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An Intimate Hour with Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Bernadetta Handayani — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 02:21:54 +0000

It was a rather gloomy Wednesday night when we made our way to Empirica, afraid we might get caught in a drizzle on our online ojek. We made it dry and a little wind burned, but we were stocked to finally arrived for our second Noisewhore show and to finally see Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

The night started late, we got in to the brochure covered hallway way after 7 and the opening act, which we were equally excited for, Heal, played sometimes after 8. But it gave us an excuse to get our Jameson and ginger ale to get us ready for what’s to come. And we’re glad we prepared ourselves because Heals was a force to be reckoned with! The five piece band delivered an incredible performance! The energy they projected on to the crowds never dimmed for even a second, from the first strum of guitar to the last thank youse and goodbyes. Heals used their time slot wisely in packing as much of their songs in it while leave some room to improvise those many guitar solos. Songs like Monolove, Void, Wave, and False Alarm, are some of the number they played. Save to say, we were all impressed and we have a feeling that we’re going to see a lot of them in future festivals in and out of the country.

When the clock struck sometimes around 9:30, when everyone finally made their way to the very front of the stage, when everyone was flushed and warmed up while still recovering from Heals, the light started to dim once again. This time, the star of the night, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, took the front and center stage. The New Zealand band opened the show with “From the Sun”. It took no time at all for frontman and guitarist, Ruban Nielson, to get off the stage with his guitar and roam the floor. The crowds welcomed him with open arms and embraced him as if they were old friends on a long overdue reunion.

After an exciting opening and impromptu meet and greet, the band went on playing a cleverly mixed of their four albums. Their newest two records, tho, were celebrated the most. Four song from their fourth and latest album was played that night, including “Ministry of Alienation”, “American Guilt” and “Not in Love We’re Just High”.

As the night progressed, the atmosphere in the middle of the crowd changes progressed with it. It started chaotic and in such high energy, until “Necessary Evil” started to play. By then the situation started to calmed down as everyone was recovering from the unbelievably energetic opening numbers. But the situation only lasted until the few last songs. The energy upped as they played “Not in Love We’re Just High” and it escalated as UMO closed their first set with “Multi-Love”.

After the usual cheered from the crowd, begging them to come back on to the stage. The guys of UMO granted the crowd’s wishes and stepped back to the stage playing the last three songs of the night. “Hunnybee” and “Can’t Keep Checking My Phone” were the sweet ending to this bitter sweet one hour show.

Another One from Noise Whore : Unknown Mortal Orchestra Live in Jakarta!

svanapaper — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 06:21:33 +0000

New Zealand-based Ruban Nielsen has been making music for over a decade, switching between sounds and being an influence to a lot of artists coming after him, he is a shape shifting musician with a lot of changes the listeners of Unknown Mortal Orchestra has been accustomed to over the years.

This year, Unknown Mortal Orchestra released “Sex and Food” an album that Ruban started working on late 2016 and recorded all over the world, from Ruban’s home in Portland, Oregon to Reyjavik. “Sex and Food” itself draws a lot of its bread and butter from personal unrest and generational malaise.

About the album, Ruban gave this explanation:

“At first, I thought that this was going to be a sad record, like II,” he explains when discussing how reflection helped push Sex & Food forward. “I was influenced enough by my own early stuff that I went into it thinking, ‘If I was a fan, how would I want to bring some of that back into what I’m doing?’” That old-becomes-new approach is more than apparent on the lush, beautifully understated “Hunnybee,” reminiscent of II’s “Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark)” and drawing lyrical inspiration from Ruban’s daughter, whose middle name gave ‘Hunnybee’ its title.”

Now, the band is on tour and ready to perform their first ever live performance in Jakarta, Indonesia. The band will perform in Empirica, Lot 8 SCBD. The show is organized by noisewhore and will be held on September 26 2018. Asked about the prospect of organizing a show for UMO, Argia of noisewhore said:

“It is certainly out of this world, we didn’t believe it until we made the announcement. I know there’s been a lot of shows lately in 2018, with a lot of it seems like focusing on one type of music, we were trying to break that trend, we were trying to bring in an act that bears a lot of meaning and everyone can relate to at the end of the day. I’ve been listening to UMO since middle school, and it’s still all too real that 5 years later I’m organizing a show for them.”

Strike Up Sound Off (An Introduction To Laneway 2014)

Dorothy T. — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 02:00:44 +0000

2014 is infront of us and one of the festival we’re looking forward is no other than St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival on January 2014. Here’s our introduction mixtape for the festival which consist some line ups with songs we like the most. Hope to see you guys there!

Track listing:

Jamie xx – Far Nearer
James Blake – Retrograde
Daughter – Smother
Haim – Falling
Frightened Rabbit – The Loneliness and the Scream
Jagwar Ma – Man I Need
Unknown Mortal Orchestra – FFunny FFriends
Savages – Flying to Berlin
Chvrches – Lies (Tourist Remix)
Kurt Vile – Never Run Away
Youth Lagoon – Cannons
Mount Kimbie – You Took Your Time (feat. King Krule)