"walk in the ever-widening circle / never reaching home"
Upon first hearing Oneida’s double CD, Each One Teach One, I stared at my stereo like it was possessed. The first disc contains two songs: one fourteen-minutes-plus and a second sixteen-minutes-plus. Both are very monotonous songs— imagine a CD on constant skip.
Upon closer inspection, I discovered the tempo does shift, albeit imperceptibly— nearly enough to induce meditation. "Sheets of Easter" and "Antibiotics" are walls of sound, requiring an open mind and lots of patience. By the time the songs had ended, my impression of them had changed: the level of intensity had risen, and the background layers behind the beat had begun to separate and float about on their own— wisps of ghosts of songs I heard in the back of my ear.
The second disc is much more accessible, but still pushes boundaries. "Each One Teach One" (the song) is beautiful, reminding me of the classic eighties bands This Mortal Coil and Dead Can Dance. "People of the North" has a Nine Inch Nails feel; desperate, moody, understated, and waiting to explode and give you satisfaction (which it doesn’t.) "Number Nine" is full of trippy droning vocals and sparse music that builds up to a cacophony. "Rugaru" is coordinated noise, with guitar stabs sounding like a wounded animal. It’s a haunted bedtime lullaby. "Black Chamber" is the Cure’s "Lullaby" for a new generation; a comforting music box filled with creepy darkness.
Oneida uses music instead of paint, and they go outside the lines very often. The music is strange but incredibly affecting, vivid, and even beautiful. The more time I spent with them, the more it seemed to make sense. The thing most overlooked with music like this is the talent required to pull it off. In another band’s hands, this would be one holy mess of noise. In Oneida’s capable hands, it is a sonic quest for the other side.
Finding comparisons for this band is not an easy task; I believe the sound is reminiscent of other Brooklyn bands, perhaps Stereobate or Secret Machines (incessant sound and experimentation, but not as reliant on melody), or even the Walkmen and the French Kicks (off-kilter sound but with several additional layers on top). Oneida is Mercury Rev’s reflection in a shattered mirror— with a bit of splattered mud for good effect. Their music is hallucinatory punk-post-millennial-angst-ambient-jazz. They involved my iPod with some musical anarchy for a while and it was very much appreciated.
Oneida will be touring in Europe in May. They have an EP called Secret Wars coming out in the spring on Ace Fu Records, and are working on a new full-length, The Wedding, scheduled for a fall release.