Over the last decade or so, Brooklyn’s Oneida have steadily built a reputation as one of the most interesting and creative-minded US indie acts working today. Despite the fact that the core band members trade under the deeply silly names Hanoi Jane, Kid Millions and Bobby Matador, they make intelligent music that’s woven from myriad unlikely influences.
And never more so than on this outing. While they’ve made straightforward rock in the past (most notably the does-what-it-says-on-the-tin Come On Everybody Let’s Rock), and rather less straightforward psychedelic (Anthem Of The Moon), this new album can’t be pigeonholed. The genre is there is no genre.
Happy New Year opens sounding like an album of Gregorian chants and, over its 11 eclectic tracks, gradually progresses through psychedelia, electronica, krautrock, balladry, and, oh, lots of other stuff besides. Hardly surprising, given that there’s a multitude of guests and co-experimenters. Frequent Oneida contributor Barry London is joined by Shahin Motia of Ex-Models and Brad Truax of Home. Phil Manley of Trans Am and the Fucking Champs, and experimental pianist Emily Manzo (both of whom contributed to 2005’s The Wedding) also feature on several tracks.
Bobby Matador’s vocals sound other-worldly at times. His lyrics are certainly poetic, if a touch indecipherable. Take the opening verse of ‘The Misfit’: “I banked the plane into the clouds the tundra’s static surface/ Drops beneath the spinning wheels of matter and of purpose/ The Misfit’s empty presence drags me to the earth and matter/ The sun stops my waking dream/ Much sadder, much sadder, much sadder.”
Some listeners will find this to be unbearably pretentious art-wank, others will undoubtedly be entranced and enchanted. Comparisons are difficult, but file it somewhere between Dead Can Dance and Mercury Rev at their most sublime, and have a happy new year. Or not, as the case may be.