There could hardly be a more apt sounding death knell for lo-fi indie garage than Nathan Williams’ infantile pop farts. Both the genre and Wavves itself have been due a backlash for some time now.
Latest Reviews
28-07-2010 Wavves – King of the Beach
27-07-2010 M.I.A. – /\/\ /\ Y /\
In another universe, parallel to ours but not too distant, Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulpragasam is the pivotal character in Pulp’s ‘Common People’.
27-07-2010 Sleigh Bells – Treats
Everyone seems to hear something different in the kind of piercing racket that only the pairing of a former hardcore guitarist and an ex-girl group singer could produce
27-07-2010 Devo – Something for Everybody
The album rolls back the years and sates Devo-addicts’ cravings for more of the same. The lack of artistic progression is inevitable. After all, de-evolution is real…
26-04-2010 The Black Keys – Brothers
There’s no reason why the soul or spirit of a recording studio should rub off on people who record there (…)
Reviews
Oneida
Rated O
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.
Popularity: unranked [?]
