• ONO - Red Summer
  • ONO - Red Summer

ONO - Red Summer

American Dreams

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The Lazarus-like return of ONO from 30+ years of cult obscurity was one of the best things to hit during the early lockdown stink.
Formed in 1980 as an "Experimental, Noise, and Industrial Poetry Performance Band Exploring Gospel's Darkest Conflicts, Tragedies and Premises", we already shouted red in the face about how good their 3rd album Ennui was (in stock now). The sonic grab-all of gospel, spoken word, no-wave/post-punk and dub continues; Red Summer's woozy industrial funk collages come on like the weirdest bad acid freak-outs of Funkadelic with a 2020 dystopian political vision. 
Hovering above 400 years of atrocity from 1619 to 2020 - each song acts as a kind of sonic loveletter to oppressed black history, hushed up by the powers that be. From the birth of slavery, 1919's Red Summer to the Tuskegee Experiment ("in 1961, John F. Kennedy gave me syphilis"). Red Summer's uncomfortable, vital, important listening that should be prescribed in schools instead of the national anthem, ideally.

 

Case in point; 'I Dream of Sodomy' is a damn infectious funky tale of ONO leader travis' personal rape experience during a stint in the US Army. The way ONO sets trauma to a bizzaro groove is like nothing else! Elsewhere 'Scab' sounds like the demented bleeping dub-rapscapes of fresh-faced acts like Model Home. 'Syphilis' gets me thinking of avant-rap legends Clouddead.....but with more slide guitar and sax squall....it probably tops the whole of the Anticon catalogue tbh (bite me).
You need ONO in your life, it's an education, it's a lesson, it's more experimental than half of all white experimental music with twice the soul and three times the message. 100% essential for fans of radical sonics from: Rammelzee / Death Comet Crew, clipping, Mourning [A] BLKstar, Pink Siifu, the Beatnigs, Billy Woods, M. Lamar, White Boy Scream, Moor Mother. 
P.S.: the records come served on marbled vinyl ('platinum edition of 300'), no less!

TRACKLIST:
1. 20th August 1619 02:48
2. Coon 04:15
3. BLK Skin 02:01
4. I Dream Of Sodomy 04:04
5. Scab 02:26
6. Sniper 05:16
7. 26 June 1919 01:48
8. Tar Baby 05:49
9. Syphilis 05:34
10. Black Stain 02:33
11. Sycamore Trees 06:19

 

20th August 1619


Coon


I Dream Of Sodomy


Tar Baby


Sycamore Trees