, Deedee Aipolani Nielson, Miss Aloha Hula 1973.

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Unknown Mortal Orchestra also recently launched UMOTV, a 24/7 livestream featuring the band’s complete catalogue, music videos, and more. Designed to be an algorithm-free home for all things UMO, UMOTV will feature unreleased music, exclusive visuals, a doomsday chatbot and other surprises.

Conceived in Palm Springs, California between the dry freeways and the lush coastline of Hilo, Hawaii, V is led by Hawaiian-New Zealand musician Ruban Nielson and draws from the rich traditions of West Coast AOR, classic hits, weirdo pop and Hawaiian Hapa-haole music. With V, UMO's first double album, Nielson reframes and enriches the road that led him to this moment. During the pandemic’s early days, Nielson’s brother Kody flew from New Zealand to Palm Springs to help him with his recordings. One of their Hawaiian uncles began displaying health issues, and Nielson realised he was facing a sharper and more acute sense of mortality. To be with him, he put aside his recordings and helped his mother and another of her brothers move from New Zealand and Portland, respectively, to Hawai'i. He reunited with his brother at his cousin's wedding in Hawai'i and together they travelled back to Palm Springs, where the fourteen singalong anthems, cinematic instrumentals, and mischievous pop songs in V were brought together with the help of his father, Chris Nielson (saxophone/flute), and longstanding UMO member Jake Portrait.

V evokes blue skies, beachside cocktail bars, hotel pools and the darkness that lurks below perfect, pristine surfaces. The desert resort city’s palm tree-lined streets reminded Ruban of a childhood spent playing by hotel swimming pools with his siblings while their entertainer parents performed in showbands across the Pacific and East Asia, and he became aware of the glamorised hedonism he’d internalised since childhood and the darker side of his parents' lifestyle when they were working as entertainers.

“In Hawaii, everything shifted off of me and my music,” Nielson said. “Suddenly, I was spending more time figuring out what others need and what my role is within my family. I also learned that things I thought were true of myself are bigger than I thought. My way of making mischief - that’s not just me - that’s my whole Polynesian side. I thought I was walking away from music to focus on family, but the two ended up connecting.”

A primary goal of V for Nielson was to make music and art that transcends notions of clout and cultural currency while also aiming to inject having fun back into the process of creating music. For Nielson, V is about having fun while making music and art and by doing so, he reclaims taste as a personal part of selfhood, propelling UMO to new creative heights.

Photo Credit: Juan Ortiz Arenas

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