While largely known for their fluid, hook-heavy psychedelic pop,
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
occasionally lean harder into the improvisatory side of their musical personality. In 2018,
UMO
launched their Improvisation/Collaboration Series as a place designated for their more searching, jazz-like impulses, kicking things off with the
Miles Davis
-informed, fully instrumental album
IC-01 Hanoi
.
IC-02 Bogotá
arrives seven years later as the second installment of the series. Once again, this set of tunes is completely instrumental, boiling away the structure and composition on which the band usually builds their songs in favor of raw, lushly tropical grooves. "Earth 1" introduces the general sound of the album, with skittering percussion and rubbery bass looping in psychedelic circles for over 11 minutes. After a bit of vamping, a loose electric piano solo takes over, gliding playfully over the song's overlapping grooves. There's more of a rock push in the guitars and bumpy drums of "Earth 2," but the clunky drum machines and laser-gun synths of "Earth 3" are a dead ringer for
Cluster
, with added flute riffing giving a nod to early
Kraftwerk
and a saxophone solo recentering the jazz elements of the IC series. "Heaven 7" sounds perhaps the most in line with the dreamy neo-psychedelic sound
are best known for, only lacking vocals to make more space for warbly synths.
was recorded completely in Bogotá, Colombia, and the sound throughout is one of a band taking in their environment and creating new music out of thin air. It's light, fun, and exploratory, and the sheen of muted production gives the entire album a haze of tropical humidity. There's not much to latch onto here by way of hooks, but the atmosphere is thick and immaculate. ~ Fred Thomas