Secret Wars

With their new full-length record, Brooklyn sons Oneida simply start where they left off with "Each One Teach One," their highly acclaimed and soon-to-be classic double CD and LP. But these purveyors of righteous noise and indignation never stop in the first place. Almost immediately after wrapping "Each One Teach One," they collaborated with the Liars on a split EP while touring both Europe and the United States. In the meantime, they also created "Secret Wars." Their trademark iterated and psych-tinged noise attack is still fully intact, both nervous and subdued at the same time -- like what happens when you give meditative children trained in the ways of yoga an excessive amount of caffeine. If there are any new wrinkles to be discovered, it is perhaps that, even more so than on "Each One Teach One" (Oneida's "Tago Mago"), Oneida seem to be mining the same fertile ground as Kraut-rock visionaries Can, effortlessly shedding the constraints of pop forms and structures while still remaining soulful and spiritually centered all along. Like spazzing out in the Lotus position. The album was recorded and mixed by Oneida at the Travel Agency and with Nicolas Vernhes (who recorded the most recent albums by Black Dice, Ted Leo, Fischerspooner, amongst others) at the Rare Book Room.