Things that are great

Oh man oh man oh man oh man. Y'know that feeling where you're having a profoundly shitty day(s) and then all of a sudden music lifts your head and heart up to the blinking stars and you fall into the black hole of aural bliss? Well, that's what went down today when I stumbled in on a tweaking Surrender wearing a frown so severe that it was dragging on his floor. Yet, when our despondent eyes met, he did his best to crack a pained grin and speak the words I've been waiting for three years to hear: "I have the new Battles album." (And you thought there was going to be some gay shit! Well, he wasn't wearing pants at the time...)

Yes, yes, and yes. After a couple of years of touring relentlessly with what seemed to be a fixed setlist and a set program (Ian Williams's looping genius, Tyondai Braxton's vocal adventures, the brutal drummer from Helmut with his tall, tall cymbal, and that cute kid from Lynx who danced in the background), the Battles are back and more confounding than ever. I should preface my giddiness by stating up front that Don Caballero is, like, my second favorite band ever and stuff, so I would probably be listening to Battles even if they sucked (I mean, Storm and Stress was hit and miss, but I still listen to that shit often). Yet things worked out for the best and Battles induced the same compulsive and confused listening that Williams's prior band had. But where Don Cab captivated through their strategic spontaneity, Battles mesmerized my mind through Afro-Reichian polyrhythms and a willingness to turn a tasty double-decker cake of a composition into an inscrutably dense skyscraper of sound. The one gripe I had was the seeming inability to turn their explosive live sets (I'm hopefully going to see those m-effers for my fourth time at the end of the month) into any recordings that were solid through and through.

But now we have Mirrored and a band that will be giving whoever is writing the Avant-Rock section of Wire magazine a permanent stiffy for the rest of the year. Looking at the cover art that adorned the three EPs and that for the upcoming LP, the images truly say it all. Gone are the steady, even-tempoed songs that masterfully played on the maximal/minimal dynamic that could just as easily seduce an unassuming listener in their accessibility as they could alienate someone who would look at, say, an Agnes Martin painting and say "BOOORRRRRRING." In their place are songs that combine Braxton's munchkin chorus-like vocals with proggy/mathy spontaneity and just an overall intensity and focus that will undoubtedly make this one of my favorites of the year. It's one big carnivale inside this mirror chamber and you better have your moon boots on, cuz there ain't no gravity where there ain't no air (or something). Behold the year of the Battles.
Battles-Ddiamondd [alt link]
Battles-TIJ [alt link]

pre-order Mirrored and the Atlas single (with a DJ KOZE REMIX!!!)