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Track Listings
| 1. Africastle |
| 2. Ice Cream |
| 3. Futura |
| 4. Inchworm |
| 5. Wall Street |
| 6. My Machines |
| 7. Dominican Fade |
| 8. Sweetie & Shag |
| 9. Toddler |
| 10. Rolls Bayce |
| 11. White Electric |
| 12. Sundome |
Product Description
Review
To combat this threat, the remaining trio – John Stanier, Ian Williams and Dave Konopka – have enlisted a cluster of guest contributors, ranging from Gary Numan to the margins-occupying likes of Matias Aguayo and Boredoms’ Yamantaka Eye. Completing the vocal line-up is Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead, fellow New Yorkers with a penchant for pushing the indie-rock envelope. But her track, Sweetie & Shag, comes over like a Blonde Redhead song remixed rather than a Battles one with a new set of pipes at the forefront. Her voice is simply that recognisable, and it can only overpower the rambunctious rock around it. Sundome is rather more balanced, but the pseudonym-loving Yamantaka seems to have been given only an auto-pilot jam to work with, the closer lacking the energy of earlier efforts.
Everything on Gloss Drop is excellently performed – the players are seasoned professionals, and with Battles a going concern since 2002 there was never going to be any sloppiness on show. However, whether this set represents a significant step onwards from Mirrored is questionable. When tracks remain instrumental, attentions can wander, and arguably there’s nothing here with the immediacy of the vocal-free Tras single of 2004. White Electric should raise many a pulse, and opener Africastle does everything the fair-weather Battles fan wants from them: it’s technically assured, tremendously structured, and you can dance to it. But the basic formulas remain much as they were almost a whole decade ago.
Fine though the instrumentals are, one of the vocal cuts proves to be the most memorable song here. And it’s not the Numan number: My Machines is an overly busy affair that suffocates the electro pioneer with twinkling keys and chasm-opening percussion. It’s Chilean artist Aguayo’s Ice Cream – rightly this album’s lead single – that really shines: a dazzling four-and-a-half minutes of grunts and groans, chimes and clatter, pings and zings and bells and whistles and the kitchen sink, it’s every bit as brilliant a treat as its titular inspiration. That it’s the track here that most closely resembles Battles with Braxton in the fold is evidence enough that this band is missing a vital organ. Sadly, it would appear to be the heart.
--Mike Diver
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
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Customer Reviews
It might be in part that he was a 3rd person to play instruments, which lends to their layered sound. But it's also apparent that he is an experienced (and excellent, as seen on Central Market) composer and multi-instrumentalist.
Aside from Braxton, Battles have coped very well and while this album took a little while to get accustomed to, it really is an excellent album. The non-vocal tracks have lines and melodies that centralise the tracks and stop them from being an exercise in how to create interesting poly-rhythms (something that Williams is not always able to do: a good example of his work being What Burns from the Don Cab back catalogue. A Bad one being the follow up..) but have no catchiness that makes you want to return.
The choice of vocalists are excellent too, all of which are probably considered quite out of the box thinking. Numan is a wonderful choice, making one of the stand out tracks in a conventional pop sense. Yamantaka Eye on the other hand gives an awful vocal which seems to push the band into a corner as to what to do with it, and so they come up with a bizarre sounding reggae/dancehall through a meatgrinder thing... which should've been a b-side to a song that no-one would buy. It ends the album in a way that is just horrible. Just wrong.
Matias Aguayo on the other hand is a choice that maybe only the world music fans would've pricked up their ears for. I'm quite fond of a range of inventive music, but Aguayo had not landed on my radar. Needless to say, a quick jog over to his album Ay Ay Ay shows Aguayo to be an inventive and clever musician who mainly uses his own voice to create full layered tracks. If Battles and Aguayo were to collaborate on a full album, it would probably make my album of the year.
Ice Cream, as a track, takes some getting used to. It's very different and as the first single, it must've confused a few fans... I think a listen to Aguayo's album would lend some understanding to Ice Cream.
All in all, this album took a bit of time to get fully into..
But when I did..
Talking in terms of Pitchfork's scale, I'd say this is a solid 9 (so ignore their very stupid review) and Bon Iver's follow up is about a 6 max (idem), just to put my taste into some perspective. In any case, try before you buy and watch them live if you have the chance.
Though a massive fan of Warp, this is my first Battles purchase, the previous work I never bothered with mainly because I never liked their big track Atlas, and as that annoyed the hell out of me I presumed the rest wasn't my cup of tea either.
This is a different beast. But a beautiful beast.
A future classic.
I was reminded of their existence by the video for Ice Cream (which is glorious, check it out in the... Read more
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