Unknown Mortal Orchestra latest album IC-02 Bogotá arrived just a couple of months ago. Today, Ruban Nielson's psych-pop project has already announced its return with an upcoming EP called Curse, inspired by Italian horror movies of the 1970s and 1980s. It'll be out in a couple of weeks, but its lead single "Boys With The Characteristics Of Wolves" is out now.
Of the EP's themes, Nielson writes in a press release:
In the hearts of men there are sometimes goodnesses hidden but substantial, which would be the difference in times of woe between finding oneself at the mercy of a monster or a more heroic creature.
For the sake of sanity we can fool ourselves into believing these silver slivers of morality are visible from the outside, even when we know they aren’t. And anyway, so much of what we believe we can see from the outside is a mirage, especially these days.
In the clownish, happy-go-lucky soil of lies and chaos, a silly kind of music can grow; a senseless laughter, and we can amuse ourselves with it, however darkly. We can dance with lost minds and howl in valiant hysteria as the stormtroopers of death, confused and incredulous, pile us or those we love into their meat wagons.
"Boys With The Characteristics Of Wolves" is an eerie song with supernatural references and a beefy guitar riff on the chorus. The music video credits Nielson as its director; it splices together clips of what appear to be scenes from old giallo films, but all these different characters are mouthing along to the song lyrics. Quite a few folks in the YouTube comments are accusing it of being made with AI, and the press release notably excludes any further details on this very elaborate-looking clip. Interesting! See that and the Curse EP tracklist below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Aura"
02 "Boys With The Characteristics Of Wolves"
03 "Death Comes From The Sky"
04 "One Hundred Bats"
05 "Sorcerers Of Silence"
06 "Curse"
Curse is out 6/18 via Jagjaguwar.
