Oneida
Anthem of the Moon

THE REVIEW

The Oneida are nothing but a trio of nerds from the Big Apple who, disregarding any historical dignity, put all the music created over the past forty years back on the table, reshuffling it. Old Hippies in the chill out room is how they love to define themselves due to their influences, which range from the raw visceral energy of the still alien MC5 and Stooges to the decadent new wave à la Suicide. Thus, after having paid homage to rock'n'roll in the ontological sense of the term with the very fuzzy "Come On Everybody Let's Rock", they open up to greater experimentation in this "Anthem Of The Moon" (2001, Jagjaguwar).

Recorded in the stones, in a mobile unit among some ruins in New England, it paints, using true field recordings, nature in its darkest and most fascinating side, in its total mystery and elusiveness. "Anthem Of The Moon" is a 20th Century Bucolic, always in balance between countryside and metropolis, a trip of dissonances, created by the continuous play by these three New Yorkers between past and future: pop with a noise twist ("All Arounder" and "Geometry"), seductive rustic ballads soaked in the most deafening noise ("Rose And Licorice") and schizophrenic wave ("New Head" and "The Wooded World") thrown together in this kaleidoscope of lights and shadows that will assault your eardrums. Not even the Chicago-inspired post-rock evoked by "Still Rememberin Hidin In The Stones" and the monumental "People Of The North", with its instrumental tail in its strict anarchic free-form style and that breathtaking dialogue between keyboards and drums, will give you any respite: your head will bounce here and there in this chaos born from the cerebral madness of Oneida. So crazy, these three jerks, that they even manage to satisfy those who wondered where the hell the guitars had gone: "Double Lock Your Mind", twelve minutes of garage-punk fury that recalls the ghosts of Detroit. An incoherent ending to an incoherent album, created by a delightfully incoherent group.

One of the peaks of the Psychedelia of the new millennium. Ka-Boom!

PS: Those interested in purchasing, try to grab the vinyl reissue, with a fetishistically divine artwork, in the Deluxe Edition by Rocket Recordings ('03).