BATTLES

Battles have shrunk to a duo now, having lost bassist and guitarist Dave Konopka after Tyondai Braxton. Both of them are missed in the Battles sound, but I've got to give to the two remaining members that they try to make the most of it. This means particularly that this album is a firework of ideas, surprises, and originality. The previous La Di Da Di was much more consistent with a clear thread running through the album; Juice B Crypts rather tries to push some borders on most tracks. The overall sound though can be seen as an element of consistency also in Juice B Crypts, and with the Battles oeuvre in general. This comes without bass and with much less guitar now, synthesizers, electronics and Stanier's mighty (and occasionally quite noisy) drums take the center stage with some vocals (by guest vocalists) thrown in once in a while, and even rarer guitar. Ian Williams loves fat, round, and sequenced sounds. Typically for Battles, it's a very rhythmical and physical affair (to which both the drums and the sequenced synsounds contribute), pretty fast and mind boggling at times, with quite a few changes within the tracks; I should note that these make musical sense and come across as reasonably organic (which is not always the case in math rock my perception). For sure some glorious grooves are to be found here.

The overall mood is a special thing about this album, unique and not easy to pin down. Surely it's rather bright and pulsating, the happiness that this conveys is superficial enough that we can wonder what's behind it... something deeper or... nothing? The missing bass often leaves an empty space between the drums and the electronic sounds that is too obvious to be ignored. In many places the music comes over as robotic, and somewhat alien to natural human instincts. Some more humanity and variety comes in through the use of various vocalists (among them Jon Anderson). Some of the voices are manipulated and somewhat roboterised, and only underline the outerworldly feeling, we also get some rap, and where the singing is more "natural", it points to the strangeness of the other proceedings by contrast. I guess many listeners will miss warmth and emotional depth here, but what can be perceived as deficiency can also be seen as a quality, the impression of emotional superficiality may itself be too superficial to do this music justice, and the depth is as much implied as it seems missing where we look for it. For all the superficial fun, complexity, and brightness, I sense yearning for something lost as another somewhat deeper element here, barely hidden by some of the smiling noise making at the surface.

This is a strikingly unique and innovative album with a happy-go-lucky and making-a-noise tendency that may be frustrating at times, but there's much to discover behind it. Williams and Stanier have succeeded to built something very special from the Battles elements that are left; maybe they have tried a bit too hard. I'm curious how this will do for me in the long run. For now I say 3.7 stars.

Battles is another of those Post/Math rock bands that stretch the limits of the genre into some interesting territory. The band was formed in 2002 by Ian Williams (Don Caballero) and John Stanier (Helmut, Tomahawk), along with Dave Konopa and Tyondai Braxton. They mixed their sounds into a unique blend of experimental and innovative math rock, often going way out and beyond the boundaries of the genre, just like "Fly Pan Am", whose 2019 album I reviewed yesterday, Battles stretches the boundaries of the genre to the breaking point.

Battles album "Juice B Crypts", released in October of 2019, is their 4th studio full length album. The core band is down to the duo of Ian (guitar, keybords) and John (drums, percussion), but also features many guests on some of the tracks. The album is made up of 11 tracks and has a run time of 40 minutes.

"Ambulance" starts with some bright and sparkling synth loops and manipulations and then some punchy guitar effects herald in the upbeat rhythm. The guitar loops with a nice catchiness, but also works to intensify things. After some messing around with short riff style themes, the music again punches forward, utilizing variations of repetitive patterns to develop the track into a nice, happy sound, that, while keeping that experimental undertone, actually feels bright and poppy, while also being a bit complex. This great beginning is followed up by "A Loop So Nice?.", which has a more automated feel to it, at least in the robotic, electronic background. In the meantime, other synthesized and manipulated sound work to build on some semblance of melody. Even though, thus far, the album less noisy than the "C'est Ca" album released by Fly Pan Am the month previous, it is still very innovative and unique, less noisy than that album, but more attached to melodic structure.

Things get really weird though on "They Played it Twice" which features Xenia Rubinos singing pop-like vocals while her vocals swing around in the rafters above synth sounds that fly off in every direction, not necessarily in time with the vocals, and that mix of experimentalism with art-pop just messes with your head, but in a nice way. It's an interesting combination of traditional pop and avant-garde wanderings. On "Sugar Foot" however, we get two guest vocalists, Jon Anderson from "Yes" and Prairie WWWW speaking in Japanese. Again, bright synth sounds go flying off in all directions, while a funky wah wah sound flutters around and Anderson sings high, nonsense syllables. A beat kicks in and a lower frequency plays around. Suddenly, the beat goes off the rails and Anderson's vocals change around, adding in some loops and regular singing. All of the layers tend to create a bit of haphazard sensibilities, but later, it all comes together in a very fast beat with a bright and swirling melody. Just like the title, it is really sugary, but yet oddly complex and variable at the same time.

