Sunday, April 10, 2011

Battles - Gloss Drop (2011)


There a few reasons why I have not posted about Battles yet. Before we get into that however there are a few things you should know concerning my feelings about them.

1. Best band I have ever seen. So incredibly tight it is just sick.
2. John Stanier is a fucking mythological beast behind the kit
3.Mirrored   made a lot of people cock their heads and say "oh shit, math rock can be this?"

As for my reasoning behind waiting so long is because I really wanted to wait and see about this new album now that the group has cut one very crucial member.

For those not in the know this is Battles. Made up of Ian Williams (ex-axe man of Don Cab), Dave Konopka (formerly of Lynx) and John Stanier (former drummer of Helmet) Truly some strong blood going on here.

Gloss Drop is an interesting listen to be sure. While not to say Mirrored was an organic listen in anyway Gloss Drop further distances itself relying on keys and samples aplenty but never to the detriment of the pieces. Now cut down to three members the compositions sound clearer and more to the point and by extension songs are more structured. Guest vocalists all do a great job in their individual songs without taking away from the instrumentation which has always been key. I had a bad feeling about this one for no good reason. I really enjoy that it is a progression but not a very large one. Im sure I will be finding myself liking it more as time goes on. Maybe thats what you really want in the end small progress and not mountain moving.

8 comments:

  1. aww yeah acerola, new baby in the house but youre still posting like a goddamn maniac. i love it! hope all is well on the homestead with the little girl in her comfy crib.

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  2. im not a follower of battles, beyond the tracks you or metaghost will randomly play for me; i havent absorbed any of their full work, but i know how it is when a member is lost and something new is on the way, and that anticipation and fear that something key was lost. ill be downloading this soon to check; i still have a lot of your stuff to dig through.

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  3. Thankfully the Troop of Echoes link is still functional.

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  4. Warp is nixing any sort of downloads for Gloss Drop. So we will comply begrudgingly

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  5. fair 'nough

    (maybe you could email it to us since you posted our album!)

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  6. I did not enjoy this album in the end. Too much "hey, bros, we got an arpeggiator! let's jam!" and not enough "let's write a sick tune!"

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