oneida & wilderness

oneida -rated o

the latest release from brooklyn's best, a triple album and the second in their 'thank your parents' trilogy (claimed to be a statement on music in the 21st century). the songs are varied in length and sound, and blend and bleed together like an audio laffy-taffy. things start with 'brown out in lagos,' an almost dancehall track with blown-out bass drum, cowbell, sci-fi rayguns, and a hard rubbery bassline that steps in midsong. along the way is 'the life you prefered' with a guitar riff that sounds like something local siezure inducing heroes wildcatting/bars of gold would drop, in its decptively light playful power. my favorite: the 20 minute super jam 'folk wisdom.' it doesn't so much pull you in, it's not what your world becomes, it is your every perception, impulse, and concious ideal for the extent your time listening to it. those are but a taste of what is explored on this record, which there simply is not enought space to describe here. super duper psych jams for your temple of drunken mind melt worship, man.

wilderness - (k)no(w)here

part of a collaboration with visual artist charles long (who aslo worked with stereolab on a another exhibition at the witney in 1995) and a continuation in the band's serpentine drone rock. wilderness present epic soundscapes of reverb drenched gutars, minimal bass lines, and slow quaking drums with hollering vocals challenging the worlds self-absorbed living patterns. this, their third album, blends every track together in a cascading wave. wilderness has some how melded less and more, with the songs being barer than on the previous two albums, but the whole record comes off as full and omnipresent. 'own anything' is almost a pop tune in it's directness and catchiness, whereas 'soft cage' is a simmering seven and a half minute creation that subverts it's own tension two-thirds of the way through to become calm and resevered. the movements in each song come together into a tapestry, turning into one piece that takes multiple listens to decode. with two other releases that are different from most anything else but still uniqely their own, wilderness is in their own way holding true to the statement best associated with the fall: always the same, always different.

both bands i am totally obsessed with, and can be found on the jagjaguwar label, which houses oneida's pet label brah records and put out 'the lord dog bird,' solo album of colin mc cann, wilderness' guitar player. brah has all sorts of awesome different wierd wonderfuls, and the lord dog bird album is looped guitar and powerful wavering vocals on a plate of warm 4-track hiss. do yourself a favor and get into this shit. thanks for reading!

-frank