"Fort Greene Park" features pulsating chords from a bright synth and a cool guitar effect that has a percussive edge to it. These two instruments play together for a while before rolling cymbals bring about a change, a squeaky, whistling guitar pumps out some cool sounds surrounded by another guitar layer and more synths. The track seems a lot less haphazard than the last track, more focused yet also exploratory. Again, even with the flighty sound of the music, the melody still remains the anchoring force in the track, but later, things calm a bit and become more controlled, eventually the percussion falls off and we are left with the electronic sound of the keys. "Titanium 2 Step" features the vocals of Sal Principato. Again, the mood is happy and carefree, the vocals flitting around, chasing the synth and guitar lines playfully as the drums beat out interesting patterns. The feel of the track seems to be a funky, catchy, almost big-band style with the joyful vocals more of an additional instrument than resembling anything lyrical.

"Hiro 3" is a short track featuring processed piano and plucked notes playing in contrast to the piano riff. "IZM" features more vocals, this time from Shabazz Palaces. The vocals are somewhere between rap and hip-hop, but the electronics flutter and fly around it all, not haphazardly, but in a pattern with variations added in. The beat comes along with a moderate speed, but never staying in any one pattern for long. As the vocals continue in rap style, the music continues to swirl and surprise. The bright colors of the album cover completely reflect the feel of the music, colorful and bright. The title track "Juice B Crypts" comes next with a track driven by wild percussion and quick, flickering synth notes fluttering around. Heavy percussion continues, but the music remains more electronic than anything, with things eventually becoming frantic later.

Last of all is the 2 part "Last Supper on Shasta", each part taking up a separate track. These parts feature vocalist "Tune- Yards". It starts off sounding like a train starting off, going faster and faster until it reaches warp speed, then the electronic notes and drums get things under control as the singing begins. The vocals are as bright and cheery as the music, and it all comes across as sounding complex and art-poppy, much like "of Montreal". In fact, the vocalist sounds a lot like Kevin Barnes. However, it remains quite progressive all the way through. The 2nd part is distinct from the first as the rhythm takes a sudden change, remaining up beat, but more direct now. The music becomes more direct to reflect the percussion, but then everything goes wild in a looping frenzy.

So, in comparison to Fly Pan Am's new album, this one is much more electronic sounding, brighter, not as noisy, yet still complex. There is no hints of darkness on this album whatsoever, where "C'est Ca" was very dark and noisy, more experimental, yet I consider Fly Pan Am's album better than this one. That's not to say "Juice B Crypts" isn't bad, it's actually quite good. I just prefer the darkness and the use of noise and manipulation in the Fly Pan Am album better. Battles album sounds more electronic and robotic, and, though it's nice to have the vocals, it almost seems as Battles is trying to prove itself as being eccentric and relevant, when they really didn't have to prove anything. It might have been better to be less busy. This isn't the case with Fly Pan Am, who just come back from a long hiatus, and their album comes across as being much less forced than this album by Battles.

In the end though, there will be some that think this is the better album of the two, and that's fine. I just like the more organic sound of Fly Pan Am, even though it is also heavily processed. It seems to flow more naturally. This Battles album is still a lot of fun though, happy, bright and cheery, yet complex. For those that love music that sounds heavily electronic, yet is also eccentric, then you will want to check this out. It's still and excellent album with some nice surprises.

I really love the general sound present on this album, taking math rock, and then making it extremely playful and fun, in the process also making it an easy listen, despite the technicality present here. As with standard math rock, odd time signatures and changes are abundant, but the extremely happy, playful edge that they have, along with the mostly entertaining vocals make this an easy album to get into. It's clear that each member of the band knows what they're doing, as the interplay between them along with the various techniques that are applied to each song make this quite diverse and impressive. What further makes this a unique experience is the extra effects that are used quite tastefully, almost always sounding they have a real purpose to enhance the song, rather than being tacked on.

