Tom Hughes 

Oneida: Rated O

With genuinely novel sounds, the best bits of Rated O are well worth digging for, says Tom Hughes
  
  


The 10th album by these noise-crazed Brooklyn artrock mainstays contains an hour or so of blazingly, brilliantly strange rock'n'roll – all primitivist/futurist riffing, high-altar psychedelia and genuinely novel sounds conjured from ancient analogue equipment. Problem is, Rated O is – no joke – 108 minutes long, and there are bits of it that just sound like someone screaming at a buzzing strip light. As it is a triple album, itself part of a trilogy of albums, it inevitably sees Oneida's traditionally uncompromising approach to song length and repetition run wild.

But so be it: how else would they arrive at the beautiful, alien synth-scape of 10.30 at the Oasis, or the temple-steps chants and morphing melodies of Luxury Travel? Oneida's show-your-working approach undoubtedly justifies judicious use of the skip button, but the best bits of Rated O are well worth digging for.

 

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