Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Unknown Mortal Orchestra was formed by the brothers Ruban and Kody Nielson in New Zealand and is now based in Portland, Oregon, and they have been successfully marauding on the intersection between funk- and psychedelic-rock for a good decade now. The focus is also very much on the groove on their double album V, which broadens the spectrum to include traditional, sun-drenched westcoast-AOR that is also not shy of Hawaiian hapa-haole sounds, and all garnished with a healthy pinch of weirdo pop. On the latest single “Layla”, it sounds as if a stoned electric guitar had encountered out-of-tune ukuleles by the pool bar, while the singer, robed in a casual large-scale print, seems unable to decide between madness and melancholy, carried by magnificent choirs celebrating a laid-back head-nodding refrain that becomes a companion for an entire summer – and beyond – spent in a deckchair.