'Race : In' and 'Atlas' start off the album with an impressive one-two punch, 'Race : In' showing off various techniques to be used throughout, most notably the prominence of the keyboard in the sound of the band, along with the fast paced drumming and generally chaotic, yet extremely calculated approach that many songs here have. 'Atlas' is the song that essentially sums up the entire album, having an extremely groovy beat, with a wonderfully happy sound all around, with some high pitched, altered vocals further pushing this tone, making it seem like no wonder that this song was included as part of the 'Little Big Planet' soundtrack. 'Ddiamondd' serves as the best of the shorter tracks on the album, taking the quirky vocals to another level, with sounds of clapping and whistling that slowly morph into what sound like sirens only adding to the weirdness of this song. The longer songs on the album are really where I feel this album shines, being able to extend particular grooves and ideas to their logical conclusions, with 'Tonto' being a prime example of this. This song stands out to me for that constant underlying bassline that works perfectly with the great vocal melody and small jams. They then bring attention to this by having it not appear in the middle section, giving it a slightly emptier feel to it, that then is removed once it is reintroduced, and then gradually slows down, each note becoming more drawn out. The compositions on this album have many complexities such as this, making it a great album to look at in more detail as well as just for a fun listen. 'Rainbow' is another song fully demonstrating this, starting off with the melody from 'Ddiamondd' before gradually building up and becoming slightly abrasive at points, repeating themes but adding small elements to it with each occurrence of repetition. The way this crescendo then dies down and once again gradually picks up is quite impressive as well. The final song really worth talking about is 'Tij', which is the song that wears its complexity on its sleeve in many places, utilising looping techniques to create some truly wonderful motifs, along with further proving just how many tricks 'Battles' can apply, having these longer songs serve as showcases for said techniques.

My issues with the album are mostly small and inconsequential, but there is one that definitely adds up to have me consider this far from a perfect experience. My main issue is that the album is somewhat inconsistent, with some shorter tracks being quite lacklustre or just straight up bad, with 'Bad Trails' being pleasant, yet ultimately dull and repetitive, and 'Leyendecker' sounding straight up terrible, with the vocals being incredibly obnoxious, somewhat breaking the amazing flow that the album has for its majority.

I simply adore how fun this album is, each big song using various techniques with high skill, while always keeping an extremely playful tone to them. I love how this is simultaneously an extremely fun album to casually listen to, and one that is great to sit down and analyse. I highly recommend this to basically anyone who enjoys some lighter, fun music, after all, a track from it was in Little Big Planet, so I doubt it would scare too many people away.

Best Tracks: Atlas, Tonto, Tij, Race : In

Weakest Tracks: Leyendecker, Bad Trails

Verdict: It's math rock, but fun and accessible, and is an album that I recommend most people to listen to as long as they aren't looking for anything particularly intense, despite a couple of poor tracks.

'Battles' is a math rock/experimental band that was formed by Ian Williams from 'Don Caballero' who plays guitars and keyboards. There were 3 other members including drummer John Strainer who also played for 'Tomahawk' and 'Helmut'. This album is the 2nd in a series of 3 EPs that were released through a period of 3 months.

It starts off with 'SZ2', a nine minute track. It starts off with a pair of noodling guitars, and suddenly explodes into life at 2 minutes. The music is harsh and processed, so it's sometimes hard to tell what instrument is playing. The music is straightforward rhythm, but that is all that is straightforward about it, with strange harmonies and exciting counter melodies and textures. If you are familiar with 'Don Caballero' music, then just take that and add an element of hardness/loudness, and you'll have an idea. The meter/tempo changes throughout, and the playing is amazing, with the virtuosity that you would expect from a group of masters like this.

Next there are two short tracks just barely over 1 minute each. 'TRAS 3' is a strange sounding track that sound like a melodic washboard with guitars. 'IPT2' features a quickly picked guitar and other strange sounds with a basic rhythm. Other interesting sounds ensue. This could have been developed into something really interesting, but it's over too quickly. These two short tracks take previously released songs from past albums/EPs and reinvent them for pair of quickies.

'BTTLS' comes next and clocks in at over 12 minutes. This is made up of an ambient drone with processed percussive sounds that sound like they were sent through a synthesizer and chopped up and mixed around. After the heaviness and thickness of the first track, this is almost like a complete opposite, a study in minimalism. The drone at the beginning stops being constant, but gets manipulated itself by changing volumes, and it remains far in the background. Nothing really develops here, and it almost reminds one of trying to start a car that shows a lot of promise, but only spurts and sputters and won't turn over. Too bad this goes on for way too long.

The last track is 'Dance'. This one takes a repeating drum loop, then adds regular drums over it, and a funky organ. Plucked guitars add to the funkiness. The tempo seems quick with the percussion, but the 'melodic' parts are more sustained. The sound gets quite metallic after a while, and has a hypnotic, yet nice effect. This is a good track to end the EP.

