Battles helped me through 2007, one of the first years I had at work. Each time I re-visit “Mirrored” I think about the first time I truly felt independent. What I liked about Battles was how many different, somehow difficult snobbish genres into a likable whole. Usually I found myself forcing experimental music onto people. Now that Battles existed, I had a good ‘starting point’ to help people begin explorations of weirder genres like Post-Rock, Math Rock, or Experimental Rock. Certainly it helped when I tried to get people into Don Caballero.
People liked their sense of humor. For a purely instrumental band to have such a well-developed humor is rare. Trans Am had this as well, though Battles avoided that level of irony. Songs like “Atlas” and “Tonto” were full of life. They managed to both rock and experimentation with certain silliness. Actually, this used to be a lot more commonplace. Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart would be the two best examples of humor walking hand-in-hand with musical experimentation. I don’t know what happened to that sense of giddy discovery, but there seems to have been a halt to such things happening for the most part, at least on American soil in US-based bands.
Battles were here to defeat the po-faced experimental snobs. I thought how wonderful it was Battles broke down this wall between the two concepts. Countless times they visited New York City, usually for free. Each and every time I missed them, due to conflicts with time and space. As I heard they were releasing a second album, I grew excited at the prospect of it. Figuring they would be back, I felt happy. Gloss would drop.
Well, Battles are going to every place on Earth except New York. Shoot, they are even headed to Iowa City before they get to New York. I don’t want to say I’m insulted but I sort of am. Also, Tyondai Braxton, the wonderful guy who did the awesome electronic tricks (such as the vocal distortions on “Atlas”) has left the group as well. For a little while I wondered what kind of sound Battles might have without him, as I enjoyed his contributions. Tyondai brought levity to a group of people more familiar with Post-Rock than anything approaching fun.
Some things never change. Warp Records still does an extremely poor job of preventing leaks. I don’t know why they are so terrible at it. Perhaps the fan boy network which grew up listening to Autechre has taught their offspring how to pirate music. Whatever the reason may be, you can’t ignore that “Gloss Drop” leaked so badly morons who still use KaZaa could find it. The leak coming out so early boded well. Bands who leak early are generally beloved enough and the album worth it enough, particularly if the leak is of high sound quality.
How’s the album? It is still fun. After giving it a listen-through it will make “Best New Music”. I mean, there are members of the Boredoms at work on here. Will it get above its last score on Pitchfork? Considering they last got a 9.1 I doubt it. I think it is a good album but not as good or revolutionary. They basically hone their craft on here and continue to have fun. Pitchfork will probably give this album somewhere in the low to middle 8s for it. Most realistically it’ll get an 8.4 which appears to be their default best new music score. Everyone will remain happy if slightly disappointed at Battles’ inability to innovate beyond their original sound.
An album roughly as good as a debut is nothing to worry over. Considering the quality contained within, it is still something I imagine will get trapped in my brain. I’d recommend it. Every second there’s about 80 different things happening. The prog rock tendencies haven’t been tempered. Just think of it as a polished version of their first album and you’ll be fine.