Oneida
Jagjaguwar
Until 2008’s Preteen Weaponry, Oneida were a frustratingly elusive band. They seemed to allow melody to win out over abstraction, content with quiet hints of dissonance rather than pushing the boat out to the more rewarding lunatic fringes. Their noise felt calculated yet self-conscious, and lacked the oomph of Liars or early Black Dice, fellow New Yorkers who arguably built on what Oneida began. With elements of free jazz, rock/post-tribal rhythms and slacker shuffle to their sound, it was hard to see exactly what Oneida were apart from just another Yankee-doodle-indie-band.
But that was before Weaponry kicked off the Thank Your Parents triptych, of which the three-disc CD Rated O is the middle panel. It sees Oneida moving the grooves and jams of that album forward to create a preposterously ambitious record and their finest work.
As statements of intent go, the dubby, farting noise of ‘Brownout In Logos’ with reverb-heaving, raga-esque vocals from Santa Cruz MC Dad-Ali Ziai (who may be made up) can’t really be bettered. If the first disc has a theme, it seems to be based around the percussive and atonal throb of avant-noise brutalism given a dub edge. ‘The Human Factor’ deploys a deep grumbling like the workings of a subterranean mine, over which drums clatter like a bucket fallen down a shaft, scattering rock and coal as it plummets. Deranged screams ensue. Disc two takes a more cosmic trip, with the rhythmic density of ‘Ghost In The Room’ occasionally allowing the spirit of prog to make an appearance, ‘I Was A Wall’’s burbling synths and murky sung chorus yet another swerve in direction before the sinuous spiritual drones of ‘Luxury Travel’. On the three-track third disc, proceedings become ever more psychedelic, before everything comes spinning to a halt with the heady, 20-minute ‘Folk Wisdom’.
Who knows what unearthly delights the next instalment of Oneida’s triptych might herald, or indeed how they can even top this phenomenal album. They blasted into life with Preteen… and moved into even stranger places with Rated O. Their next move looks set to be impeccably twisted, and it’ll anticipated with relish.