If we were to rely on the excellence of the 1st and last tracks to rate the album, with the short tracks as filler, then this would have been an excellent EP. However, with the long 'BTTLS', the EP gets brought down quite extensively. Yes it's one track, but it makes up nearly half of the EP. Maybe if these 3 EPs were released as one album, things would have been better, and a full album may have been able to support the long 4th track, but it only bogs everything down on this EP. It's too bad the great material here has to be ruined by one track.

The Battles are perhaps the most original and fresh rock band I've heard in the last few years, and this extends easily to La Di Da Di. Characteristic for the band and particularly this album is the combination of electronic loops with very energetic but still precise drumming, which means that the whole thing is dominated by rhythm and a very physical affair. La Di Da Di has a bright summery feel and should put a smile on your face. It's all instrumental. It's also quite addictive. At the moment I get more and more into the state that I want to listen to this again and again. It's just the kind of music that in certain (rather light-hearted) phases of life can become a persistent feature. Yeah, let's listen to Battles once more. It wasn't exactly love at first sight, and I can still see certain flaws in this. There isn't much fascinating melody to follow here; much of the melodic material has a rather repetitive merry-go-round kind of style, and often presented in a percussive attitude that makes it rather part of the overall rhythmic stream than something to appreciate on its own, and it depends on the mood to what extent this is rather part of the fun or rather a defect. Many of the tracks follow a similar recipe (there are some different degrees of drum dominance and intensity, though), although in exchange, at times we get some unexpected twists within the same song, and the dynamic is strong throughout.

Overall it's not perfect and I could see some potential for broadening the approach of the band, but this doesn't take away from the freshness and fun.

Innovative masterpiece! Mirrored has every typical elements of math rock : mainly instrumental, rythmical complexity, melodic « poverty », mechanical aesthetic, original sounds, noise... however, it distinguished itself by an avant-garde aspect such as bands like Thinking Plague -but in another style-. Maybe it's hidden behind its catchy and joyful side but Battles is much more avant-garde than pop, even if the avant-garde aspect is finally more obvious in Thyondai Braxton solo works than in the next Battles' releases. "Race : In" is great and proves instantly the rythmical skill of the band (guitar ostinato passing from binary to ternary like an african groove) and their innovative potential with many weird ideas (atonal-bluesy riff, crossed patterns between guitar and keyboard, ascending voice at the end). The single "Atlas" is very fun and like a psychedelic blessing with full, metallic and soft guitar sounds giving a dreamy texture above a swinging ryhtm and ingenuous melodies. The crescendo in the middle working on rythmical layers is amazing. After that, it becomes angrier with the aggressive -but always joyful- and almost noise "Ddiamondd". "Tonto" is more catchy thanks to cool pentatonic riffs and, despite that rock spirit, we're still in an extravagant area with multiplied voice, strange dissonances, chinese stuff and composition effects (slowing ostinato changing the atmosphere into something deeply meditative). "Leyendecker" is an (insipid) R'n'B attempt. More exciting is the minimalist and naive "Rainbow" based on a major arpeggio in 19/8 repeated above all sections (except a very humorous one with a horn imitation) until an ethereal climax in which we hear the natural voice of Thyondai for the first time. In "Bad Trails", above a tribal rhythm on a birds singing background, the band shows a rich range of sounds (thirds, timpani, big reverb, saturated bass, noise effects and various keyboard sounds). After the African interlude "Prismism" and "Snare Hangar" sophisticated metric, "Tij" is another top of this album: weirdness, groovy polyrhythmic game which superimposes binary and ternary, and a subtly techno moment where the guitarist insists on a single note. If you haven't the Japanese version, the album ends with "Race: Out" which begins on a highly hypnotic part and continues on a more traditional groove (once is not custom) with a melody in crossed motifs. It certainly deserves five stars!

Second record proper from the American art-techs and though Gloss Drop could never be called boring, it shows a band almost there but not quite yet, still reaching for what they do best and fumbling in the predawn hours of their musical journey for an original and focused sound. Granted, Gary Numan and several Japanese guests make fun appearances and five years later we got the incomparable La Di Da Di, so maybe it was worth it. But this second full-length disc will not sway many prog fans to the strange and exotic pleasures of Williams, Stanier and Konopka. That's for sure.

The continuous Balalaika plectrums of Ian Williams founds Dave Konopka's stringed effects on long and lumbering 'Africastle', more in the experimental vein and not a terribly engaging first cut. But the obscene huffing of 'Ice Cream' with its Ray Davies-like whining & whimpering lightens things up. Finally 'Futura' and its attractive muted guitar chords brings the flavor and builds nicely over key walls, neat noises, and unexpected tonal colors; Vaguely industrial, seamlessly transferring to sister track 'Inchworm' and 'Wall Street' picking up a little slack.

