Oneida's "Rated O" Links With "Train Kept A-Rollin'"

CD Review

By Steven Rosen
Oneida

Rated O
(Jagjaguwar)




It's a funny thing. Growing up with rock, and its anchor in strong dependable rhythms and electric-guitar explorations, it can be tough to sit through the sweeping melodies of great classical composers because the progression of movements seems so random and lacking in a steady beat. And there's no electric guitar.

But what should be much harder to get accustomed to - avant-garde soundscapes that rely by turns on repetition or austere, meditative spaciness - are much easier to like. Steve Reich, Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Angus MacLise, etc., all in some mysterious way relate to Link Ray's "Rumble" or that fuzzy guitar on the Rock and Roll Trio's driving "Train Kept A-Rollin." And you can hear them all in the Velvet Underground or Eno or Pink Floyd.

All of which is to say that while Oneida's three-disc freakout of predominately instrumental music, Rated O, may be an experimental journey into unknown pockets of the post-rock universe, it's actually quite accessible. Just a little long. Even the most test-your-mettle moments, as when the quintet channels Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music on "What's Up, Jackal", have a bounce you can get behind.

The group - drummer Kid Millions, keyboardist Bobby Matador, bassist Hanoi Jane, guitarist Showtime and synth player/co-producer (with the other band members) Barry London - does its best to confound its inherent accessibility through all the weird names (not Barry London) and head-scratching pronouncements that Rated O is the middle part of an album trilogy, thus necessitating its need to be a three-disc affair.

But the sitar-driven space rock of the song "O" is gorgeous, stirringly expansive music, and there are many other highlights. The slightly mad chant-singing of guest Dod-Ali Ziai, amid the clangorous percussion and patches of bubbly sampling in "Brownout in Lagos," is delightful. And the exciting Santana-meets-Vanilla Fudge guitar build-up on "Ghost in the Room" reminds you that the electric guitar is our classical music now.

Maybe the symphony orchestras should rearrange Beethoven for electric guitars and synths, and see if it brings in the rockers. And Oneida could play it.

Standout Tracks: "Brownout in Lagos," "O"