Ninth time is the charm for Brooklyn band

Oneida’s ninth album, Preteen Weaponry, is an epic journey into one band’s idea of how the… Oneida’s ninth album, Preteen Weaponry, is an epic journey into one band’s idea of how the future will feel and what will be necessary for survival. It’s the first installment in a promised triptych entitled ‘Thank Your Parents,’ a series of three albums that Oneida says will form the band members’ vision and take music in the direction they believe it will head in the future.’ The album develops like evolution’s constant replacement of species based on survival necessities, with sound patterns that continue to adapt throughout the album. Oneida’s vision suggests that its trance-like, stripped-down sound will provide the background for meditation, a necessity for survival in a complex future. As a band that has been together for over 10 years, Oneida has survived many musical incarnations and band line-ups. Current members include drummer Kid Millions, guitarist and vocalist Bobby Matador and guitarist and bassist Hanoi Jane. The band’s Brooklyn origins can be heard both in its passionate energy, which stems from living in a fast-paced city, and in the way sounds influence each other in a reactionary manner, similar to the effect of a random conversation with a stranger. Oneida’s music, as well as that of other bands given similar trance and post-rock labels such as Explosions in the Sky and The Mars Volta, is developing the niche for intricate instrumental compositions that are meant to inspire intensely focused thought. These bands combine a forward-looking composition with primal drumbeats and sound patterns, creating music that looks both forward and backward. The first of the album’s three songs opens with intermittent cymbal crashes punctuating distorted feedback that sounds like the guitar player has been locked in an underground chamber against his will. Then a drumbeat begins to build, and a guitar riff emerges, disappears and re-emerges in a cycle that repeats throughout the album. Each song is built by the continuous overlap and seamless flow of these individual sound layers. The subtle development of each song creates the intense, trance-like focus that makes Oneida’s ability to encourage universal feelings and deep thought its main strength. When listened to by an imaginative ear, the album can inspire such diverse images as bombed-out wastelands, underwater dives into darkness and heroic battles fought over vast empires. Oneida’s affinity for repetition and antique instruments, such as keyboards and analog electric pianos, could be viewed as limiting. Oneida’s strength, showcased in past releases like the Each One Teach One LP, as well as Preteen Weaponry, is in its ability to make repetition sound fresh by creating patterns in its songs and experimenting with the relationships between sounds. Oneida also constructs Preteen Weaponry with its own set of unconventional restrictions, such as a lack of vocals and the decision to construct its next two albums as part of the three-part series it started. These restrictions make it easy to say Oneida is constricting its music. However, with multiple listens and consideration of the band’s musical vision, what seems like restriction is actually intense creative focus. Oneida’s unconventional approach to music makes it simple to dismiss the album as mere chaotic noise that is too difficult to understand and not worth the required effort. It will take several listens to acquire an appreciation for its subtle development and flow, but the time will be worth the album’s eventual inspirational possibilities.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Preteen Weaponry provides an escape from the outside world. My escape was into an inner world where I built, conquered, destroyed and rebuilt a desert kingdom in the 42 minutes it takes to listen to the album. This is music that asks the question, ‘What will I think next?’