Light and winsome 'My Machines' has synthrocker Gary Numan doing some good things over a rather Prog drone, vaguely Bowie, definitely worthy, and Kazu Makino gives a sensuous performance on 'Sweetie & Shag'. Very cute 'Toddler' reflects its title (and shows these guys could do commercial Trade music with their eyes closed), combative 'Rolls Bayce' and downright military march of 'White Electric' sums up a promising but ultimately unrealized statement of contemporary Art Rock. A very good try, though, and their next would prove the threesome's vision and skill as important composers.

What a pleasure to hear something new and original. As with all new music, it isn't as if this trio is doing something truly unique; they simply compose music with the tools they know and understand. No, what sets these three apart is their attitude-- that's what makes Battles so interesting and what makes this third studio issue so very listenable, even exciting. The band tends to end up in the 'Indie' category, which is fine, as Battles are wholly independent. They are real artists.

The sound of Chiptune is ever present, the band generating waveforms marbled through hard rock with complete abandonment of any established approach, metastasizing a mix that will hit on a particular style without any allegiance to it. Only nominally "Postrock", these guys don't care and you gotta love that. If it were the late '70s, Stanier, Williams and Konopka would probably be a punk group. Cosmic dust morphs into blurpie trance for 'The Yabba' with vintage subspace nebulas and textured guitar calliopes, and 'Dot Net' is high-end squeak & Skweee showcasing the bangin' traps of John Stanier.

A little Surf opens 'FF Bada' reminding now & then of Tortoise, 'Cacio E Pepe' is industrial, and 'Non-Violence' rocks. Battles create paintings in sound and require some space to do so. Like good cheese or wine, they have to come to room temperature and begin to breathe in order for the flavors to bloom and be fully appreciated. 'Dot Com' is John Carpenter meets Blondie, 'Tricentennial' has Ian Williams' delicious vibrating-iron guitars, Glitch of 'Megatouch', and adorable 'Luu Le' make for one incredible musical statement.

A band that will surely go down as one of the best of the Post era though their legend may take a few more years to solidify, and in the wake of Hip hop's possession of popular music, Battles are one of the most fresh and bold of this fascinating and marginalized time in rock. A masterpiece of progressive rock music? You better believe it.

In which Battles channel Ratatat and Jaga Jazzist.

The general course of Battles's career has been a flashy march towards ever greater grooviness, so that for what "La Di Da Di" lacks in impact it makes up for in sheer joy. As it turns out, the willingness to let "Gloss Drop" be worked over by remixers as "Dross Glop" was a signal that they were ready to follow Jaga into the realm of electronic jam prog. If you dig that kind of fun, and don't mind it not having the experimental edge of Jaga or "Mirrored", then you're in for a treat. The groove picks up right from the start and never lets go. The math they codified on "Mirrored" is now more than ever electronically modified and adjoined, not for purposes of misplaced perfectionism but of finding new sounds and building jams. And never has the angular side of math sounded so right. This is nothing short of a ball, and I had no choice but to round up to five stars.

Maybe I don't understand what's so innovative about this album, but to me it just feels stale. That's not to say that the music is bad... It's perfectly listenable. There's even the odd song or (more often) hook in a song that draws the listener in and manages to keep the attention span of most listeners. That being said though, this feels like one of those albums that just happens, it starts, it goes by, it finishes and its forgotten and the listener isn't rewarded for sticking through this album... The listener is left with nothing. When the album finished, I couldn't help but feel as though my time would have been better spent fluffing my pillows, painting my fence, researching otters or grooming a cat.

Perhaps I'm not being fair, you can thoroughly enjoy an album without it leaving a lasting impact on you and, at times, this album is thoroughly enjoyable. But in that statement lies my main problem with the album... It teases you. It offers a moment that's interesting, dare I say ingenious, but as soon as it begins the music reverts back into its safe sound, operating somewhere somewhere between Daft Punk, Radiohead and Don Caballero (without the technical prowess).

The album isn't a complete wash, the song 'Atlas' is well worth your while, the production is top notch, there are some interesting things going on at this record. But at the end of the day this is a mediocre math-rock record with varied songwriting and no real cohesive feeling to the overall album. I'd recommend the album to fans of math rock and/or indie rock but for your average prog listener you aren't going to miss out by passing this record over.

Occasionally interesting but consistently inconsistent.

2/5