Unmistakably a zeitgeist record that neatly ticks most of the boxes on the 2011 hipster’s list, the eponymous debut from UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA (Seeing Records) is a bit of a curate’s egg. Ex-Mint Chick Ruban Nielson demonstrates his strengths and exposes his frailties over the course of 10 songs that lurch between inspirational and underdeveloped. Of the former, songs like How Can You Luv Me and Little Blue House are fully deserving of the praise being showered upon them internationally, which only emphasises the slide in quality and innovation as the album progresses to a messy end. By all accounts, the band add value live, and if Nielson and cohorts can progress from lazy breakbeat sampling and passing off a killer EP with a chunk of filler as an album, their future is looking very bright.
Wellington four-piece MarineVille make an admirable racket on their third album, FOWL SWOOP, that feels refreshingly free of tropes-du-jour and has already been picked up by US indie Last Visible Dog. The recent recruitment of ex-3Ds/Look Blue Go Purple bassist Denise Roughan will undoubtedly, and not unfairly, attract Flying Nun references, but there’s considerably more to it than that, particularly when they let loose on the Cravats-ish opener, The Birds in the Trees.