It's been a minute, but Oneida is back. On March 9th, Joyful Noise releases Romance, following the long-running New York combo's 2016 collaboration with Rhys Chatham and A List of the Burning Mountains, released way back in 2012, which practically feels like decades ago in this hyper-accelerated timeline we've stumbled into. But the new record doesn't sound rusty, finding drummer Kid Millions, organist Bobby Matador, and guitarist Shahin Moita tearing through a set of songs that oscillate between lurching fury, flickering electronics, and spinning textures. It's a scattered outing, but Matador says there's never been one single, set way for Oneida to make a record, and in that way, Romance's varied offerings feel of a piece with the band's discography.
"I’m not sure Oneida would agree that in our case there’s such a thing as a standard formula for making a record," Matador says. "That may be true in a broader sense for other bands, but our process has always varied widely and been approached without preconception. Sure, Romance was a product of Mally’s tacos and posole and Peruana Woodhaven chicken and plantains, as well as one of the most insane paellas ever presented to a band staying on a Catalan horse farm — literally cooked by a little old lady! — but it’s not as if the Polish Platters that fueled Secret Wars, or the whole salmon we poached during Come On Everybody Let’s Rock, or the Radagast weisswursts and pretzel rolls of Rated O are any more 'standard,' you know? You can go all the way back to 1997 and the desperate Guytina’s wings and Silver House dumplings that fueled A Place Called El Shaddai’s and not find a pattern or a recipe for Oneida’s music -- except obviously sopes and tamales for breakfast at Grand Morelos, and that shit is no different for Romance. And we like it that way."
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