On The Verge

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Portland, Ore.
Psychedelic R&B
www.unknownmortalorchestra.com

“Her name is Janet Farrar. She’s the high priestess of a witches’ coven in Ireland,” explains Ruban Nielson, sole proprietor of the Portland, Ore.-by-way-of-New Zealand trip-pop outfit Unknown Mortal Orchestra about the sexy/spooky Smiths-esque cover art for his latest LP II. “Janet holding the sword is a powerful image and one that suits the album well.” As these 10 songs find Nielson intent on slicing through his competition on the college radio charts by ramping up the production value of his bedroom-born, his self-described “psychedelic R&B” owes as much to Frank Zappa as it does to Frank Ocean. But while he has expanded his band to include drummer Greg Rogove and bassist Jacob Portrait, II was once again primarily sired by the artist himself, who seems to enjoy the process too much to switch things up just yet. “Recording by myself is a lot of fun,” he muses. “I just sit around until an idea comes and build the recording at my own speed. I do some funny things. Sometimes, I’ll play a simple bass line over a looped drum sample for three hours, just over and over trying to burn it into my head.”