Battles - Gloss Drop

Battles

Gloss Drop

Warp (2011)

I guess I just don’t get Battles. Their debut, Mirrored, landed with quite a splash, earning a generous helping of critical acclaim, and it seemed like a bunch of my friends liked it. People over at other music review websites were pretty quick to heap praise on it, and while I admit that the level of musicianship was extremely high, and it had some pretty good tracks on it, (Atlas, for one) but overall, I didn’t really like it. I didn’t particularly enjoy listening to it. Unfortunately, for me, Gloss Drop has a lot of the same issues.

I typically enjoy Post and Math-Rock, labels that are often applied to Battles, but perhaps the problem there is genre definition more than anything else, and both genres are fairly encompassing. I quite like guitarist/keyboardist Ian Williams former band, Don Caballero, but to me, the bands do not sound much alike. I think the problem might just be me, though. To me, the songs often drag, and do not hold my attention, so it might just be my short attention span. When I took a break from focusing on the album and did something else (read: played shining force) while listening, I found myself bobbing my head to some of the tracks, so maybe they’re not meant to be listened to, they’re meant to be put on in the background.

I have absolutely no issues with the musicianship and production of this record; they’re all amazing musicians. John Stainer’s drumming is so tight one can’t help but wonder if he’s actually a robot. Even without Tyondai Brixton, zany sounds abound, and I can’t be certain which instrument is making a lot of these sounds. It is clear that a great deal of attention was paid to making this album sound… well, weird.

Since “singer” Brixton has left the band, Battles have opted to ally with a bunch of guest vocalists. These collaborations are some of the high points of the album. “Ice Cream”, which features European dance producer Matias Aguayo, is essentially a straight-ahead pop song, albeit a pretty strange one with really good drumming. For some reason, Gary Numan’s vocal turn on “My Machines” really reminds me of TV on the radio’s Tunde Adebimpe – or should that be that it just made me realize that Adebimpe sounds like Numan? “Sweetie and Shag” - which features Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino – finds the band in as relaxed a mood as I’ve ever heard them, and it actually suits them fairly well. Of the collaborations, only the album closer “Sundome” falls flat, as the Boredoms’ Yamantanka Eye basically just yells like some kind of an alien, vocoded reggae singer over top of a riff that gets pretty tedious after seven minutes.

“Wall Street” is the definite standout of the album for me, it being the only track that actually rocks, and it brings an intensity that isn’t really found on the rest of the album. Battles’ forays into latin-influenced territory, “Dominican Fade” and “Inchworm” don’t really work for me, with the steel drum sounds getting jumbled together, and by the end of each of the songs, pretty boring.

I think I’m probably the wrong person to be reviewing this album, really. If you are one of those people who thought that Mirrored was the best thing since sliced bread, then you’ll probably like Gloss Drop, too. Even as a three piece, they still sound like Battles – and I still don’t really like them.

-Ian Baker