Oneida has been a cornerstone of the Brooklyn underground for nearly two decades. Always evolving, the group has been a beacon of musical exploration and enthralling unpredictability, gaining legendary status among heads that know and expanding the limits of what it means to be a rock band. With a discography spanning over a dozen full-lengths, plus live releases, EPs, singles, and limited one-offs, Oneida has demonstrated a mastery of collective improvisation, off-kilter songwriting, complex composition, and everything in between.
In 2011 Oneida lost its home base, its studio dubbed the Ocropolis in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, due to the pervasive gentrification and over- development of the neighbourhood that was once a thriving arts community. After watching the Monster Island building that housed the Ocropolis transform into a pile of rubble, the band began an intense period of exploration and discovery, retreating from the studio in favor of the stage, and birthing a panoply of limited, uncompromising releases that documented the band’s continuously unfolding journey.
Six years after the release of A List of the Burning Mountains, the final emission from the Ocropolis, the band release their newest studio creation Romance, their first album for Joyful Noise Recordings and a record marked by wild eclecticism, even for a group known for its shape-shifting nature.
Recorded over several years in various locales, the 11 songs on Romance are built around deeply developed long-arc rhythm / phase concepts, noise, yearning, blind guitar rage, longing, the lurch of dying electronics, and a multi-modal embrace of human fallibility and artifice. From the crackling synth-led opener Economy Travel to the expansive 18-minute epic Shepherd’s Axe, Romance is an album in constant flux. On Bad Habit the band employs phasing between organ and guitar to great, disorienting effect, while the primitive riffs of Cockfight offer a contrasting vision of rock minimalism. Listen closely on Lay of the Land and you will hear constant rhythmic development, with drummer Kid Millions eschewing repetition in favor of morphing patterns of hi-hat and snare. As with all mystery, Romance reveals more through closer attention and multiple listens.
Through it all Oneida remains a powerful collective voice, a propulsive force for wildness and excitement, with Romance heralding the return of the epic, artful ballad version of the journey.
Please note that Romance is currently not in store but is an imported title from an overseas supplier.
Most of the time it takes around 2-3 weeks for the item to arrive here and be sent out but it can take longer if there are any delays.