Unknown Mortal Orchestra plan on releasing the new EP ‘Blue Record‘ next month in the wake of their sublime 2013 long player ‘II‘.
The acoustic EP includes covers of Beck‘s ‘Puttin’ It Down‘ and Dirty Projectors‘ ‘Swing Lo Magellan‘, is out on October 29th as part of an expanded version of the ‘II’ album and, according to Ruban Nielson, is the result of him picking up an acoustic guitar for the first time last year.
“I’d always preferred the idea that the guitar converts a sound into voltage and then becomes really loud,” he remarks. “I thought the acoustic guitar was a little bit too twee for me or something. But after being offered some opportunities to play various acoustic sessions to promote the new record, in situations where it wasn’t possible to record the whole band, I decided to treat it like a challenge to try and play acoustic and not have it be lame.”
“After recording three songs from ‘II’ I started thinking about doing some other songs that I like. I thought that I’d do an old song I’d always liked even when I was a kid and a new song that I’ve been listening to a lot recently. The old song is ‘Puttin It Down’ by Beck. It’s on the album Stereopathic Soulmanure and I always loved the lyrics. So funny and so sad. To me this song is super real.”
Unknown Mortal Orchestra are due in the UK in November for Manchester and London shows which are part of a wider, month-long European trek.