Battles - Heaven, London – 8/6/11
4/5
By: Jeremy Warmsley
Battles are back with their new album, Gloss Drop, their first new material since singer / guitarist / lynchpin Tyondai Braxton left in 2010. They're a tricky proposition to get your head round. Sometimes it feels like keyboardist Ian Williams and guitarist Dave Konopka are playing completely different songs, connected only by John Stanier's monolithic beats (the man can make a hi-hat feel like glass breaking on your head; the snare drum is so huge it's still ringing in my ears now, several hours after the gig ended). At their most likeable, Konopka's guitars loop endlessly, while Williams' double-handed keyboard melodies twinkle effortlessly on top. Occasionally those melodies cross the line from nagging, insistent and catchy into annoying, but those moments are rare.
Screens project short videos of guest vocalists including Gary Numan and Yamantaka Eye from Boredoms. The vocals are imaginatively integrated: you can see Williams hammering away on a sampler and watch the singer on the screen follow his every command. Much more fun than the anonymous laptop-twiddling that passes for live electronica a lot of the time. The band steered clear of their older material - we didn't get the likes of ‘Atlas’ or ‘Leyendecker’, but it didn't really feel like it was missing, and judging by the jubilant reaction of the fans around me no-one minded.
For an encore, they gave us a long, exploratory take on album closer ‘Sundome’. Konopka has a very smart trick of building up guitar loops with his equipment muted. You can see him doing something, but there's no sound. Then he hits a pedal and the sound flows out of his amp. It does make it hard to understand what's going on, however. You can look at the two men either side Stanier and not really have any clue of who's doing what. A lot of the guitars sound like keyboards, and a lot of the keyboards sound like distorted guitars. In fact, a lot of the time, they both seem to be playing bass. You feel sure that there's an internal logic beyond what you can hear, like there's some impossible rulebook they're following. But while you're trying to figure it out, fifteen minutes go past and you realise you've been nodding your head to Stanier's beats like a slackjawed idiot the whole time. That's the challenge, and the joy of watching this band: they draw you in, confuse the hell out of you, and background it with heavy, heavy rhythms from one of the most compelling drummers since Keith Moon. Never playing by the rules, Battles are unique and unforgettable.
- Jeremy Warmsley is one half of Summer Camp
Artists in this article: Battles
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