Unknown Mortal Orchestra have shared their first new music for the yr, a single titled ‘I Killed Captain Cook’ that arrives alongside a video starring frontman Ruban Nielson’s mom.
The acoustic ballad is informed from the attitude of the Hawaiian who killed British explorer and coloniser Captain James Cook, after he tried to kidnap and ransom Hawaiian chief Kalaniʻōpuʻu in 1779. According to a press launch, Nielson’s mom would inform him the story as a baby with satisfaction.
“I wrote this song for my mother, who is a legendary hula dancer and native Hawaiian,” Nielson wrote on social media when sharing the tune. “I made the video with my super 8 camera; my mum, my daughter, and I went to the beach at Keaukaha in Hilo, Hawaii, where mum interpreted the song in her language of hula. After some light warm rain, I ran my camera and captured this moment.”
According to press supplies, ‘I Killed Captain Cook’ is the primary preview of a forthcoming double album Unknown Mortal Orchestra will launch in 2023. The observe follows two standalone singles the band launched in 2021 – ‘That Life’ and ‘Weekend Run’.
The band’s final full-length was 2018’s ‘Sex & Food’. In a three-star assessment, NME stated the album sees UMO “pushing their sound impressively, bending the rule book as crudely as they can before the spine breaks”.
Since ‘Sex & Food’ was launched, UMO have shared a canopy of David Bowie‘s ‘Oh! You Pretty Things’ and remixed the likes of Soccer Mommy, Westerman and Arlo Parks. They’ve additionally shared a string of prolonged instrumental ambient tracks, the latest being ‘SB-09’ final yr.