Today, Unknown Mortal Orchestra has announced their new record, Sex & Food, which will be released April 6th via Jagjaguwar. The follow-up to their critically acclaimed record Multi-Love, Sex & Food sees UMO mastermind Ruban Nielson tap into both familiar and unexpected territory. The delightfully shape-shifting album filters real-deal serious themes such as “What are we consuming? How is it affecting us, and why does everything feel so bad and weird sometimes?” through a vibrant sonic lens that spans battered drum-machine funk, doomy and thrashing rock, and pink-hued psychedelic disco.
It’s not a dark record, per se. Even the album’s title, Sex & Food, focuses on two of the most undeniably pleasurable experiences in life; positivity despite the strangeness of our times. The album was recorded in a variety of locales from Seoul and Hanoi to Reykjavik, Mexico City, and Auckland, not to mention Nielson’s home base studio in Portland. It is a practical musical travelogue, traversing the world as well as a wide spectrum of human experience. Nielson grapples with new, sometimes dismal realities, but succeeds in pulling the epiphanies from the chafe. Watch the video for the first single, “American Guilt,” and pre-order the album below. Additionally, here is some context behind “American Guilt” from Ruban Nielson:
“American Guilt” is an attempt to capture some of the feelings floating around these days. In a perverse way I wanted to embrace this abandoned genre of rock music that I keep reading is “dead” and invite people to hear what this living dead genre sounds like in the UMO universe. It was recorded in Hanoi, Vietnam during monsoon season in a studio built for traditional Vietnamese music. Additional recording was done in Mexico City but our sessions were interrupted by one of the devastating earthquakes that occurred there last year. As we slept in the Parque de Mexico, unable to get back to our Airbnb, we heard a man yell “viva la Mexico!” and I put this in the song out of respect for them.
SEX & FOOD TRACKLISTING
1. A God Called Hubris
2. Major League Chemicals
3. Ministry of Alienation
4. Hunnybee
5. Chronos Feasts on His Children
6. American Guilt
7. The Internet of Love (That Way)
8. Everyone Acts Crazy Nowadays
9. This Doomsday
10. How Many Zeros
11. Not in Love We’re Just High
12. If You’re Going to Break Yourself
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA TOUR DATES:
April 22 – Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street w/ Makeness
April 23 – Portland, ME @ Port City Music Hall w/ Makeness
April 25 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel w/ Makeness
April 26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel w/ Makeness
April 27 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club w/ Makeness
April 28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer w/ Makeness
April 30 – Boston, MA @ Royale w/ Makeness
May 1 – Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre w/ Makeness
May 2 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall w/ Makeness
May 3 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre w/ Makeness
May 4 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue w/ Makeness
May 7 – Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theatre w/ Makeness
May 8 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom w/ Makeness
May 9 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater w/ Makeness
May 10 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater w/ Makeness
May 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern w/ Makeness
May 12 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s w/ Makeness
May 18 – Hamburg, Germany @ Uebel & Gefährlich w/ Makeness
May 19 – Berlin, Germany @ Kesselhaus w/ Makeness
May 20 – Heidelberg, Germany @ Karlstorbahnhof w/ Makeness
May 21 – Düsseldorf, Germany @ zakk w/ Makeness
May 22 – Paris, France @ La Gaîté Lyrique w/ Makeness
May 24 – London, United Kingdom @ Roundhouse w/ Makeness
May 25 – Bristol, United Kingdom @ SWX w/ Makeness
May 26 – Manchester, United Kingdom @ Strange Waves
May 27 – Leeds, United Kingdom @ World Island
May 28 – Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique w/ Makeness
May 31 – Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound
June 10 – Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands @ Best Kept Secret Festival
July 6 – Richmond, VA @ The National w/ Shamir
July 7 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel w/ Shamir
July 8 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse w/ Shamir
July 9 – Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre w/ Shamir
July 11 – New Orleans, LA @ Republic w/ Shamir
July 12 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall w/ Shamir
July 13 – Austin, TX @ Stubbs BBQ w/ Shamir
July 14 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater w/ Shamir
July 16 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre w/ Shamir
July 17 – Ogden, UT @ Ogden Amphitheater w/ Sylvan Esso, Shamir
July 18 – Las Vegas, NV @ Vinyl at Hard Rock
July 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
August 10-11 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Haven
