Staff Reviews

Oneida - Absolute II

Review by Neil Ashman

What Absolute II is supposed to represent in the Thank Your Parents trilogy isn't entirely clear, but then that's to be expected with a group of Oneida's esoteric disposition.»

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'absolute 2' is the final piece in oneida's thank your parents triptych of releases, begun in 2008 with 'preteen weaponry' and followed by 2009's acclaimed triple disc 'rated o'. with this release, the brooklyn group concludes a challenging and profound long-term project. the thank your parents triptych, totaling around 200 minutes, is intended to be listened to as a whole or in its component parts. 'absolute 2' stands on its own, in addition to serving as a chapter in an immense whole. the music on 'absolute 2' is startling, rigorous and demanding. oneida is a band that has been strongly identified with the frenetic, fluid drumming of kid millions and the relentless pulse of classic krautrock, but this release contains neither audible drums nor identifiable 'rock' music. the recordings move freely across accepted boundaries of rhythm, harmony, and tonality - not in the form of dramatic, willful experiment, but as a musical distillation of several themes that have emerged in the wake of rated o's dynamism: paralysis, entropy, stasis, possibility, and finality among them.
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