Unknown Mortal Orchestra release video game
Unknown Mortal Orchestra have unveiled a video game to coincide with the release of their latest single, Multi-Love.
Based around the title track from their forthcoming album of the same name, the video game takes players on a kind of kaleidoscopic rollercoaster ride of palm trees and techni-coloured fractals. It's available for PC, Mac and Unity.
As well as forming an apt means of deliverance for a brilliant piece of progressive shoe-gaze, the project has offered a platform for director Lionel Williams; a man who describes the work as representing “the vacuum of space by impressing upon inter-dimensional unfolding, immaterial objects, and time-driven reverberation of events. The virtual space allows for most 3D objects to trail in time – based on the directions one moves. You can construct & paint the objects in space to stretch them in any direction, to create infinitely vast compositional spaces.”
As much as the release of Multi-Love represents a novel multi-media move by a psychedelic band of Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s ilk, there is a long history of musicians involving themselves in the lucrative video games market.
The bonus Hotter Than Hell level on Tony Hawk’s Undergroundremains iconic for all mid 2000s, part-time skating fans. Hit a certain number of vert transfer in order and from a burst of green flames come glam-rock gods Kiss, valiantly strutting through a vaguely pixilated, hugely puppety version of God of Thunder.
In similar scenes of ridiculousness, The Beastie Boys feature on a version of NBA Jam as unlock-able characters. As well as bringing the heat against other secret characters, including Mr Leader of the Free World himself, President Obama, NBA Jam players could double up with the ludicrously bouffant Mike D and the late, great, 3 point specialist, MCA.
And from the sublime to the obscene, in 1994 Aerosmith released dystopian thriller/inexplicable rail shooter, Revolution X. In the game, players battle the oppressive New Order Nation regime in order to retrieve the kidnapped rockers. People from the ‘90s would use a mounted gun to control onscreen crosshairs and shoot enemies with compact discs.
Multi-Love is out on the 26th May on Jagjaguwar. Unknown Mortal Orchestra start their UK tour in Brighton on the 22nd September.
You can download the 3D Multi-Love app here: Mac | PC | Unity Pro Source file
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA UK TOUR DATES:
May 20 Bristol, UK @ Thekla SOLD OUT
May 21 London, UK @ Islington Assembly Hall SOLD OUT
May 22 Coventry, UK @ Warwick University w/ Django Django
May 23 Liverpool, UK @ Liverpool Sound City
Sep 22 Brighton, UK - Concorde 2
Sep 23 London, UK - O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Sep 24 Birmingham, UK - The Library at the Institute
Sep 25 Manchester, UK - The Ritz
Sep 26 Dublin, IE - Whelan's
Sep 28 Nottingham, UK - Rescue Rooms
Sep 29 Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club
Sep 30 Glasgow, UK - QMU
