Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Unknown Mortal Orchestra is a rock band built around New Zealand-born songwriter, guitarist and singer Ruban Nielson, who founded the project after his earlier band The Mint Chicks disbanded. The lineup has settled around Nielson, bassist Jake Portrait and Kody Nielson on drums and synths, with the group based between New Zealand and Portland, Oregon. Their sound blends psychedelic rock, funk, soul and lo-fi bedroom-pop textures, built on fuzzed-out guitar tones, warped falsetto vocals and loose, groove-driven rhythms.

The band emerged in the early 2010s with a self-titled debut that quickly built a cult following through tracks like «Ffunny Ffrends». They expanded their palette on later albums, incorporating heavier funk and R&B influences, most notably on Multi-Love, whose title track and «Can’t Keep Checking My Phone» became some of their best-known songs. Later records such as Sex & Food pushed further into eclectic, genre-hopping territory recorded across multiple countries.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra is respected for its DIY production ethos, with much of the early material recorded and mixed by Nielson himself, giving the band a distinctive warm, tape-saturated sound. Songs like «Multi-Love» and «Hunnybee» remain staples of their live sets and streaming presence, and the group continues to tour and record as one of the more distinctive psych-rock acts of its generation.