Album Review: Unknown Mortal Orchestra – IC-01 Hanoi


IC 01 Hanoi



The sessions for Sex & Food, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s fourth album, spanned much of the globe including stops in Portland, Seoul and Reykjavik as well as Ruban Nielson’s native Auckland. They also stopped off in Hanoi, capital of Vietnam.

One night, UMO regulars Nielson and Jacob Portrait were jamming (rather wonderfully with his father, brother and a local musician Minh Nguyen), and so this splendid surprise came to fruition.

Back on their self-titled debut album of 2011, UMO were lo-fi, guitar-driven psychedeliacs. But as their career has progressed, they have broadened their palette to incorporate 21st century R&B, soul and a wealth of other influences. The crisp snare drums and guitars that defined their sound seemed to fall by the wayside, but now they are back with a vengeance.

Opener Hanoi 1 (all tracks are numbered in sequence, which either makes things incredibly easy or difficult, depending on your point of view) opens with a bang, an explosion of chugging bass and frenetic Hendrix guitars. Sadly, at just over a minute, it’s over before it begins and we enter and then take a walk around the Kasbah that is Hanoi 2. The wah-wah peddle is used to maximum effect, and the track is a jam in the best way. It’s aimless, but that gives it the element of surprise.

Hanoi 3 is Low-era Bowie (Side 2) in structure and atmosphere, using Lodger-era instrumentation. Hanoi 4, meanwhile, has a strutting beat, Nielson keeping the guitar simple but dominated by haunting atmospherics. Brass comes to the party on Hanoi 5, drizzling noir onto a tight piece held together by the snapping snare. It sounds like Amorphous Androgynous in a bad mood.

Most of the slices here are quite succinct, seven tracks comprising less than half an hour – all except Hanoi 6 which clocks in at nearly ten minutes. It’s a meandering sojourn, initially dominated by a didgeridoo (there’s really not enough of that around today), which is then usurped by all manner of effects and instruments, including some wonderful saxophone. A ten minute instrumental dominated by the sax has no right to be as enticing as this is. Lastly, closer Hanoi 7 grinds things down to a slightly drawn out conclusion, the guitar and bass getting one more run out.

If you hadn’t already gathered the, IC-01 Hanoi is an instrumental album. In fact, it’s hard to see it as anything more than a series of jams. Not utilising Nielson’s distinctive winsome vocals could be construed as a waste, but it offers everything else, including the kitchen sink, a moment in the spotlight. This is great music to fall asleep to, in that it encourages your sub-conscious to enter places and zones you don’t even know exist.

With IC-01 Hanoi and Sex & Food debuting within eight months of each other UMO are having their cake, but fortunately the listener gets to be the one to eat it.

(Richard Bowes)


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